Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic by Breanne Randall

11 reviews

wordwitching's review against another edition

I had to come to read the reviews to see if anyone else feels the same as I do about this book. 

While I'm relieved to see that many readers do, and I'm grateful to them for calling out the obvious and glaring misogyny, the reinforcement of traditional gender roles, the underhanded promoting of MLM essential oils, the disdain for witchcraft, the insensitive handling of serious and triggering subjects like SA, r@pe, m7rder, and suiçide, which are dropped into the plot like stink bombs only to be brushed off like they don't matter or worse: jokes. 

It pains me, however, to see so many positive reviews for this book. I honestly do not understand how it became so popular or indeed how it was published in the first place. 

The editing is non existent, the writing shows promise at times, but as with the subject matter, the author does not know when less is more. Instead she threw everything at it, like a cook using every single ingredient in their pantry to make a simple cake. Enough with the overcooked baking metaphors already! 

The characters were either stereotypes, purely added to show diversity for diversity's sake, or shallow, childish and infuriating. I love an unlikable female character but Sadie behaves like a teenager. The author is constantly telling us how wonderful she is but everything she SHOWS about her contradicts it. She kidnaps the MMC's dog and it's played for laughs, she uses truth serums on unsuspecting victims and again, this is played off as if it's normal, acceptable behaviour. I have never wanted to shake a heroine more. 

There's a completely unnecessary fake pregnancy plotline added just excuse the hero and to demonise another woman. And don't even get me started on everything else the male characters do and say. They are the WORST but everything they do is either excused by other characters or the plot. The internalised misogyny is very loud. 

I gather from reading other reviews that

the FMC ends up losing her magic for one of them, which is just all sorts of NOPE.

How are we still publishing books with this tired and sexist narrative in 2023? Head of Zeus, I'm disappointed in you. 

It feels like the author took a bunch of toxic positivity quotes and platitudes from social media influencer accounts and just strung them together like flimsy paper doily garlands in a Instagram reel. Pretty to look at but ultimately weightlessly fragile and tissue thin. 

Hashtag "Witches Of Instagram"; Hashtag "Trad Wife"; Hashtag "So Blessed". 

I'm sorry I cannot find anything positive to say about this book. The recipes might be good, but I cannot bring myself to try them. 

I've included cultural appropriation in my content warnings because I truly believe this author is appropriating witchcraft due to her religious beliefs. It is a travesty for this book to be positively compared with Practical Magic. 

And on that note, I'll leave this review with a final word from Aunt Jet Owens:

“And this is what comes from dabbling; I mean you can't practice witchcraft while you look down your nose at it.”

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

meggy1967's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I did enjoy the book but I felt the dialogue was rather stilted. The main character was likeable as were the majority of the side characters. The ending felt incredibly rushed given the amount of build up given throughout the entire book. There was a LOT of mentions of religion and God, so if you’re uncomfortable with that I’d be aware. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Cancer, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

fancyjess_party's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

veroverovero000's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Infidelity, Grief, and Death of parent

ehoustonmyatt's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Minor: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

Hey, no dogs or cats die so I guess that’s one win!

amyteurhour's review against another edition

1.0

Content warning: cancer, abandonment, rape, infidelity, toxic relationship, murder

This was annoying. The mystery/curse was intriguing, but not intriguing enough that I was willing to get through the whole book. The overuse of "pissant" and "shit ass" was also annoying and not an adorable quirk (like what I think the author was trying to go for). This is compared to Practical Magic, and though I've only read a little of PM, I would agree, in that the sexual assault is just super casually mentioned and then buried in boring nonsense. To be honest, I got further than I expected because I've been in between audiobooks and didn't have any I wanted to start on my shelf, so I just kept defaulting to this when I was doing chores around the house. 

I also didn't love the audiobook, finding the narration to be either very flat and boring, or super grating depending on the character. I ended up skipping the recipes at the end of each chapter because I was tired of the voice and just wanted to be done with the book. But this book is so long for seemingly no reason. 

Stopped at ch 11 (7:37:15). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Infidelity, Rape, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Abandonment

littlelizzieborden's review against another edition

It was emotionally exhausting and infuriating 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Grief, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

Minor: Cursing, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt

roget's review against another edition

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Infertility, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Dementia, and Death of parent

meredith_williams_'s review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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 was potentially the biggest let down of a book I’ve read in a long time. It was marketed as a Practical Magic-type witchy romance, and for the first 20% of the book, it was delivering on that promise. However, the story takes a sharp left turn and the whole book ended up being a very difficult read. For starters, the characterization and setting seemed at odds with one another. Why was the grandmother constantly using southern phrases, going to a baptist church, and cooking with butter and shortening all for them to be living in…Southern California? Secondly, the pacing was off and the ending felt rushed and undone. There were major characters that came into the story at the last minute and had no conclusion whatsoever. Thirdly, the romance was lacking and became a subplot by the end of the book. The main character’s love interest was problematic, to say the least!

The fact that I was expected to root for the two of them after he revealed that he was ENGAGED WITH A BABY ON THE WAY was absolutely wild! But not as wild as the fact that his fiancé was FAKING THE PREGNANCY or that the FMC was totally fine with TAKING HIM BACK after all of that!!!

Additionally, the undertones were weirdly conservative? There was a lot of missionary white-savior rhetoric, a lot of churchy language, a lot of overly generalized and stereotypical portrayals of people of color, and a literal mention of Young Living Essential Oils. 🙃 Lastly, you could tell the author was trying to speak positively about therapy and mental health, but that was immediately cancelled out by her portrayal of one of the characters trying to take their own life and following that scene up with another character casually brushing it off by saying, “We all have our dark days.” 🥴
All in all, I would not waste your time on this book!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Terminal illness, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Infidelity and Abandonment

Minor: Rape and Pregnancy

kase's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

0.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment

Moderate: Rape