Review of A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna

Mandanna's is a fun magical story featuring an oddball cast of characters, satisfying justice, love, chosen family, funny dialogue, and heartwarming moments.

Sera Swan was one of Britain's most powerful young witches. She showed so much promise, her skill threatened to overtake that of her belittling, greedy mentor.

But then she resurrected her (just barely) dead aunt, her adored guardian Jasmine, and the spell required to do so would have done in any other witch. As it was, the effort diminished Sera's magical powers to almost nothing. Because she used the forbidden spell, she is exiled from the magical Guild. (Much of this mess occurs because of the dubious abilities and motives of a talking fox/former witch who moves into the inn.)

Sera returns home to her magically enhanced inn, run by her treasured aunt. The inn is magicked to physically draw in visitors who would benefit from an enchanted stay. A few guests remain long-term, and while they initially are unaware of Sera and her bolstering of the inn's features and comfort with magic, eventually they're brought into the secret.

Sera's former mentor is wreaking havoc, grasping at ever-increasing power, and frightening other witches into doing his bidding. Meanwhile, Sera realizes that a very old spell exists that could restore her powers. Then Luke Larsen, a handsome, grumpy magical historian, comes to stay at Jasmine and Sera's inn along with his neurodivergent young sister, and suddenly Sera and her messy, oddball chosen family are forced to consider their collective futures.

Obtaining the spell from the Guild is one enormous challenge--which will require a scrappy plan, cooperation, and some amazing luck. But deciphering the nebulous ingredients required to enact it might just be impossible.

You’re still here, they said, those echoes of all the Seras that ever were. You went up in flames, but you’re still here. You’ll go up in flames again, but that’s ok, you know what to do now. You’ve done it already.

I loved Sera's discovery of her inner strength and her willingness to rewrite her future.

This is heartwarming and shies away from being too cute yet is consistently charming. The dialogue is lovely, and the oddball set of characters is nicely developed.

I listened to A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping as an audiobook.

More from Sangu Mandanna

Sangu Mandanna is also the author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches. You might also want to check out more cozy stories I've reviewed.