The blurb:
Once, Sera Swan was one of the most powerful witches in Britain. Then she resurrected her great-aunt Jasmine from the (very recently) dead, lost most of her powers, befriended a semi-villainous talking fox, and was exiled from her Guild. Now she helps Jasmine run an enchanted inn in Lancashire, where she deals with their quirky guests' shenanigans and longs for a future that seems lost. Until she finds about an old spell that could restore her power...
Enter Luke Larsen, handsome magical historian, who might have the key to unlocking the spell's secrets. Luke has no interest in the inn's madcap goings-on, and is even less interested in letting a certain bewitching innkeeper past his walls. So no one is more surprised than he is when he agrees to help.
Running an inn, reclaiming lost power, and staying one step ahead of the watchful Guild is a lot for anyone, but Sera is about to discover she doesn't have to do alone—and that love might be the best magic of all.
I enjoyed The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, so I was looking forward to seeing this one come out. It's not a direct sequel, but it is in the same world.
Anyone who was tagged as a 'gifted child' can probably find a way to relate to Sera; as one of the most powerful witches born in the UK in a generation, she was shipped off to the Guild's school and expected to do great things. By everyone, that is, except the previous 'most powerful witch in a generation', who regarded her more as a potential threat to his position than anything else. Albert Grey does not come off well in this book, and neither does he deserve to. His conduct, as described through the novel, is abusive.
In fact, the entire guild is deserving of a good kick up the bum; besotted with bloodlines and whether witches are from the 'right' families isn't much of a way to run anything.
That's one of the main themes running through the book—being an outsider, for one reason or another, and how building a new family helps you manage that. All the resident at Sera's inn are outcasts in one way or another, and so are their friends; one of the most moving passages talks about Sera and Malik's experiences as people of colour in rural Lancashire, the quiet ways that the surrounding community has hurt them at various times, and how much having each other as friends matters to them both.
Luke, the significant-other-to-be, is likewise somewhat on the outer, though not nearly as much as Sera, who found herself entirely exiled from the Guild. His little sister Posy is likewise not welcome in witch society, being autistic and having a hard time understanding why she needs to hide her magic.
Any romance novel will have complications between the leads; the good ones make the complications something intrinsic to the characters or situation rather than something that could be cleared up with a bit of halfway decent communication. Fortunately, this is one of the latter type of romances. Sera and Luke have issues; the barriers between them aren't artificially induced by the plot, they're completely natural results of who they are and all their experiences. That means—to me at least—that, when they get past the walls, it feels really earned and far more satisfying than if they'd just ticked enough plot points.
The cast of characters certainly are characters; as noted, they're all outcasts in one way or another, and Sera's inn is a refuge for them all. They're all quirky, but not annoyingly so, and each plays a role in the story's progress; nobody's a pointless extra. They're generally well-drawn and their own arcs logical, if short. The one I don't completely buy is Clemmie; she's flagged as being a bit untrustworthy at the start, doesn't seem to really earn that until towards the end, but her redemption is basically just "I"m sorry/I forgive you" and she has an end development that just really doesn't feel earned.
Aside from that one little quibble, a good, fun read.
Started: 3 January 2026
Finished: 6 January 2026
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