Reviews with content warning for Panic attacks/disorders - The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic

This book is about a lot of things, and Breanne Randall does them all very well. If I had to narrow this story down to only three words they would be: family, grief, and sacrifice. Magic is a very integral part of the story, and Randall uses it to tackle these topics in a way that doesn't take away from its warmth and draw to its readers.

In addition to their individual magic, each Revelare is born with a curse—and Sadie's is the curse of four heartbreaks. She's already had one, her first love who abandoned her a decade ago, and she's about to have the rest.

Almost all at once, her ex returns to town, her grandmother tells her that she has stage 4 cancer, and her estranged twin brother returns after a year without contact—all of which bring up deep family secrets that start to unravel everything Sadie knows to be true.

This book was so fun and the only reason I gave it a 4.5 is because the beginning was a little slow and hard for me to get into. But once things started moving with the plot I was reading for hours. 😭👍 Randall tells the story of a family coming together in the aftermath of the death of their matriarch—throughout which we follow their grief and sacrifices through the lense of Sadie Revelare, and how she learns to embrace love instead of fearing it.

Overall I loved this story, and it really did have that Practical Magic feel that it was marketed as!

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tinyfoxreads's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is probably my favorite book now, I’m sad that I finished it so quickly because now I’m going to miss my new friends that I feel like I’ve known forever. I want a sequel just so I can hang out with them again. I feel like it’s set up perfectly for one but haven’t seen any news of one. Breanne, can you hear me??

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buffy87's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I'm just glad it's over.

This is a book for someone who reads for vibes and not for the writing. If you like reading "cozy" witch/wiccan fiction then this may be up your alley. It has romance (no spice), family, magic, curses, spirits, murder, cafe, baking and cooking, coffee and an abundance of recipes. The recipes at the end of every chapter were extremely cool, and though I won't be making any (way too much sugar for me!) they do sound good. It was marketed on TikTok as Practical Magic x Gilmoe Girls. I'd say both elements are there.

However, DAMN. This book is a hot mess express. Literally an everything but the kitchen sink. There is so much happening in this book. Almost every cliche W Network plot line is evident. It's definitely way too much. The pacing of this book is very much one foot in front of the other, things just keep happening and you just keep reading.

And my god the main character is just as likeable as Rory Gilmore LOOOOL. You forget she's an adult and not a whiny teen.

I also found it extremely irritating that EVERY ingredient used also had it's magical benefit listed. After a while it grew extremely tiresome and I found cluttered the entire novel. How many times do we need to know what cinnamon does?? But that's what happens when you have nothing to say and need to fulfill a word count. And on top of that every outfit needed to be described - I find this makes the text feel extremely juvenile.

And also, this is the whitest book I've read. LMFAO. It was SO CLEARLY written by a liberal white womxn. You should make a bingo of how many ethnicities you see represented. When I want inclusion, I mean do your research of you're going to add something. Any South Asian in a SMALL NOSY TOWN would know Gigi is their Nani... they would NOT call her "Dadee." If you know you know. I was shocked there was no disability representation...why stop there if you're gonna throw everything in there anyways?

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astoldbyangela's review

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not! for! me!
a few moments, lines, storylines even that were good but held together by an overall style, writing choices, and perspective that just rubbed me the wrong way from beginning to end.

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thebranchlibrary_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

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hlbennett's review

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hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

This read was what, as a Millennial, I imagine mid is. So much attention seems to be paid to parts that don't matter while not enough attention is paid to things that really would. Parts that are uninteresting drag on while parts that are interesting are sped up, like the rushed ending. The things you want explained aren't going to be explained well enough but you're going to get so much detail when Sadie is cooking. The most interesting part of the book is the concept of the magic, the family curses, the origin, who has what magic and what are their curses, but most of those explanations aren't there or aren't explained enough. And not in an artistic, "What did Billie Joe MacAllister throw off the Tallahatchie Bridge?" kind of way.

I'm left with so many questions and I reread these passages several times to make sure that I wasn't missing anything. I thought surely, the explanation is there, I'm just missing it.

Like:
- What's up with the voice at Old Ballier [sp]?
- Why did Jake leave in the first place?
- Is Florence the conduit/amplifier or is Seth?
- And if not Florence, why wasn't she supposed to have children?
- Why was there a death owed for the lives of the twins and then Florence couldn't see them, but she's had Sage without mention of murder and shows up with her in tow?
- What are Florence's powers?
- If it's a life for a life, how on earth did Gigi get out of paying the blood debt without a second murder? And why didn't they just do that again? Or better yet, if sacrificing your magic paid the debt, why didn't Gigi or Florence do that decades ago so that this poor kid didn't grow up going through what he says he went through?

Moving on from poor explanations, there are a number of parts that are supposed to be "twists" that are as straight as a board.
- The ghost in the back yard? Gigi gives some ominous direction to protect the house and we're led to believe it's for this spirit, but really I guess it was for nothing because turns out it was just papaw. The reader learns this in a 5 second conversation Sadie has with her mother.
- The damage to the garden? Turns out it's tied to Sadie's emotions but doesn't manifest during her first or second heartbreaks; no, it waits until she's 28 and feeling sad. Also, it seems a bit late in the year for regrowing entire gardens. Even with the magic of it all, why would Jake, who hadn't had confirmation of Sadie's magic, replant a garden in what, September?
- Sadie's sacrifice? First, Gigi knew of a solution and instead of having a conversation with Sadie about it, she chose to leave it in a letter. Yes, because that's what any responsible parent would do when the life of their child hung in the balance and they had literal months to have these kinds of conversations. Second, we're supposed to believe that everyone who'd read that letter didn't understand it meant Sadie giving up her magic? Come on. Third, Sadie just decides to unalive herself with, I can't remember how much time, until the full moon? Like she's not going to wait until they're sure they've tried everything else?
- I almost forgot it, but THE FAKE PREGNANCY? Are you kidding.

It's just not a well built story. I'm not one of those people who can't suspend a measure of logic to enjoy a story and even so, this has too many loose ends to be worth the read.

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fancyjess_party's review

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

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ehoustonmyatt's review

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dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

This had potential to be so fun, even with darker themes. It, instead, focused on things that weren’t important and whizzed past the reveals that were supposed to be big. The Bethany of it all was very stereotypical and predictable, the love interest sucked, and it dropped some big dark themes too casually and not very thoughtfully. Also, the diversity included seemed like a performative afterthought.

It’s sold as a “cozy” read that feels like Gilmore Girls meets Practical Magic but it didn’t deliver any of that.

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