This book is described as for fans of Practical Magic and Gilmore Girls and I can totally see that. There's a small town vibe to it reminiscent of Gilmore Girls and the messy lives of a family of witches like Practical Magic.

Sadie loves her magic - it's what makes her her. So the fact that she has a curse that if/when she experiences four heartbreaks she'll lose her magic she was fine leading a lonely life away from people that could cause her heartbreak. She's already had two and she's as guarded as can be. But when her first heartbreak and childhood sweetheart, Jake, moves back home and her second heartbreak, her estranged brother, also comes back home she has her walls up. Then her grandmother who raised her and her brother is diagnosed with cancer her world is turned upside down. As family secrets comes to light Sadie is doing everything in her power to maintain some semblance of control.

This book was both exciting and like being wrapped in a warm hug. I found the FMC, Sadie, to be kind of annoying and frustrating but I also loved her dearly. It made her character arc so much more satisfying. I did fall in love with every other character and I think my frustration with Sadie was not seeing herself the way the people around her saw her (for good or for bad).

The small town setting was also so perfect. And the magical aspects made the book.....magical for lack of a better word. There was some great buildup and foreshadowing that kept me intrigued through each chapter. And each chapter has some recipes that, along with the descriptions in the book, will make you hungry and want to curl up with a cup of tea. The ending was great and could be a satisfying ending to a standalone or open it up to have a sequel. I, for one, would be ecstatic for a sequel as I've fallen in love with these people and their town.

Highly recommend - perfect read for any season.

I desperately wanted to love this book as it was marketed as Practical Magic meets Gilmore Girls. If that’s the vibe you’re expecting, this book may not be for you either. There’s a decent storyline, but I didn’t connect with a single character. They were way too immature for their age and there was way too much detail on their inner dialogue. I think this might have been more successful if it was written for YA. The undertones of Christianity throughout the book was a strange choice to me.

When I read that comps for "The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic" were Practical Magic and Gilmore Girls, I was excited to read it.

This is a solid book but lacked the humor that was implied by the comps - "heartbreak" is more accurate, as this was a lot heavier than anticipated. I did finish it, but it wasn't an easy read at times. It was good, but not my top pick for the month.

TW for a suicide attempt.

I was so excited about the Unfortunate Side of Heartbreak and Magic. If you say Gilmore Girls meets Practical Magic, I am in. However, this didn't work for me, and I had to DNF at 50%.

This is far from the lighthearted novel I was expecting. While I do not think the marketing was disingenuous, I mean the word heartbreak is in the title, I don't think it succeeds at what it claims to be. It is missing the humor and heart of Gilmore Girls and Practical Magic. I found much of the trauma the author puts the characters through poorly handled, including a suicide attempt. I could not go on.

Thank you to Alcove Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This lovely paranormal romance brings asks us the question--what if what you were destined to be meant you had to sacrifice love?

Beautifully layered sensory images dance off the page (there's recipes included), it was easy to picture the places visited and the food eaten. The honest conversations between the characters deals with grief, love, loss, and love and what we all do when we're juggling all those at the same time.

Fair warning: There is a suicide attempt made in this so for anyone who is uncomfortable in reading that, please be aware.

A sweet read (kisses only).

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This book was just not for me, it had way too much going on. About the only thing I liked was the recipes.

When I read that "The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic" combined Practical Magic and Gilmore Girls, I couldn't resist this witchy read but unfortunately I wasn't completely convinced.

The atmospheres are super cozy, warm and welcoming, and it's true it's very reminiscent of Practical Girls combining the typical autumnal atmospheres of Gilmore Girls but I found the plot rather banal, with characters that I struggled to tolerate.

So much potential but not fully expressed for me, too bad!

This book had me at Practical Magic meets Gilmore Girls. Unfortunately, as much as I love the comp titles I did not love this book. It took me two months to get through because I found it a bit boring. I didn’t care for the drama surrounding the romance. Also, every time they mentioned church I was pulled out of the story. For some reason, Christian witches just seemed bizarre to me. The best thing about this book is the recipes. I’ll definitely be trying some of them out.

