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Darling readers, do we have a fun book for you today!  I’ve been trying to figure out how to describe this book to you, and Ashley had the perfect description waiting in my Instagram DMs:

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The House Witch: A Humorous Romantic Fantasy (Book 1) by Delemhach is a chill, fun hang.  It doesn’t take itself too seriously, and is a Hallmark-feeling fall book.  Yes, it features a witch, as he starts his job as the cook for the king, meanwhile the kingdom is on the brink of war with a power-hungry neighbor.  It also includes the aforementioned romance (although the romance isn’t the focus, so much as the character development of our main character), spies, power dynamics of class and countries, the patriarchy, the love of found family, and more themes in this warm hug of a story!  

While The House Witch isn’t a literary masterpiece, it doesn’t pretend to be.  It’s a fun, escapist read that you can take as deep or as shallow as you want given the themes above.  The dialogue was snappy, the descriptions were picturesque, and the story makes a fun comfort read with some chill “hold my beer” energy.  The character development was front and center, along with the acceptance of others as they are and the importance of being kind, especially to those who are perceived as less powerful, while also addressing how to achieve these goals with others who are not so inclined and / or aware.

I really enjoyed The House Witch and am giving it a solid three stars.  I am not certain I’ll continue in the series, as I do have some other priorities for my next few weeks of Kindle Unlimited time, but I’d be up for a buddy read in the future if the stars align.  What I really want is a solid movie version of this book.  I think that’d be a super fun evening!

What’s a book that was a fun hang, and would make a more fun movie?

~Nikki 

Delemhach is a Canadian author who lives with their two cats, Kraken and Pina Colada, and teaches music privately. When not writing, dealing with cat shenanigans, or teaching music, they enjoy ‘cooking, reading, hiking, spending time with family, and trying not to remember their socially awkward moments.’ While scouring the interwebs for more author information, I found the Delemhach TikTok account and found out that her name is Emilie, Delemhach can mean delectable in Scots Gaelic, and that each of her real life cats features in her two trilogies set in the same fantasy world, Kraken in The House Witch and Pina in The Burning Witch. Cat representation is definitely something I find exciting. The Princess of Potential is another cozy, slow-burn romance set in the same world.

I really enjoyed the new fantasy world that is introduced in The House Witch. The magic system is both familiar to readers of the witchy genre and just different enough to make stopping reading the series less of a possibility. I think if I didn’t want to see what Finlay Ashowan’s house magic powers could become in the future, I would also probably stop at having read just book one in the trilogy. I am not, however, immediately hankering for book 2 and all those that follow. The political/national system seems slightly simplistic, but of course, I have only read one story set in one location (with few flashback scenes), and it definitely has room to grow in complexity. Delemhach’s cozy, contained story is in deep contrast to the first few chapters of Sarah J. Maas’s Crescent City series where the reader is bombarded with complex magic, racial, and political systems immediately upon the page and are trying to figure it all out while mentally pronouncing names that make no sense.

I, too, am giving The House Witch three solid stars for it meeting expectations in the ‘fantasy romantic comedy’ genre. I’m likely to read the next book in the series and reserve continuing the series after finishing each subsequent title. Like many ‘romance series’ each book is tied up in a nice little bow at the end, very much unlike the majority of high fantasy series… IYKYK. 

My favorite thing about The House Witch is that our main witchy character is male! And that’s just a breath of diversity that I needed during the month that’s made for witches.

~Ashley

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