The House Witch

Series Info/Source: This is first book in The House Witch series. I borrowed this ebook through Kindle Unlimited.

Thoughts: I really enjoyed this first book in the House Witch series. This is solidly in the "cozy fantasy" genre and involves a young witch named Finlay who takes a job as the royal cook for the kingdom of Daxaria. All Fin wants to do is cook good food and keep the fact he is a witch secret from the other kitchen staff. Unfortunately for him, his secret comes out as he is forced to confront rude knights, protect the pregnant queen, and deal with a duchess that has a strange pull on him.

This book is full of quirky characters and there is a strong theme of working to bring out the best in people and giving people a place to show more feel safe. Fin's special power is to make a place feel like home and being able to protect that home. His magic ends up being much more special than he realizes.

There is a good political plot here as the King of Daxaria tries to keep his nation out of war. You also can't help but wonder how long Fin will be able to keep his secrets and what will happen when they are exposed. I got a big kick out of Fin's familiar, a kitten named Kraken, who is helping Fin out on a completely different cat-based level. I also really enjoyed the rude knights who got assigned to kitchen duty.

This book is all about finding a place to belong, creating a home, and preventing that home from being destroyed by a war. It was wonderful fun and leaves you feeling happy and cozy. I can't wait to read the second book in the series. Despite this being a fairly long book, I breezed right through it. It was easy to read and engaging and I always looked forward to sitting down to read it.

My Summary (5/5): Overall I really loved this. I loved the fun characters and their interactions, the humor, the political plot, and the magical world here. I greatly look forward to reading the second book in the series. I would recommend if you enjoy cozy fantasies with a lot of magic and humor. show less

Come for the cute and cosy fantasy vibes—
...and then hope to hell you can hold that thought for the next 700 pages.

Finlay (Fin) Ashowan is a talented, handsome red-head with a temper. He is also a witch, and the royal cook at the court of the Kingdom of Daxaria. A most talented cook, indeed. Even so, as happy as our cook is to preen about his food, he is always careful to downplay his magical abilities. Even when he never fails to use it just enough to annoy all the right people.

In order to keep his magic a secret, Fin decides to just repel people in general, by making himself as disagreeable as possible. And, because this story is very insistent on staying on the cosy, low-conflict side of a fantasy setting, the protagonist's show more temper is only strategically annoying: enough to win against the bad guys, while the good guys remain hopelessly charmed. THE EN—...

Yes, fine: things happen, friendships are formed, a very tepid romance keeps hovering at the sidelines... and life in Daxaria goes on just the sa— well, a tiny bit better.

I developed an obsession for this book, mostly based on the cover and suspected vibes, only to get deeply disappointed by the complete lack of conflict. I struggled to care about any of the characters or plot points in here. For all his hedging, Fin's ridiculously overpowered abilities never make me suspect that they could ever betray the cook. Or, if they do, the story hastens to present this as a good thing, generally by giving Fin a new friend.

There are lots of scenes with Fin barricading himself in the kitchen to hide his magic-fuelled cooking. These episodes then get interrupted by intensely wholesome, distressed-damsel rescues, and the subsequent comeuppance being dealt to many an uneducated knight. All the while, Fin's unfailing competence is paraded around, lest the reader think that things could veer into serious points of conflict. Oh, and for bonus points, sometimes kids and pets get added into the mix.

Another main plot point of the story is Fin's unwilling attraction to one of the court ladies. However, this illicit (non-)relationship is mostly present because, as readers, we're privy to the characters' thoughts.

As such, despite all the hand-holding and flower-watching under moonlit skies, the two characters feel like they have barely any chemistry. To a big romance-nerd, such as myself, this is a cardinal sin. I'd much rather have no romance than a badly written one.

Score: 1.7/5 stars

The House Witch comes with a nice and cosy idea which promises a lot, but resolutely refuses to deliver even a whiff of excitement for fear of conflict. The nicest thing I could say about it is that this story should have been made into a graphic novel. At the very least, we could have enjoyed some pretty pictures that way.

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ARC received from Klett-Cota via NetGalley in exchange for an honest and fair review. show less

Actual ratiing 3.5
A cozy fantasy with a loose plot wrapped around a series of shorter adventures and a slow burn romance.
The House Witch has a very specific style it's going for, cozy, but it doesn't quite hit the mark, and I can't quite pinpoint why. There are many scenes and moments where it does, and the feeling of the warmth and safety of Finaly's kitchen comes across wonderfully. There are amusing scenes and stories and the character work is decent if a little simplistic outside of Finaly. It may simply be that the core engine of the narratives coziness/safety vibes (Finlay) is also one of the characters most in need of them with a rather grim backstory. Or it may be the canvas is too large, with too many characters with too many show more stories (this specifically is not a flaw in the book but more of a theory as to why it doesn't fully land the coziness vibes I was looking for upon pick up) resulting in a narrative that's somewhat sprawling.
Aside from that, I have few complaints with the book: the prose is decent, the comedy is consistent and fairly amusing, the characters are distinctive and colorful, the plot moves quickly and integrates several serious/grimmer story elements in the narrative effectively (some, like the miscarriage narrative, with strong emotional rewards for me as the reader.) I found almost all of the narratives preaching modern morality rather tedious and bit shoehorned. Finaly as the primary protagonist is a good mix of prickly and caring, allowing for easy investment. show less

4.5 stars.

