I really wanted to love this book and was so excited to get the ARC but unfortunately, it just didn’t hit right. Breanne Randall’s The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic was described as Practical Magic meets Gilmore Girls but I wasn’t getting the nostalgic vibes of either.

Sadie lives with her grandmother Gigi, with whom she also runs a bakery where they pour their knowledge of healing foods into their creations. Sadie notices a few bad omens and then the ex-boyfriend who left without a word suddenly returns and throws her off her game. At the same time, she also gets some bad news about Gigi and thinks she’s being watched by someone from the woods near her house. Sadie has grown up knowing her family are special but they don’t refer to themselves as witches which I think would have been a bit truer to the Practical Magic vibes needed. There are some mysteries which Sadie sets out to unravel but honestly I lost interest in the story and started to struggle.

The pacing and detail were wrong and made the chapters drag on. The plot was bogged down by so much unnecessary information and the snails pace made it all seem like it was build up to something only for nothing of note to happen. I did like that each chapter ended with a recipe of an item of food mentioned in that chapter but feel that it would have been better to compile the recipes at the end of the book.

Thankyou to NetGalley and the publishing team for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review - 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐒𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐬.

I am so deeply upset to say 𝐈 𝐃𝐍𝐅'𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐚𝐭 𝟓𝟔% .. I really tried to push to the end but it was just a slow read with insanely long chapters and I just couldn't bring myself to finish it. I have been following this book for 𝐒𝐎 long on Instagram and was sucked in to the 𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤 𝘮𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘎𝘪𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘎𝘪𝘳𝘭𝘴 marketing, so I have been so excited to read it, but unfortunately this one just did not work for me.

It started off strong, and I was really enjoying the first quarter of the book. I loved the idea of all the "rules of Revelare magic" that had been passed down to Sadie from her grandmother, the cosy coffee shop vibes with the food descriptions, the smells and the envionment were just what my autumnal heart wants in a book right now, and the recipes at the end of the chapters were such a cute idea. I also loved the idea of the magic system and how it was incorporated in to these recipes. The whole "curse" issue with Sadie and her four heartbreaks was super interesting too but I quickly got bored of the overwritten parts, it became very repetetive, and I just wanted to this to be a bit more fast paced and get to more of the plot.

When it came to the plot however, honestly I was lost. I couldn't keep up there was that much going on, we had
• cosy fantasy vibes
• a bit of romance
• a touch of paranormal mystery
• a dash of family drama (trigger warning with the grandmother having cancer that I was not expecting!)
• there was a random stray/stolen dog in which Sadie refused to give back to the owner (?)
• oh and then is was also part cookbook
𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝟓𝟎% ..

I think this book could have benefited from just focussing on one or two of these rather than try to be a bit of an 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 kinda book, if the plot was a bit more developed and less "messy" (?) I think I could have enjoyed it a lot more.

I am a romance girly at heart, and I thought we would be getting lots of cosy romance in this book, but when Jake rocked up to tell Sadie about his "secret", if you would call it that ( i don't really wanna spoil it for non-readers), I got pure Christoper and Lorelai vibes from Gilmore Girls, and we all know that 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥, I just did not see a happy ending for the romance in this book so I was immediately unattached from the storyline from that point and chose not to continue.

There was a lot of cussing in this book, which I don't mind at all, but the Grandmother had a foul mouth and every time she called her grandkids "shit asses" or "pissants" (never heard that term before in my life and i did have to google it) I just could not cope. Grandmothers should be sweet and wholesome!

𝐈𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚 𝐛𝐚𝐝 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤, I can see a lot of people sitting down and really enjoying this one, it just was not my cup of tea unfortunately.

A new witchy debut novel comped to Practical Magic meets Gilmore Girls and I do think it lives up to that, to an extent. It definitely has a very cosy feeling to it with recipes scattered throughout of the food featured in the previous chapter - I thought this was quite clever and not something I’ve really seen before in a book.

However I found the story to be a bit disjointed and the writing to be clunky and overwritten at times. Threads of the story got described then dropped immediately and I felt like they were just thrown in as a plot point rather than seamlessly woven into the story.

I also thought the romance would be a bit more prevalent than what it actually is. That is probably my fault for not reading the synopsis properly - I like to go into my stories without knowing much. This is very much a book about family and learning to live with the grief of losing a family member.

I liked the concept but found the execution to be a bit of a let down. You can tell this was a debut novel..

3.5 stars.

I was lucky enough to be accepted for the ARC of The Unfortunate Side Effects Of Heartbreak and Magic, thanks to NetGalley.
I went for this book as it was described for fans of 'Practical Magic' My favourite film mixed with 'Gilmore Girls' again big fan. I love witchy vibes and thought this would be the book for me and though i think some-people will absolutely love it, for me personally it fell a little short.

This book would be great for someone new to the fantasy, or witchy vibe books as it was a easy read and gave a nice entrance to that vibe. if your looking for magic like Harry Potter with Wands and Magic Spells, this is not for you. The magic in this book is very earth, material bound, Cosy Vibes..You wont find any Alohomora here. Like "Practical Magic" the magic used is very earthy toned which i really liked.

Sadie, the main character is okay, i found it very hard to build a relationship with her; i don't know if this was because of her attitude in the book or because the story was told in 3rd person. I would have loved to have read this as Sadie; i think that would have added a lot more depth into the story and really made me feel what Sadie was feeling that little bit better.