I loved this story. Fall witchy reads are my favorite. I enjoyed getting to know everyone in the community and it wouldn’t hurt my feeling to see this as a series. I’d love to know more about Sadie and Jake. The relationship just wasn’t fleshed out enough.

A perfect fall read. Cozy, sweet, and full of heart. A fresh spin on the role of love and magic. This was a delightful, second chance romance which also deals with some heavy topics gracefully.

As an aside, do not read this on an empty stomach, the recipes will have your stomach rumbling.

I wanted this to be cozy and cute and it started that way, but then it got messy and I lost interest. The baking in the first chapter sounds like it smells amazing.. but I’m confused by the rules of the magic, the romance or lack thereof and the family dynamics. Not at all what I had in mind.

This is the witchy book equivalent of a warm hug! It's a perfect autumnal read, especially for fans of Hazel Beck's "Small Town, Big Magic" and Sangu Mandanna's "The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches." The story will pull you in from page one and keep your attention throughout all of its pages. For a debut author, I was genuinely impressed with the seamless storylines and unique magical premise that Breanne Randall was able to create. Sadie is such a relatable and lovable character, so I couldn't help but root for her! As someone who also bakes to calm down, I saw some of myself in Sadie (minus the magical baking abilities darn it!) I love the small town, cozy vibe of this novel too. As someone who reads a lot of high fantasy books, reading a witchy novel with smaller scale implications was a welcome relief.

This is an example of false marketing to the right audience... I dnf'd this book bc it was not at all as marketed and unfortunately fell really flat. It needed another round of editing becuase there were major plot holes.

I like to read witchy/spooky books for the month of October every year, which led me to pick this up. I have heard lots of people discussing this; while it wasn't my favorite, I'm not a huge romance fan. I think romance readers will enjoy this!

While this was a good read, there were a few things I would have loved to be explained and described with more detail, especially the curse. I adore stories with magic, so that was by far my favorite part of the book. Sadie's and Seth's long lost love story made the pages turn more quickly as I was always rooting for them.

Thank you, NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my review.

was really looking forward to this book, but it ended up being a colossal disappointment. The biggest problem is that the marketing of this book is setting it up for failure. It should be marketed as a Christian-oriented death-in-the-family drama, but instead it’s being sold as a romance where “Practical Magic meets Gilmore Girls.” The story may borrow certain plots wholesale from those titles, but that does not mean that it is anything like them. The story is apparently set in California, but the small town presented hits just about every Southern trope you can imagine. The characters speak primarily in cliche and aphorism. They are on the whole indistinguishable from each other and very flat in their characterization. The world-building and magic system is barely there and anything paranormal in the story could have been cut pretty easily. The story consists primarily of baking, going to a church, and family reunion scenes. It’s incredibly dull. I found myself skimming to the end. The romance is lackluster and the love interest is absent for most of the story. He shows up to have scenes that don’t make much emotional sense with the main character primarily to move along the plot and then disappears. The writing on the whole was repetitive and overwrought. I really thought this was going to be such a good read for early fall, but I feel like I was duped by misleading advertising. I’m sure there is an audience that will enjoy this book, but it is not being marketed very effectively so I doubt it will find its way to them.

This book sounded really intriguing but was mildly disappointing. The pacing was off and the characters were frustrating. 3 stars

It was a bit chaotic read for me. I was drawn to the blurb it took me a while to get into the story. Still, I would recommend it to the fans of the witches or ghosts stories.

Thank you NetGalley & publisher for this eARC..

When I saw the word Gilmore Girls, I have expectations but this book, unfortunately, it miss the mark.

There is a lot going on and it was messy. It was supposed to be cozy but there were events where I felt like it was too heavy and the writing? well, it felt flat to me.

anyways, I was expecting a cozy, whimsical, fantasy based on the book title and the cover but this was not it.

*1 stars*

References to Harry Potter and Young Living? Weird Christian witch ideology? Annoying main character and love interest?

This was so disappointing. The plot and pacing was all over the place, and it was honestly just really boring.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this work. All opinions in this review are my own.