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Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'
The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic by Breanne Randall
36 reviews
simsplayer30's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Cancer and Gaslighting
Minor: Pregnancy
bblatnik's review against another edition
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Abandonment
Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault
stardustandrockets's review against another edition
This book was released in 2023, so tell me why the hell there's a HP mention? It could have easily been replaced with something else.
I picked this one up to see what the hype was about, and I definitely don't think it was worth it. At. All. It was all over the place. Not even bothering to give this a star rating.
I picked this one up to see what the hype was about, and I definitely don't think it was worth it. At. All. It was all over the place. Not even bothering to give this a star rating.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Cancer, Terminal illness, Grief, and Abandonment
Minor: Rape and Pregnancy
HP mentionwitcheep's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
I struggled to get through this book a lot! I found it extremely difficult to take interest or actually care about the characters or the plot. This is because most of the events, thoughts and feelings are rather told than shown: I see no evidence for most of the claimed inner life. The plot goes all over the place, and even if the slightest hints of the main plot remain predictable throuhout the book, there seems to constantly be some random subplot event popping up. The book could have used some strong streamlining!
The one redeeming quality of this book is how it shows facing the death of a loved one and the consequent grieving; as mentioned in the acknowledgements, the author managed to write her own feelings of grief into the book in a way that the characters and the reader can also feel.
The overall vibe of this book is a confusing mix of attempted coziness (small town life, cooking, and gardening) and watered-down tenseness (bad omens, vague curses, and death threats). These two vibes clash in a way that cannot make a cohesive whole. Very vague magic system and magical rituals pulled from thin air when the plot needs a miracle don't help the immersion either: when every out-of-nowhere problem will have an out-of-nowhere magical solution, even the unpredictable becomes boringly predictable.
There is a similar confusion in the main character Sadie. She likes to think herself as having her life put together in her routines, but in reality she is very childish and stubborn to the core. She seems more like a teenager than a twenty-something adult.
It was just another dark thing she didn't want to look in the eye.
Sadie avoids everything she thinks is uncomfortable: escapes in the middle of conversations, refuses to accept facts she doesn't like, and avoids facing her own feelings. Her being as scatterbrained and stubborn as she is, results in narration that constantly grasps to insignificant reminiscing and loses the point of the current events. A considerable amount of the story feels like unnecessary and repetitive filler that aims for cosiness but lands on pure boring rambling. There were also multiple points in the narration when I was lost on what or who the part was talking about; for example a whole paragraph talking about a she that is revealed to be someone else than was mentioned in the previous paragraph, or confusing dialoque tags.
This was not a book for me, and I'm frustrated with myself that I didn't just leave it unfinished.
This was not a book for me, and I'm frustrated with myself that I didn't just leave it unfinished.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Grief, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Death and Alcohol
Minor: Drug use, Mental illness, Sexual content, Vomit, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Abandonment
tiffanne11's review
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Overall, the author tried to do too many things and it meant that none of it stuck. She was trying to build a cozy town, with diversity, and a high stakes sub plot, but nothing felt developed.
There are multiple instances of both diversity and mental health issues sprinkled in that seem to exist just to check a box. One example of this is dropping in that a side character goes to therapy, but also saying the main character had to figure out a recipe because of her obsessive compulsive nature. There is also a suicide attempt that becomes a joke, which is messed up.
The portrayal of their magic in general, that it has to have a curse, that there is always a negative effect to it, just feels like someone who doesn't want the magic to exist in their magic book. And then the main character is essentially spelling people without their consent because the town doesn't really believe in magic. Not to mention the multiple times she essentially drugs people into telling her the truth. The way magic works is also very inconsistent. An example of this is her mother who was supposed to be sterile due to her type of magic, but ends up pregnant twice.
The entire romance is a sham. She is still pining over a guy from high school who is emotionally cheating on his fiance with her, and who gets close to physically cheating. But we, as the reader, are supposed to believe it's okay because the woman he's engaged to ends up being a liar.
Other small things that just irritated me:
1) Gigi's constant use of pissant and toot to refer to her grandchildren.
2) A line where Gigi's head only comes to Jake's navel.
3) Sadie is written as the ultimate self sacrificing woman. She does everything for everyone, including making her twin brother his dinner plate while he just sits and waits.
