Let me just say that this book ended up being way more emotionally gripping than I expected. When I requested this on NetGalley I was intrigued, but I thought this would end up being way lighter than it was. I thought that this book actually ended up exploring a lot of deep topics, such as loss, finding yourself and vulnerability and how scary it can be to open yourself up emotionally. I ended up enjoying this story and I loved getting to know who Sadie was and who she ended up becoming. I did think that this book could have been even more of an inward look if it was in first person instead of third. Sadie had many thoughts throughout the book that were shared as little musings, and I would have liked to see a little bit more inside her head through her full narration.

🅶🅴🅽🆁🅴—𝐹𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓈𝓎 / 𝓇𝑜𝓂𝒶𝓃𝒸𝑒
🗓ℙ𝕦𝕓 𝔻𝕒𝕥𝕖—𝕊𝕖𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕞𝕓𝕖𝕣 𝟙𝟡, 𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟛

“𝓢𝓸𝓶𝓮𝓽𝓲𝓶𝓮𝓼 𝓲𝓽’𝓼 𝓱𝓪𝓻𝓭𝓮𝓻 𝓽𝓸 𝓵𝓮𝓽 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻𝓼𝓮𝓵𝓯 𝓫𝓮 𝓵𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓷 𝓲𝓽 𝓲𝓼 𝓽𝓸 𝓵𝓸𝓿𝓮.”

✂️ P L O T L I N E
The Revelare family all have their own unique set of magic, as well as a curse. Sadie’s curse is having four major heartbreaks in her life. When her grandma is diagnosed with cancer, she does everything in her power to save her and avoid having another major heartbreak. As Sadie’s life begins to fall apart, two of her heartbreaks come back to town. Will the return of these heartbreaks provide her magic with the ability to save her grandma and keep her family together? As Sadie learns to open up her heart to new possibilities, we uncover secrets of the Revelare family that threaten to take more than one family member away.

💭 ⓂⓎ ⓉⒽⓄⓊⒼⒽⓉⓈ
I love that this book centered around dealing with grief and the importance of family. Sadie’s family is one that a lot of us can identify with; a family that it isn’t always perfect, but also one that helps us embrace our uniqueness. This story is about learning to love yourself and allowing yourself to be loved. A story that reminds us that giving love is just as important as receiving love. The only thing that didn’t vibe with me, was that this book was written in third person POV with a lot of quotation marks. It made it a little difficult for me to completely connect with the story and characters. Regardless, I still enjoyed the book and I absolutely loved how each chapter ended with a unique recipe and the benefits behind the each of the ingredients.

📚 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
💫Books with magic
💫Baking
💫Gilmore Girls meets Practical Magic
💫Second chance love

🪄𝕄𝕐 ℝ𝔸𝕋𝕀ℕ𝔾🪄
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

💕Q U O T E: “𝐵𝓊𝓉 𝓁𝒾𝒻𝑒 𝒾𝓈𝓃'𝓉 𝓈𝒾𝓂𝓅𝓁𝑒. 𝐼𝓉'𝓈 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒷𝓁𝒶𝒸𝓀 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓌𝒽𝒾𝓉𝑒 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉, 𝒮𝒶𝒹𝑒. 𝐼𝓉'𝓈 𝓂𝑒𝓈𝓈𝓎 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒽𝒶𝓇𝒹 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒽𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓉𝒷𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔. 𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓈𝑒 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝒸𝓀 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓇𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽 𝑒𝒹𝑔𝑒𝓈 𝑜𝒻𝒻. 𝒯𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓂𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝓁𝒾𝒻𝑒 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝓉𝒽 𝓁𝒾𝓋𝒾𝓃𝑔."


🙏Thank you NetGalley, Alcove Press, and Breanne Randall for this ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts 💕

Sweet story about the importance of family and the place you call home. A nice love story with a little bit of magic and some recipes thrown in for good measure. I always love books that highlight the importance of food and how soothing and healing the process of cooking for ourselves and others can be in times of trouble. Thank you for an ARC of The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic in exchange for my honest review. I look forward to reading more from Breanne Randall.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was SO excited to get this one! And it was pretty much as I expected…the perfect mix of Practical Magic, Charmed, Spells For Forgetting and Sabrina. I loved the ancestral magic trope, but also that it wasn’t full ‘magic’ but rather based on connection- to the earth and to people.

