Review: Mandrake Manor by JP Rindfleisch IX

Title: Mandrake Manor

Author: JP Rindfleisch IX

Length: 366 Pages

Category: Cozy Paranormal Fantasy

Rating: 4 Stars

At a Glance: What a delightful surprise this book was. It’s warm, cozy, a little bit sassy, and the bonds of found family and magic give a nice touch to developing both the plot and the characters.

Reviewed By: Lisa

Blurb: Inherited magic.

A secret neighborhood.

And… a formidable Homeowner’s Association?

Recent graduate Mathias Mandrake’s life takes a turn when an unexpected inheritance of a distant relative’s manor falls right into his lap. However, this home across the country comes with a condition: Mat cannot live there alone.

Good thing his best friend Frankie is ready to leave behind his lackluster trail of midnight trysts for a more suburban life. Eager to hone in his dilf-hunting skills, his bags are packed and ready to go before Mat can finish signing the paperwork.

Completing this trio is August, for whom the idea of living with newfound friends away from the hustle and bustle of city life is, honestly, a dream come true. Not only that, but it’s a perfect setting to finally finish that novel they’ve been working on.

Review: Mat Mandrake receives a surprise inheritance, naming him the sole heir to his great aunt’s estate which includes her manor in Henbane Hollow, Connecticut. This windfall comes not only at an opportune time but with some great benefits too. But there are a few catches, the most notable being that Mat must move into the house with two other people. Fortunately, his two best friends, Frankie and August, are up for the move and the all bonuses involved. And as they soon discover, Mat’s great aunt was a pretty powerful witch, which clears up quite a lot where Mat, Frankie, and August are concerned. It turns out, they inherited far more than a house. And that’s how their coven comes to be.

Mandrake Manor is the ultimate abandoned mansion, complete with boarded up windows, peeling wallpaper, and suspicious occurrences its new owners can’t explain in anything approaching mundane terms. The town of Henbane Hollow itself is an uncanny suburbia, awash with unusual residents and an HOA president from hell. So the manor fits right in—as long as Mat renovates it to the HOA’s painstaking standards.

“Take all the magic from a place and all you’re left with are suburban Karens and rage-filled barbecue-tong-wielding Chads.”

There are strange and sinister things afoot in Henbane Hollow, and it’s up to the three newest witches to decipher what they’re up against and then put a stop to it. There’s a touching undercurrent to the mayhem being wrought against the newest Mandrake witches, and the town as well, which is unresolved and leaves some intrigue for a sequel that I’ll gladly read.

What a delightful surprise this book was. It’s warm, cozy, a little bit sassy, and the bonds of found family and magic give a nice touch to developing both the plot and the characters.