4) All the women cook and the men go outside to play with the kids. All the women clean and the men go hang out outside.
I really wanted to like this book, cozy witchy books are my thing, and it had a lot of potential, but it just wasn't executed well.
There are multiple instances of both diversity and mental health issues sprinkled in that seem to exist just to check a box. One example of this is dropping in that a side character goes to therapy, but also saying the main character had to figure out a recipe because of her obsessive compulsive nature. There is also a suicide attempt that becomes a joke, which is messed up.
The portrayal of their magic in general, that it has to have a curse, that there is always a negative effect to it, just feels like someone who doesn't want the magic to exist in their magic book. And then the main character is essentially spelling people without their consent because the town doesn't really believe in magic. Not to mention the multiple times she essentially drugs people into telling her the truth. The way magic works is also very inconsistent. An example of this is her mother who was supposed to be sterile due to her type of magic, but ends up pregnant twice.
The entire romance is a sham. She is still pining over a guy from high school who is emotionally cheating on his fiance with her, and who gets close to physically cheating. But we, as the reader, are supposed to believe it's okay because the woman he's engaged to ends up being a liar.
Other small things that just irritated me:
1) Gigi's constant use of pissant and toot to refer to her grandchildren.
2) A line where Gigi's head only comes to Jake's navel.
3) Sadie is written as the ultimate self sacrificing woman. She does everything for everyone, including making her twin brother his dinner plate while he just sits and waits.
4) All the women cook and the men go outside to play with the kids. All the women clean and the men go hang out outside.
I really wanted to like this book, cozy witchy books are my thing, and it had a lot of potential, but it just wasn't executed well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Pregnancy
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 thatthe 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.”
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
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.”
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
thebranchlibrary_'s review
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Grief, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Pregnancy
bzliz's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Yikes. I really wish I’d read the reviews before I was substantially into this book. I finished it out of spite but that sure is time of my life that I’ll never get back. Reading the audiobook made it worse- I did not enjoy the narrator’s performance at all and each chapter ends with a recipe. I’d never considered how it would feel having a recipe dictated into my eardrums but now I know it feels vaguely sinister for some reason.
Edit: I checked out the author’s website after writing this review and she includes Elon Musk in a list of things she loves which really tempts me to drop the rating lower than 1 star. It just feels important for me to include that prior to my regular yapping about why- in my opinion- this book was garbage.
I have several issues with this book. The most grievous is how carelessly the author handled some serious subjects including suicide, rape & murder. The latter two are discussed over just a few pages in which the now-dying of cancer grandmother of our main character (who is nearly 30 years old) decides to impart vital information about her past, including that her mother didn’t abandon them of her own accord but rather because it was part of her curse after her toxic relationship resulted in a rape and forced pregnancy after which the grandmother killed the man. We just breeze right past all that. As for the suicide- I’d normally put this under a spoiler warning but I think it’s important to be clear in this instance- Sadie virtually out of nowhere decides that she needs to die to save her brother’s life and makes a suicide attempt on page. Her brother discovers her and resuscitates her but we also breeze right past this and only 3 members of the extensive cast ever know this happened. This simply didn’t need to happen. If she had thought about it for just five more minutes, it wouldn’t have happened at all.
Next- the romance is stupid. Jake is boring as hell and keeps to himself for way too long that he’s engaged to another woman, who happens to be pregnant. It made me feel so icky when he revealed that information because he had several chances and chose to say nothing. I also hated that the fiancee turned out to have faked her pregnancy to keep Jake around. What a stupid thing to do. Of course that was never going to work. And if your man seems like he’s in love with someone else, you should probably move on because it’s not going to end well. Sadie had her heart broken by him at 18 years old and is equally obsessed when he comes back to town 10 years later. I couldn’t figure out why they still liked each other after a decade apart and I believe it’s merely nostalgia for youth because they have no chemistry.
