Books Like The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

Sangu Mandanna’s The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches is the rare book that delivers exactly what its cover promises: a warm, funny, deeply comforting story about a young witch who has spent her life hiding what she is, and who finds, at a remote English manor, the family she was never allowed to have. Mika Moon has followed the rules her whole life - witches must never gather, must never be seen, must never be loved - and then she breaks them all, gloriously, for three young witches, a grumpy librarian, and a house full of magic.

It is cozy fantasy at its finest, and it has become one of the most beloved books in the genre. If you have finished it and want more of that feeling, here is where to look.

If You Loved the Found Family: Witches Who Choose Each Other#

The heart of the book is Mika’s discovery that family is not about blood but about choice - and that the rules that kept her alone were not protecting her, only isolating her. These books are about the same discovery.

The House in the Cerulean Sea (T. J. Klune)#

The essential companion: Linus Baker, a by-the-book caseworker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, is sent to a remote island to evaluate an orphanage for extraordinary children - and finds, instead, a family. The two books are almost mirror images: Mika is a witch who has been told to stay away from other witches; Linus is a human who has been told to keep his distance from magical children. Both learn the same lesson: the rules were wrong, and love is worth breaking them for. If you loved Mandanna’s book, this is the essential next read.

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, Read Again for the Rules#

On a re-read, the book’s quiet radicalism becomes clear: the rules that govern Mika’s world are not mysterious - they are the rules that govern so many real lives. Do not be seen. Do not be too much. Do not gather with your own kind, because gathering is dangerous. The book is, among other things, a story about the loneliness of hiding - about what it costs a person to spend their whole life pretending to be ordinary - and about the joy of finally, carefully, letting the truth out. The three young witches at the manor are Mika’s mirrors: each one is a version of the hiding she has done, and each one teaches her something about the cost of it. The book’s warmth is earned because its loneliness is real.

If You Loved the Cozy Magic: Magic as Warmth, Not Weapon#

There is a genre now called “cozy fantasy,” and Mandanna’s book is one of its best examples: magic that is not about battles or destiny but about home, belonging, and small daily wonders. These books are cozy fantasy at its best.

The House in the Cerulean Sea (T. J. Klune)#

Klune’s book is the other flagship of the genre, and the two belong on the same shelf: the same found family, the same found magic, the same gentle romance. Where Mandanna’s magic is secret and hidden, Klune’s is open and extraordinary - but both books agree that magic is not a weapon but a way of making a home.

Legends & Lattes (Travis Baldree)#

The coziest premise in modern fantasy: Viv, an orc barbarian, retires from adventuring to open a coffee shop - and the book is about her learning to build a life out of cinnamon rolls, good coffee, and a small circle of friends. It shares the Irregular Witches’ conviction that the good life is a small one - a warm room, people you love, work that matters - and it delivers the same comfort with even lower stakes.

The Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking (T. J. Kingfisher)#

A fourteen-year-old baker’s apprentice who can make gingerbread men dance discovers that her town needs defending - and that her magic, the humble magic of bread, might be exactly what it takes. Kingfisher’s book shares the Irregular Witches’ love of domestic magic - the magic of kitchens and gardens and daily work - and its conviction that the ordinary is where the wonder lives.

If You Loved the Grumpy Love Interest: The Closed Heart That Opens#

The romance at the heart of Mandanna’s book is between Mika and Jamie, the manor’s grumpy, uptight librarian - a man who follows rules the way Mika’s witches are supposed to, and who slowly, reluctantly, falls for the woman who breaks them all. These books have love interests of the same register.

The House in the Cerulean Sea (T. J. Klune)#

Linus and Arthur: the by-the-book caseworker and the mysterious headmaster, falling for each other the way people do - slowly, awkwardly, inevitably. It is the closest match for Jamie on this list: a man whose walls are his whole personality, worn down by warmth until the person underneath appears.

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, and the Manor Itself#

The book’s other great character is the manor - a house that is itself a kind of magic, with its creaking floors and its hidden rooms and its own opinions about its inhabitants. The manor is the setting and the symbol: a place where witches have always gathered, in secret, against the rules. Mika’s journey is, in a sense, a journey into the house - into the warmth it offers, the family it shelters, the rules it breaks just by existing. The book’s title promises a secret society; what it delivers is a home, and the manor is the door into it.

If You Loved the Romance: Love That Breaks the Rules#

Beneath the magic and the family, Mandanna’s book is a love story - Mika and Jamie, two people who have spent their lives alone, learning to be alone together. These books have romances of the same gentle register.

The House in the Cerulean Sea (T. J. Klune)#

The essential companion again: a romance that is cozy in the best sense - no misunderstanding plot, no third-act breakup, just two people who like each other and slowly realize it. Klune and Mandanna are writing the same romance in different keys, and readers of one will adore the other.

