This book was a weird mix of conservative and magic. It just was an odd read and it wasn’t the Gilmore girls/small town/witch book I was promised.
It needs a lot of work.

"For fans of Practical Magic and Gilmore Girls this charming debut novel and TikTok sensation is packed full of romance, charm and plenty of magic . . ." - ermmmm kinda.

This was a highly anticipated read for me but untimely fell flat, I felt the pacing was slightly off and I lacked any real connection to the characters.
In the genre of cosy witch autumn reads, I think you could find much better.

This was such a cute cozy story, just really easy for my brain to understand and despite the heavy themes of cancer, it was a very wholesome story about family support and going back to your roots.
There is a theme of cheating, which did rub me the wrong way. I find cheating to be inexcusable, an immediate dealbreaker. With the reveals and how it turned out, it didn't seem so dirty, but at the start of the novel those reveals weren't out in the open, so it felt really gross.
Some updates from when I was reading:
I'm not feeling any chemistry between her and Jake at all, I don't quite understand what's going on with them. It's really feeling like she doesn't care about Jake at all. But it is clear that Seth and Raquel have something going on.
I really agree with Seth when he pointed out that all it seems Sadie cares about is her magic. She doesn't want to love 'because of her magic'. Which also means she's hurting other people 'because of her magic'. I hope this gets addressed. And if she loses her magic, so what? It's not that important, all it is is food and people will appreciate the food regardless of if it's magical, and the people don't even know. Why does she feel the need to manipulate everyone with her food, it's a god complex and it's icky
I adored the little recipes scattered throughout, I want to try making some!

I struggled with this, as I couldn't make out what this book was intended to be. Its a mix of a small town romance, small town fantasy, a mystery. It's bits and pieces of different themes pieced together.

The Christian witches really threw me off. The witches in this are literally methodist.

I initially requested this thinking it was going to be give gilmore girls vibes with some magical elements but it missed the mark.

This book wasn't for me at all but another reader might love it. I think it tried too hard to incorporate numerous elements and it ended up imploding. The comparisons to Gilmore Girls and Practical Magic also meant this suffered from high expectations.

DNF - the story and writing were so cliche it made me physically cringe to read it. I felt from the first chapter that I didn't need to read the rest of the book as it was so obvious what was going to happen.

I really quite enjoyed this while I was in a bookish slump, I connected with the book quite quickly. I would read more from this author

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Not sure where the Gilmore Girls meets Practical Magic was in the book but I did enjoy the story and recipes.

I loved this book, with a charming blend of Gilmore Girls vibes with Practical Magic charm and have ordered a print copy

This was described as Gilmore Girls meets Practical Magic, both of which I love so I was excited to get stuck into this. I soon realised when things are described in the same breath as two of your fav movies /tv shows it’s very hard to live up to.
It was a decent story and I did enjoy the characters in it , it just was missing the extra little bit of magic to really make it shine.

So going into this book, I was expecting a warm, cosy baking novel. Which it was. But what I hadn't picked up on was the emphasis on heartbreak in this novel. It was incredibly, incredibly sad. It tackles grief and terminal illnesses and losing the most important family member you have.

Along with these issues, this book also shows the different kinds of heartbreak you can have. I was so happy to see that the heartbreaks weren't just about dating and romance, the main one of course being the sight of her grandmother being taken from her by cancer. I felt this was really really important especially since family is such a big part of the book.

And there is cosiness in this book. There's a generous helping of small town charm, a lot of baking magic (with recipes interspersed between each chapter!) and a whole extended family's worth of love. Though I would hesitate to call this a cosy book considering how sad it all is, the cosiness is there to be seen.

warm, cozy, easy read - i enjoyed it but wasn't head over heels. i think a lot of folk will read and love it though.

I enjoyed this book and the writing style, however the storyline felt a little flat to me. Not my favourite

I don't really know how to approach writing a review for this book. It had so many elements that I SHOULD have liked, even should have loved... but I really did not enjoy this. I did not like the main romance at all, I wish Sadie had left Jake in the dust, he was just not someone that you would want to end up with together forever. I don't want to say why, because spoilers, but like.... just very much not cool.

This book also just felt like it didn't quite know what it was. It had cosy, charming vibes at times, and then dark, mysterious vibes at others, it had grief and heartbreak, but also reunion and family... and all of those things together should work great, right? But this just felt messy. There was no weaving of everything together and it felt very jarring throughout.

I also found it very jarring that these witches, who scatter salt and cast spells and bake food with magical properties, were Christian? Like they said prayers from the Bible and brought up Bible verses, and it just felt very odd?

There was also severely underdeveloped worldbuilding, and the characters were all very indistinguishable, especially all of the different aunties - I could not tell any of them apart for the life of me. I even kept thinking that Sadie's best friend was one of the aunties, because they all just melded into one person.

Overall... I can't say that I would recommend this, especially not if you're looking for a cute and cosy, witchy, autumnal read. There are way better ones out there.

Although this doesn't quite hit the sell of practical magic hits Gilmore girls - it does have little aspects of each.

It had some great messy dramas with a side of magic, and If that's your thing? Totally the book for you.

I've rated it 4 but it's more a 3.5 star

I really enjoyed this story, thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me the ARC to review. I would highly recommend this to readers, the characters and plot are really well developed and enjoyable.

Whats not to love about this book. I could not put it down.

Secrets, betrayal, love, deep sadness, glorious happiness, self-sacrifices and much, much more. The emotions in this book are heartfelt.

I will be recommending this to anyone who would love to read it.

Thank you NetGalley, Aria & Aries and Breanne Randall for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I really wanted to like this book but unfortunately, it just wasn't for me.
I really enjoyed the homely aspect of the novel and the closeness of everyone living in the little town. But after that this book fell down for me. I found it far too longwinded, with rather long chapters where very little happened. I'm not entirely sure about the recipe chapters sprinkled throughout either.
I couldn't warm to the character of Sadie, despite really wanting too.
Not really for me, though if you like a strange cosy-type witchy vibe it may be for you. Just check the trigger warnings before reading.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for providing an arc in return for an honest review.

Really enjoyed this one! They really hit the nail on the head with the Gilmore Girls vibes. Liked the characters, an easy read.

I just couldn’t get into it but i’m sure there’s someone put there this book is for. I follow this author on instagram and the way they talk about it I was super excited but just couldn’t keep going.