Third, the author takes normal life occurrences and tries to make it specific to Sadie’s family. They have so many rules about life and family mottos that crop up every few pages. One example is that every Revelare leaves but they always come back. Like it’s abnormal for people to move away from home. I got sick of hearing about that quickly. Each of them also gets a curse to go with their magic. Sadie’s curse is to suffer 4 heartbreaks, which is just a fact of life. The heartbreaks she suffers are that her high school boyfriend tells her he loves her, then leaves her (it sucks but it’s normal), her brother moves away for a year (he could’ve given her a heads up but also normal), and her grandmother Gigi dies (super normal, especially since Sadie is almost 30 years old). So really she has no curse and is whiny about having to live life and be magical. Also, one of Sadie’s aunts actively calls Gigi “mommy” which is just awful coming out of a middle aged woman’s mouth.
I could nitpick forever about the details but my last major issue was the failure to advertise the religious aspects of this book. Christianity is important to all these characters. There are comparisons to biblical stories discussed by them. It’s so incongruous to the witchy vibes and I never would have picked this up had that been indicated in any way. I just can’t make sense of having actual real magic powers and participating in an organized religion that historically doesn’t vibe with magic.
TLDR: this book is a waste of time tragedy porn taking cheap emotional shots to manipulate readers to think It’s better than it is.
Edit: I checked out the author’s website after writing this review and she includes Elon Musk in a list of things she loves which really tempts me to drop the rating lower than 1 star. It just feels important for me to include that prior to my regular yapping about why- in my opinion- this book was garbage.
I have several issues with this book. The most grievous is how carelessly the author handled some serious subjects including suicide, rape & murder. The latter two are discussed over just a few pages in which the now-dying of cancer grandmother of our main character (who is nearly 30 years old) decides to impart vital information about her past, including that her mother didn’t abandon them of her own accord but rather because it was part of her curse after her toxic relationship resulted in a rape and forced pregnancy after which the grandmother killed the man. We just breeze right past all that. As for the suicide- I’d normally put this under a spoiler warning but I think it’s important to be clear in this instance- Sadie virtually out of nowhere decides that she needs to die to save her brother’s life and makes a suicide attempt on page. Her brother discovers her and resuscitates her but we also breeze right past this and only 3 members of the extensive cast ever know this happened. This simply didn’t need to happen. If she had thought about it for just five more minutes, it wouldn’t have happened at all.
Next- the romance is stupid. Jake is boring as hell and keeps to himself for way too long that he’s engaged to another woman, who happens to be pregnant. It made me feel so icky when he revealed that information because he had several chances and chose to say nothing. I also hated that the fiancee turned out to have faked her pregnancy to keep Jake around. What a stupid thing to do. Of course that was never going to work. And if your man seems like he’s in love with someone else, you should probably move on because it’s not going to end well. Sadie had her heart broken by him at 18 years old and is equally obsessed when he comes back to town 10 years later. I couldn’t figure out why they still liked each other after a decade apart and I believe it’s merely nostalgia for youth because they have no chemistry.
Third, the author takes normal life occurrences and tries to make it specific to Sadie’s family. They have so many rules about life and family mottos that crop up every few pages. One example is that every Revelare leaves but they always come back. Like it’s abnormal for people to move away from home. I got sick of hearing about that quickly. Each of them also gets a curse to go with their magic. Sadie’s curse is to suffer 4 heartbreaks, which is just a fact of life. The heartbreaks she suffers are that her high school boyfriend tells her he loves her, then leaves her (it sucks but it’s normal), her brother moves away for a year (he could’ve given her a heads up but also normal), and her grandmother Gigi dies (super normal, especially since Sadie is almost 30 years old). So really she has no curse and is whiny about having to live life and be magical. Also, one of Sadie’s aunts actively calls Gigi “mommy” which is just awful coming out of a middle aged woman’s mouth.
I could nitpick forever about the details but my last major issue was the failure to advertise the religious aspects of this book. Christianity is important to all these characters. There are comparisons to biblical stories discussed by them. It’s so incongruous to the witchy vibes and I never would have picked this up had that been indicated in any way. I just can’t make sense of having actual real magic powers and participating in an organized religion that historically doesn’t vibe with magic.
TLDR: this book is a waste of time tragedy porn taking cheap emotional shots to manipulate readers to think It’s better than it is.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment
Minor: Rape, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Pregnancy
flybypages's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Cancer, Death, Rape, and Abandonment
Minor: Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Pregnancy
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Grief, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Cancer, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Pregnancy