Red, White & Royal Blue (Casey McQuiston)#

A very different setting - the son of the American president and a British prince - but the same deep structure: two people who are told they cannot be together, who choose each other anyway. McQuiston’s book is funnier and more contemporary, but it shares the Irregular Witches’ conviction that love is a choice, and that choosing each other is the bravest thing two people can do.

The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy (Megan Bannen)#

A fantasy romance with an epistolary twist: Hart, a marshal who deals with the undead, and Mercy, who runs a funeral parlor, are pen pals who hate each other in person and love each other in letters. It is warm, funny, and genuinely moving, and it shares the Irregular Witches’ blend of cozy magic and slow-burn romance.

If You Loved the Witchy Heroine: Women Finding Their Power#

Mika is a wonderful heroine: clever, kind, scared, and brave - a woman who has spent her life hiding her power and who finally, gloriously, stops. These books have heroines of the same kind.

The Bear and the Nightingale (Katherine Arden)#

A very different kind of witch: Vasya, a girl in medieval Russia who can see the household spirits that protect her family - and who refuses, as she grows up, to stop seeing them, even when the Church tells her they are demons. Arden’s book is darker and more folkloric than Mandanna’s, but it shares the Irregular Witches’ story of a young woman whose power is feared, and who insists on being herself anyway.

Practical Magic (Alice Hoffman)#

The Owens women are witches - and they have been cursed, the family legend says, in love: anyone who loves an Owens woman will die. Hoffman’s novel is about the sisters Sally and Gillian, about the curse and the breaking of it, and about the magic that runs through a family of women. It shares the Irregular Witches’ love of domestic magic and its conviction that the bonds between women are a kind of magic themselves.

The Witches of Eastwick (John Updike)#

A darker, sexier take on witches gathering: three divorced women in a New England town discover their powers together, and then a mysterious man arrives. Updike’s novel is not cozy - it is sharp, satirical, and unsettling - but it shares Mandanna’s fascination with what happens when women who have been told to be small discover how large they can be.

If You Loved the Message: Hiding Is Not Living#

The deepest thing about The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches is its argument about hiding: that the rules which keep you safe can also keep you alone, and that being seen - being known, being loved as you actually are - is worth the risk. These books are about the same conviction.

The House in the Cerulean Sea (T. J. Klune)#

Klune’s book is the same argument in a different key: the children of the orphanage are different, and the world wants to hide them away - but the book insists that difference is not a problem to be solved but a gift to be loved. Together, the two books make a powerful case for being seen.

Wonder (R. J. Palacio)#

Auggie Pullman has a facial difference that makes other kids stare, and the book follows his first year at a real school. It is the essential young-reader companion to the Irregular Witches: the same argument that being different is not something to hide, and that the people who love you will love you as you are.

On the Courage of Being Known#

There is a moment in nearly every reader’s life when a book seems to be talking directly to them, and for many readers of Mandanna’s novel, that moment comes when Mika talks about hiding. She has built her entire life around concealment - the rules that keep her safe are the same rules that keep her alone - and the book’s great act of empathy is its insistence that this is not a failure of courage but a rational response to a world that punishes difference. The book does not shame Mika for hiding; it walks with her to the moment when hiding costs more than being seen. That is the deepest gift of this tradition: it tells the truth about the cost of concealment, and it makes the alternative - being known, being loved as you actually are - feel not terrifying but possible. For readers who have spent years learning to be small, a book like this is not entertainment. It is permission.

Building Your Own Society: A Reading Order#

Here is a suggested path that moves from the closest match outward:

• Start with The House in the Cerulean Sea for the essential companion.
• Move to Legends & Lattes for the purest cozy fantasy.
• Try The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy for the romance with the fantasy twist.
• Pick up Practical Magic for the witchy family saga.
• End with The Bear and the Nightingale when you are ready for the folkloric version.

For more books with this gentle spirit, our meaningful books without profanity list gathers warm, substantial reads, and our thoughtful guide to books without graphic violence helps you find stories that are rich without being rough. The stories section of our site is full of guides like this one, so there is always another house to visit.

The Society That Was Never Secret Enough#

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches endures because it is a book about the joy of being seen. Mika Moon spent her life hiding - from the world, from other witches, from love - and the book’s triumph is watching her stop. The society in the title was never about secrecy; it was about safety, about finding the people who would not hurt you for being what you are. And once Mika finds them - three young witches, a grumpy librarian, a house full of magic - the secrecy stops mattering. The books on this list are all societies like that: places where the strange are welcome, where the hidden can come out, where love is worth breaking the rules for. You do not have to be a witch to join. You only have to be willing to be seen.