I was really nervous to pick up this book because my experience with cosy fantasy books has not been the best. I really want to love cosy stories but in my heart I know that a book that makes me SOB is more likely to be a five star read than something that fills me with joy. Luckily, this book had more emotional grit than I was anticipating and that worked in its favour for me.

This was such a charming story as Mika works through the emotional scars left by her upbringing and comes to the realisation that she didn’t have to have the same kind of childhood. There was something really beautiful about the way that Mika channelled her trauma and the negativity that she had faced in the world into making sure that the young witches that she was tutoring had a different experience.

This might have been a cosy fantasy story but the stakes felt very much real and it didn’t use its cosiness to divorce itself from the reality that racism and injustice exist and being a witch doesn’t automatically protect a person from that.

I appreciated the romance in this book, especially as it slowly brewed in the background and provided another layer to the story. The most important relationship in this book were between Mika and her charges and that was a really smart choice to make.

I am looking forward to Mandanna’s next book set in the same world coming out later this year. I think it will be interesting to see if the same magic can be replicated because this felt like such a unique story but a large component of the books in this genre also comes down to luck as they are going to hit differently depending on if you read them at the right time or not.