Book Review: A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna

A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping
by Sangu Mandanna

 Book title: A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping
Author: Sangu Mandanna
Genre: Cozy fantasy
Published: July 15, 2025
352 pages
My rating: 3.5/5

“There is always a little magic in the heart of a person who loves it.”

Sera Swan used to be the most powerful young witch in Britain, until an illegal resurrection spell caused her to lose most of her magic and be evicted from the magical Guild. Now at thirty, she runs an inn with the help of what little magic she has left. When she learns about an ancient spell that might help her restore her powers, she turns to magical historian Luke Larsen to ask for his help. Together with Sera’s weird found family, they set about to reclaim Sera’s lost magic.

 A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping is Sangu Mandanna’s standalone adult cozy fantasy with a strong romantic subplot. I listened to it as an audiobook, and I thought the narrator did a great job in bringing the characters to life. The writing style was witty and bantery – a little too witty to my taste at points. Not every sentence needs to try that hard to be witty. I find that this type of bantery narration so typical of romantic comedy and chick lit can get on my nerves if I consume too much of it. But if you love that style of narration, you’ll probably enjoy this book! 

The story was cute and cozy, and I loved the character development of both Sera and Luke. There was a nice cast of neurodivergent, ethnic, and LGBT+ representation in this book. Sera’s found family of hodgepodge characters was endearing. However, I felt that all characters were either nice and flawless (Sera’s friends) or bad and monstruous (Sera’s adversaries). The only character with any depth of characterization was Clemmie, a witch who had accidentally cursed herself into a fox.

As this is an adult book and I knew that romance was going to play a big role in it, I was a little confused when in the first two chapters of this book, Sera is fifteen years old. It turned out that the first chapters are merely backstory, and from chapter three onward, the story picks up fifteen years later with now thirty-year-old Sera. As the events of the first chapters are narrated again from the adult Sera’s point of view, it would have made more sense to ease the reader into the backstory gradually and skip the prologue-ish first chapters.

In terms of spice level, there is one fade-to-black sex scene and few moderately steamy make-out scenes. The romance progressed at a nice pace, neither too fast nor too slowly. I guess you could categorize this book as cozy romantasy as well, although I was more invested in the magic plot of Sera getting her powers back.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the ending. It had a trope that I despise, although it just about worked for this particular story. Without that, this book could have been a four-star read, but I’m deducting half a star just on principle. Despite the slightly disappointing ending, I enjoyed this book a lot, and it made me interested in reading Mandanna’s adult debut The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches. If you like cozy fantasy with witches, romance, and found family, you might enjoy A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping. I gave it three and a half stars.