This was lovely and cozy, and just put a smile on my face as I was reading. It's not a five star though, because sometimes I got a bit bored of it. I think it could've been a bit shorter and then it would've been perfect.

It definitely gave a little Terry Pratchett vibes, and I will definitely recommend this book to all my reading friends!

2.5| I have no idea how to review this book.



On one hand, I was hooked from the beginning and deeply enjoyed the story, characters, and romance. On the other hand... the writing itself was mediocre at best.

Look, I recognize different people have different writing styles, and that's fine. However, while Delemhach knows how to craft a good story and compelling characters, the writing felt a little bit like a first draft. It wasn't enough to pull me out of the story, but it was enough to discourage me from recommending it to the friends I usually recommend books like this.

"I am weak, though. I can only do things to promote peace.”
“You think that is weakness?! Kingdoms go to war not because they are strong, but because they are weak!"

As show more far as the positives go, however, there were quite a few. The atmosphere of this book felt cozy and autumnal, despite its spring/summer timeline. The characters were compelling, flawed, and sympathetic. Characters that I started out hating were some of my favorites by the end. Fin himself went through massive character development throughout this novel, but he also never acted outside of what seemed natural for his character. Furthermore, the romance was incredibly well written. Fin and Annika had chemistry from the get-go and their scenes together (particularly from the halfway point on) had just enough sexual tension to keep you invested, without being (unnecessarily) cheesy.

"You promise you won’t have any second thoughts?” A small smile of her own was beginning to bloom on Annika’s face.
“Love, you’ve been my first and only thought for quite some time.”

My only last complaint is this: the book was, in my opinion, wayyyy too long. While I loved hanging out with the characters and seeing the fun "shenanigans" they got into, there was a point (around 40% or so) where this book felt like it would never. end. The length wouldn't have bothered me if the romance hadn't also been so ridiculously slow. I will read and enjoy a book for a variety of reasons, but typically, the romance is what keeps me turning pages while I'm reading. In this case, I was invested in the romance. I wanted to keep turning pages... but I did have to look up how long it would freaking take before these two idiots finally got together. And when I thought they would get together, I was wrong and wound up waiting for another two-hundred pages for it to happen. A slow burn wouldn't usually bother me, but honestly, that combined with the ridiculous length of this book made it nearly unbearable. Maybe I'm just impatient lately, but I don't think that's the case (or, at least, not the primary one).



In sum, this book was the very definition of "good, not great." However, I will be reading the sequel, because honestly, I feel like I'm in too deep to stop now (after all, I've put so much time and energy into waiting for Fin and Annika to get together that I feel like I owe it to myself to watch their relationship play out... at least for a little while longer.)

I am not tagging this review for spoilers because, honestly, I think people who read this deserve to know that they are boarding a ship that takes six hundred pages to sail. Just saying. show less

I was so excited for The House Witch because the cover just screams "cozy fantasy" and the book description calls it "a humorous romantic fantasy" which is right up my alley. Ultimately, it was not a great fit for me. I did love that Fin is a "house witch" with magic centered on keeping his household safe and comfortable. When he becomes the castle cook, he discovers that "his household" now means the entire castle, which gives him greater responsibility. My favorite parts were watching him run the kitchen competently and make healthy food.

The story has many point-of-view characters. In some scenes, the point of view seemed omniscient because all the characters' thoughts and feelings were shared. I think I just prefer to have only 1 or show more 2 points of view because that helps me feel more immersed in the experience of those 1-2 characters. I did get a laugh out of the two chapters where we were in the kitchen cat's point of view.

The plot felt to me like a series of vignettes about life in the castle kitchen, with a very slow burn romance on the side and a thread in the background about an impending war. The slow burn eventually develops into a will-they-or-won't-they dynamic. Eventually the couple reaches a HFN ending, but most of the other big-picture plotlines are still loose ends that will presumably be solved in the sequels.

There's one thing about this book that made me uncomfortable and I'm not sure why. Several times in the story, homophobia is used for laughs, and reading those scenes left me feeling unsettled, like I wasn't sure if what I was reading was okay or if it could be hurtful to some readers. The scenes always involved the "good guys" acting in ways that seemed like sexual harassment, to distract or thwart a "bad guy"; so for example, they need to remove a guard who's surveilling them, so they send a man to flirt with him, assuming he will become uncomfortable and leave. Sometimes the only point was to tease someone, like Fin continually flirting with another castle staff person that he doesn't like, simply to make him uncomfortable and get a laugh out of it. Often while the flirting happens, the other characters watch and laugh. Maybe if it happened once, I'd have read right past it; but happened so many times. Maybe I just didn't see the humor in it? show less

As someone who reads fan fiction basically everyday as an addition to books and has herself written both good and horrible fan fiction, this reads like bad fanfiction.

I adore elephant sentences but after five adjectives to describe the evening it should come a point where you say enough.

Makes me love though, because I am immature (literal teenager, hello) and also I kinda like the vibe. The romance is kinda meh tho? I am in for like everything that isn't the romance. If I had paid more than the 5€ Kindle unlimited subscription for it I'd probs feel bad about it but as it is, imma continue reading on.

Because, again, it makes me laugh and I like the concept so... also I have the time so what the hell why not.