The Fault Is Not Mine

Each week the hop will start on a Friday and end on Thursday. There will be a weekly prompt featuring a book related question. The hop's purpose is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to your own blog.

The Question of the week is: How Many Public Libraries Are in Your Area?

I am extremely blessed in the library department!

My local library is so close that it’s basically an extension of my living room - genuinely only a handful of houses away. I can pop in on my lunch break, on my way to the shops, when I need a quiet corner, or just because I’ve remembered a book I meant to place a hold on. It’s a kind of everyday magic that never gets old.

In terms of what’s nearby, Devon is wonderfully well-served by libraries. There’s my local branch, of course, and then several more within a short drive or bus/train ride in the surrounding area. Between coastal towns, villages, and the larger hubs, there are multiple branches dotted across the region - enough that you're never far from a place to browse shelves, pick up holds, or discover a surprise gem on display.

There are probably five or six branches within about 25 miles, plus many more if I go slightly further afield. It feels like a proper little network - welcoming, accessible, and great for impulsive book-grabbing.

It’s one of the reasons I love living here: Devon still treats its libraries as important community spaces, events being hosted regularly, and you can feel that in how many there are, how lively they are, and how easy they are to reach.

How about you - what’s your library situation like?

It feels like the reading brain is coming back online, not with a triumphant roar but with the quiet, creaky stretch of a creature emerging from hibernation. And honestly? That’s exactly the pace I want right now. Slow. Curious. A little bewildered. Gentle.

Here’s where I’m at this week — no goals, no pressure, just vibes and whatever stories happen to stick.

🌿 Currently Reading
📘 Brigands and Breadknives by Travis Baldree
Cozy fantasy is becoming my emotional support genre again, and this one is ticking every box — warm, low-stakes tension, a world that feels lived in, and characters who feel like they could lean over the counter of a fantasy bakery and ask how your day is going.

🌀 Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
A different tempo entirely — strange, clever, intimate. It’s the kind of book that makes my brain feel textured, if that makes sense. Like a story you have to sit with to read properly.

📞 First Time Caller by B.K. Borison
I’ve been drifting in and out of romance but this one has that charming, slightly soft-focus quality that makes it easy to slip back into. Perfect for evenings when my attention span is only semi-available.

🎾 Changeover by Giri Nathan
This one scratches the nonfiction itch in the best way — the writing is smart without being sharp, thoughtful without demanding too much of me. A steady companion read.

🌸 What My Reading Brain Is Thinking About
Lately everything I reach for seems to circle the same ideas:
Cozy fantasy, where the biggest stakes are emotional, domestic, or delightfully mundane
Found family, especially the kind that grows slowly and sideways
Books that feel like sitting near people you love, not performing for them

Maybe it’s just the season. Maybe it’s the headspace. Or maybe I’m gravitating toward stories that feel like they’re holding out a hand rather than expecting anything back.

✨ The Check-In
Honestly? I’m not reading fast, or consistently, or in any organised way. I’m just turning pages when I can and following my curiosity where it actually wants to go. And that counts. That’s enough.

Title: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
Author: Sangu Mandanna

Dates read: 17/08/25 - 18/11/25
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25 (4.25 stars)

Publisher: Hodderscape
Number of pages: 336
Fiction or non-fiction: fiction
Subject or genre: contemporary, cozy fantasy, romance

Book blurb: A warm and uplifting novel about an isolated witch whose opportunity to embrace a quirky new family - and a new love - changes the course of her life.

As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don’t mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she’s used to being alone and she follows the rules...with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos "pretending" to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously.

But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. It breaks all of the rules, but Mika goes anyway, and is immediately tangled up in the lives and secrets of not only her three charges, but also an absent archaeologist, a retired actor, two long-suffering caretakers, and…Jamie. The handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House would do anything to protect the children, and as far as he’s concerned, a stranger like Mika is a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.

As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, the thought of belonging somewhere begins to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn't the only danger in the world, and when a threat comes knocking at their door, Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn’t know she was looking for...

How I discovered or acquired this book: This one's been on my physical TBR since the paperback came out August 2023!
(it was worth the wait)

My thoughts: This book felt like being wrapped in a warm blanket, handed a mug of something spiced, and told that everything is going to be okay. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches is a cosy, magical contemporary story about found family, healing old wounds, and learning to let people in - all wrapped in gentle witchcraft and cottagecore charm.

Mika Moon is instantly endearing: lonely, bright, trying her best, and just a little chaotic. Her arrival at Nowhere House creates this wonderful atmosphere of mismatched people trying (and often failing) to do right by three magical children, and watching them slowly knit themselves into a family was genuinely delightful.

The romance is sweet and low-angst, more warm simmer than dramatic flare-up, and while it’s predictable in places, it’s intentionally so -this is a comfort read through and through. If anything held it back from a higher rating, it’s that everything is very tidy. Conflicts resolve softly, emotional beats land gently, and you can often see where things are going from early on. But honestly? That’s a huge part of its charm.

At 4.25 stars, this is whimsical, cosy, and full of heart. Perfect for readers in the mood for magic without darkness and a love story without sharp edges.