The story started off really slow, it was very today, tomorrow and the next day without enough character building in my opinion. i have a rough idea what Sadie looks like but felt there wasn't enough of a description to be able to visualize her, perhaps this is why i found it hard to build a relationship with her. I would have liked to have started the book with some context like a prologue telling me about the different kinds of magic or maybe even a little bit about the curses. i found the chapters to be incredibly long and at the end of each chapter was a recipe, this was a nice touch though probably would have put these towards the back of the book apposed to at the end of each chapter.

The overall plot was good, though i think the overall story telling and layout of the book could have been a little bit better. There was a lot of description about everything around the characters but i felt there wasn't as much narative and when there was there was no small talk it was "hello.. then a huge paragraph of feelings or a statement" it felt a little strange, it also made the book longer with actually not a lot happening. it jumped from day to day with descriptions of the town or cooking and i ended up skimming through on a handful of occasions.

With the title stating "Heartbreak" i wouldn't address this as a romance book, don't get me wrong there is a romance or two; but nothing like a full on romance book following the love of two people, i think this could have been advanced on. The author was clearly trying to make this a more family love book and family coming together, but i think with the plot of the book, the love interest could have been portrayed a little bit better.

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Over all.. i think this had a lot of promise, the plot was there and if you are looking for something quick and easy to read, want to start the Spooky season with an easy going witchy vibe book that is pretty cosy. This is for you, however sadly it just want for me though i am glad i had the opportunity to read it

I saw another book lover review this book and she said "this book felt like a warm hug from an old friend" and this is exactly how I feel so thank you Jo (from Goodreads) for taking the words out of my head haha. It’s cozy and comforting and I couldn’t put it down, I enjoyed every page and every recipe.

There is a strong sense of friendship and family and the author makes you feel like you are part of them both and you felt all the emotions Sadie felt. Although some of the plot twists, and storylines were predictable I didn’t feel that that ruined the story or reading experience for me.

I loved the magic system, how every family member receives something different and unique. Sadie’s magic allowed her to manipulate emotions, physical ailments and behaviours through food – baking and cooking. Her and her grandmother, Gigi, own a café/bakery in town and her magic is put to good use!

What I loved about this is how immersive it is, between the authors words and the additions of the recipes you really feel a part of the world and throughout the whole book you feel like you are wrapped up in a blanket of love from Gigi.

Don’t be surprised if you shed a tear or two, the book title has literally “heartbreak” in it.

If you are into a cozy book, full of magic, fantasy, beautiful friendships and family, characters that are relatable, a love with a handsome firefighter this is your book. It explores family bonds, second chance romances, grief, heartbreak and also allows you to bake and experience some of the recipes explained in the story.

Easily a 5 ⭐️ read for me and would happily read it again.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author/publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book (via E-Book) in exchange for an honest review before its publication date.

DNF @ 36%

I really wanted to love this, seeing as I love witchy vibes and Gilmore Girls, but this was not it (and it doesn’t have GG vibes at all)

There were quite a few things I didn’t like about this. Firstly, the romance feels very bland and lacks chemistry. I also still don’t understand what their history is? I feel like it hasn’t been properly developed at all, so I don’t care about them getting back together in the slightest. Secondly, both the love interest and the FMC’s twin brother left town and the way she talks about Seth (her twin) is quite weird, like the amount of betrayal there makes it feel like she should be talking about the love interest, especially when talking about how there’s only 1 toothbrush. I feel like it would’ve made more sense to choose one character who has left, and narrow the focus of the story a bit.

But my main issue with this books is the writing style - all the descriptions are overwritten, but the characters aren’t developed and don’t feel like they have any personality. I also thought the dialogue felt unnatural (especially with Gigi always calling people a “shit ass” or a “pissant”) and the way people spoke made it feel like it was a small southern town, but it’s supposed to be Northern California? It was just weird.

I really like the idea of the magic system and the recipes throughout, but sadly, the best part of this book is the cover.

I was excited when I saw a small town witchy romance with Gilmore Girls vibes but unfortunately it was not carried through. The romance was strange and quite lackluster, it got very repetitive about the curses, and I found myself skimming some of the pages because I wasn't hugely interested.

Thank you Aria & Aries and NetGalley for the opportunity to receive this ARC.

Witchy romance books are my favourite type of book. They are your romance books mixed with the authors unique approach to what magic is. This books magical lore is unique to each individual character, some characters magic was earth based, other’s were emotions based, creating an even wider universe of magic.

I love that this book centres around hope. The hope of finding love, of saving your family, of rebuilding bonds and discovering who you are.

Also, couldn’t not mention the beautiful receipts slotted between each chapter. A lovely unique edition to the story.

I hope the author writes a second book, as the ending was left open.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc.
Unfortunately this book just wasn’t for me and I dnf’d at 1/3 of the way through. I wasn’t engaged with the story and didn’t enjoy the writing style

Unfortunately this one didn’t work for me. It started off great, with the cozy small town vibes but got a little too repetitive for me. I also just couldn’t connect to the characters, they didn’t stand out at all, and that’s really a must for a romance.
The fact that the witches were Christian and going to to church was also a turn off. Christianity is responsible for the deaths and persecution of so many women based on ‘witchcraft’ and you expect me to believe that these witches would just be okay with that…