Jake and Sadie are so cute in this…she’s so certain she can’t have him and he’s stuck in a relationship he seemingly can’t get out of, so it’s all very innocent and sweet until he finds something out and then BOOM.

But mostly, I love the portrayal of family. It’s a true, down to earth, genuine, dysfunctional, loving family, and each of the relationships is so special. And ultimately that’s the message of the book…everything else is temporary and unimportant, but family is everything.

Loved it.

This good is really good but not to my taste!

I must admit I was drawn in by the cover and found myself forcing my way through this book to give it a good and honest try, however, it just wasn't for me.

I really wanted to like this one, but it missed the mark. The long lost love returning and MC's reaction to it did not seem realistic or genuine. I think it will appeal to a certain audience though, the MC did remind me a bit of Sookie Stackhouse.

wonderfully cozy book filled with magic and endearing characters. I immediately felt practical magic/gilmore girls vibes and was sucked right into the story. I wish it had more of that snarky banter that the Gilmore Girls is known for, but it was still cute. Pacing was even and I especially loved the recipes. There are some heavier topics like suicide/cancer that are brought up, so keep that in mind. Overall the story was a well written, small town cozy fall read that will be perfect to snuggle up in front of a fire with come October.

A big thank you to Breanne Randall, Alcove Press and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion. The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic comes out September 19, 2023.

Sadie is a witch in a family full of witches that along with their magic they also are born with individual curses, Sadie's being that to keep her magic she would go through four heartbreaks. She believes in the power of routines and control, that all starts to be put to the test after her grandmother is diagnosed with cancer and the man who broke her heart comes back to town. Sadie will have to decide if losing her magic is worth the possibility of a love filled future.

I honestly could not put this book down once I started it. It was fast paced and had multiple plot twists that made it interesting. I absolutely adored the warm fuzzy feelings that you got when reading about the magic and love filled family. If you are entering this book thinking it will be full of romance I would adjust expectations, the romance is kind of a back burner plot point in the story. Overall if you are looking for a warm, magic filled story about love and forgiveness, The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic is for you.

What witchy goodness!! Sadie and Seth both have magic, but along with their magic comes a curse. Sadie's curse causes her to keep everyone at an arm's length, determined to ensure that no one gets close enough to break her heart.

I love all of the magic in the book. There were parts I would've loved to know more about, including some more detail on how the magic works, as well as the type of magic everyone has, however the importance of the story was more that people HAVE magic, not what kind they have. I wanted to know more about the founding families, their magic and their lineage, but this was only touched on briefly. Also what was Jake's reaction to Sadie's magic? What did he think about the sacrifice? I needed more details! I think there were perhaps too many family members and different characters, as they didn't get the time and focus that many of them deserved.

I loved the recipes scattered throughout the book, and I loved that each ingredient has a meaning behind it. I'd actually love a little reference guide of all of the meanings behind some of the spices!

The romance was minimal, but was there throughout the whole book. Sadie and Jake's relationship didn't go to plan, but seeing them find their way back to each other was magical. Seth and Sadie's relationship was interesting, and I was glad that they resolved their issues because they are one super cute pair of twins.

I feel like some of the parts in this book could've been reduced or cut out in favour of more character and plot development (or just cut out because it was actually a pretty long read) but I still really enjoyed the book.

Thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book!

Loved this book. I wanted to live in the cute little town to visit the bakery everyday. All the characters were written so well that they felt like family at the end of the book. It really is the perfect mix of Practical Magic and Gilmore Girls.

This book was so cute!! I loved the magic aspect to it and it gave off Practical Magic vibes which I LOVED! I absolutely loved the female main character and the story overall was very enjoyable to read. Definitely recommend, especially reading it during Halloween!

I so deeply wanted to love this book! Like many reviewers I followed the authors heartfelt and ambitious marketing of the story. The concept sounded like it would be a tale that should easily land in my all time favorites stack...unfortunately, to my surprise,it was a chore to finish.

The big problem for me was the heavy handedness. The author was so busy telling readers that magic exists that it left me with very little room to feel it. There is absolutely not a speck of nuance here.The book has got Magic and syrupy sweetness over written into each and every line. Even if I overlook the exclusiveness of the actual wring I found the story and characters to be only moderately engaging.

