Sangu Mandanna's utterly charming second novel for adults, A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping, follows a young witch trying to reclaim her magic as she manages a creaky, cozy inn and cares for its wacky, endearing guests.
As a child, Sera Swan caught the eye of the British Guild of Sorcery and its powerful chancellor. But when she raised her beloved great-aunt from the dead, Sera lost her position in the guild and most of her magic. Fifteen years later, she's mostly content keeping her family's inn running via elbow grease and her scant remaining magic when she's offered a chance to get her powers back by way of an ancient spell. Luke Larsen, a gruff but brilliant magical historian, arrives to grudgingly help Sera in this quest, aided by a hapless knight, an undead rooster, and a witch who accidentally turned herself into a fox.
Mandanna (The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches) concocts a sweet love story not only between Luke and Sera but also among the inn's motley crew of inhabitants, who form a delightful and accepting found family. The household stands by Sera as she works to restore her magic and keep the inn, and her heart, from falling completely to pieces. Though she yearns to have her full powers restored, Sera comes to appreciate the true, if unpredictable, magic in the oddball life she's built and the strength of the person she's worked to become. Readers will savor the quirky enchantment (spell-related and otherwise) of the warm, whimsical world Mandanna has created. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams