The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

DNF. It pains me that I couldn't finish this audiobook because I had high hopes of liking it. I got to chapter 10 before deciding it wasn't for me for many reasons:

1. No escapism. So, when I read a story, there are certain things I don't want to read about. Racism is one of them, and it came up a handful of times and soured my mood. This obviously didn't bother most people, but I'm not most people.

2. Characters were uninteresting - EXCEPT IAN AND KEN. The only reason I didn't stop reading earlier was for these darling men. I LOVED this old married couple. Ian made me laugh so much, and Ken obviously adores him. I would happily read a story all about them.

However, Mika was.... Bleh, Jamie was annoying with his hot and cold personality, and Lucie was a forgettable Mrs. Potts from Beauty and the Beast. And worse, I didn't connect with the 3 girls at all! They weren't charming, nor endearing, just... there I guess. The youngest cursing was not funny to me either. Mika says that hearing a child curse is hilarious, but only if they do it ONCE. When it happens often, it's no longer funny.

That being said, I LOVED the kids in The House in the Cerulean Sea. Maybe I shouldn't compare these two books, but I can't help but do so. Every time Terracota tried to be “evil”, I kept thinking how Lucy pulled off the act much better.

3. Uninteresting Plot. The whole point of Mika tutoring the three girls on magic is to prepare them for a visit from a guy coming to grab some documents from the house. With a title like, “The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches” I just expected... something MORE interesting than what we got. The “villain” is basically a racist white man who can call the cops on them and blab that the girls are witches. Really?? That's the best you can do? If I knew that going in I wouldn't have started this story. You can take the girls somewhere else for goodness sake! There are so many other options than trying to teach them how to control their magic in two weeks by hiring Mika.

So yeah, for all these reasons, I'm stopping here. Despite Ian and Ken, I'm just not interested in reading how Mika and Jamie fall in love. She's boring, and he's offensive at times. And the girls aren't cute. Sorry folks! I was very disappointed, but I would encourage others to give it a try as I seem to be in the minority of disappointed readers.