I think most fans of this particular genre will be hard pressed not to compare this to books that have done similar plots with such a beautiful and inspiring nuance.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the review copy.

I love magic realism stories and this one didn’t disappoint,
Sadie and her family were joyful in their normalness with a whole side of magic. The house greeted people, the garden blocked people from entering and each family member had a special magic touch that connects them all together as a whole. But Sadie’s magic was telling her something wicked was coming. All the fears and anger she had housed over the years would be tested to the limit and she would need to learn to love and trust others in order to save herself and her loved ones. Dark times were coming for Sadie.
And wrapped all around this wonderful story was baking wonders. I drooled over the recipes that have me itching to try them. I think I put on many imaginary pounds with all the wonderful desserts and bakes.
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC. Can’t wait to read more from this author.

This book was so cute and cozy! I absolutely loved it. The marketing was spot on comparing it to Gilmore Girls and Practical Magic. Found family is my all time favorite trope and this definitely fit the bill.

This book has been described as a cross between Gilmore girls and practical magic and I agree wholeheartedly. Set in a small town our protagonist Sadie is a witch (although she doesn't use the word) who runs a bakery cafe with her grandma and each chapter ends with a delicious recipe which brings even more sweetness to the book.
Sadie is having a bad day full of ill omens culminating in the return of her ex in town. Without adding spoilers my only criticism of the book is that when Sadie and her twin brother Seth who left town without letting her know why discover a huge family secret about what their gigi did to protect them Gigi seems completely nonchalant about it but really that's just a minor niggle.
All in all this is a great cosy read with a storyline that is compelling and well paced to make you want to keep reading.

Sadie Revelare has lived with a curse her whole life. Only given four heartbreaks in her lifetime before the curse takes her magic. Sadie has been on a mission to guard her heart, yet it hasn’t been successful. Down to only two heartbreaks left, she can’t take any chances. But, her world is shattered when her grandma is diagnosed with terminal cancer… the ultimate heartbreak. Who will she turn to? The ex-boyfriend who caused heartbreak number one or her twin brother who caused heartbreak number two. Magic may be in Sadie’s veins, yet heartbreak will be her fall.

This was a sweet novel. Small town, second chances and magic. I loved that Sadie owned a bakery and magic was an essential part of the baking process. Plus, there were recipes added at the end of each chapter. Some things that didn’t work for me, the pace of the plot and the minimal backstory on Sadie and her ex-boyfriend’s relationship.

Thank you Netgalley and Alcove Press for this ARC.

Thank you Net Galley for the chance to read this ARC.

I love a good cozy read and this hit the spot. The story was charming and had me turning pages for hours. I can admit that this wavered off and on with the plot, but it did not affect my attention span. I think that the author did a great job describing scenes and I enjoyed the characters engagement with one another. I would say this is a good weekend read that leaves you feeling satisfied.

The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic is an enchanting and beautiful novel and I am so, so happy I got to read it in advance! Thank you so much Breanne Randall, Alcove Press and NetGalley for the chance!

I love it when the author weaves a story and creates a world that is so magical and so wonderful that as a reader I can just let go and get swept away by the story - which is exactly what happened with this book. I could feel the heartbreaks and the fear but also the heartwarming moments and the joy and I cried both tears of sadness and tears of joy, many many times, while reading.

I fell in love with the gorgeous cover the moment I saw it and now I've fallen in love with the book and all the characters, too. ❤ Five stars.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this book!

Our main character, Sadie, is having a hard time. And haven't we all? Having been born into a founding family with magical ancestry, she is both blessed and cursed. Her curse is of four major heartbreakings and to lose her magic. She is spun so tight that she might spiral if that final heartbreak hits...but what if it's also the best thing for her?

This book is bursting with love and family and finding out your own limits. I absolutely adored it and cannot wait to purchase to have my own physical copy.

Thank you to Netgalley, Breanne & Alcove Press for a chance to read this ARC. I enjoyed how the author tied in the recipes at the end of every chapter. I can see why it was pitched as Practical Magic meets Gilmore Girls. I feel like it will be a hit with everyone who picks it up.