This book was exactly what I was hoping it would be; a fun, cozy, witchy adventure. I loved these characters SO MUCH. Honestly, if there’s not a sequel, I’m going to be really disappointed because I need more time in this world. Delilah was such a great character to follow. She was strong and confident, but also had great moments of vulnerability and softness. I loved seeing her friendships with Kieran, Briar and the others grow. She and Briar also had fantastic chemistry from the second they meet and I enjoyed that part of the story. Also, I absolutely adored Kieran. He captured my heart pretty much immediately. The Magic system in this book was also so interesting, unique and so easy to understand. Also, the found family trope was done SO WELL. One of the best I’ve read in a while.


CW: child abuse, infidelity

Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for an advanced digital reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

Practical Rules for Cursed Witches follows Delilah Bea as she is about embarking on her Calling, a coming of age journey for every witch, when her moment is hijacked by Kieran Pelumbra, a boy with a fatal curse who enlists Delilah to help break it.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
This book had everything I was looking for from a cozy fantasy story. Sapphic romances will always draw me towards a book and the romance here had me yelling at them to just get together already (not unlike most of the supporting cast lol). I was surprised by how much I loved the found family built over the course of the story. The adventure/cursebreaking aspect drives the plot of the story and honestly had me picking up the book more often than I would’ve expected (I needed to see what happens to everyone!). As cliché as it is, I felt it fitting for this story that love conquers all. At its heart, this is a story of friendship, family and love.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
After reading a couple books that took me a lot longer than normal to continue, this story renewed my faith in my ability to finish a book quickly. My reading experience with this book was such a refreshing change! I only wish there was a bit more time taken for world-building.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I’m looking forward to picking this up once it comes out!✨
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Thank you Random House Children’s | Delacorte Press for providing this eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

*Actual rating is 4.25 stars*

Practical Rules for Cursed Witches is a cute and cozy queer YA fantasy. It’s a lighthearted book about a witch forced to help a set of cursed twins break their family curse before one of them dies. The search for the solution takes the main character Delilah and her rag tag group of mischief enablers all over the fictional world. This results in so many wholesome found family moments, fun hijinks and two slowburn romances. There’s both a f/f and a m/m romance, so at least one of them will make my root for them. The banter is really fun, and the story is very fast-paced and easy to follow. It’s a stand-alone that actually feels finished when you’ve reached the final page. There was some back and forth that got a bit old after a while, and there were some obvious plot twists. But the vibes were so good that it didn’t bother me to much.

This was a great read! It's so magical. The worldbuilding and magic system was easy to follow while also being well thought out. It's a very cozy read with its ensemble cast making their own family. I'd definitely recommend anyone I know to read it at least once!

3.5

This is such an adorable, cozy, adventure story that also reminded me a lot of Gilmore Girls (specifically in the mother daughter relationship aspect but also in the small town vibes we got). I loved the uniqueness of this adventure. I loved the characters and the writing and really felt like this was a perfect fall-ish read to bridge the gap between summer and fall.

Witch books, or Magic in general, can sometimes feel cheesy or overdone but this was definitely not the case with this read. It felt fresh and new, and frankly just really cute and light hearted. This is YA so as long as your okay with younger content (though not too young to the point I was taken out of the story) this is a great read for any age really.

On a non content note, I loved the set up of each chapter and how we had TITLES and each title was a different rule which was just *chefs kiss* since that’s a practice that doesn’t happen all too often these days - so kudos to that!

Well that was just cozy and delightful! I didn’t expect to love this book as much as I did when I started it, but it surprised me! I could be nitpicky and point out a couple of little plot holes and some weird pacing on occasion but there are such tiny moments compared to how much joy I got from reading this adorable delightful cozy sapphic fantasy.

2 stars, DNF’d at 27%.

I was looking forward to this book but was left bored and disappointed. The world building is kind of a mess, felt very duct taped together like the author couldn’t decide what kind of fantasy world to write so stuck it all together. The characters were so boring, bland and uninteresting. Things were feeling very predictable and the writing didn’t gripe me. I could see where things were going with the romance already and knew I wouldn’t enjoy it.

DNF at 34%. I really wanted to like this book. The premise was interesting: Delilah is a young witch whose family was long ago cursed that should anyone fall in love with them, the lover will forget them. It's all very sad. Add in that, upon reaching the age of 18, all witches must undergo The Calling, a bespoke test that determines whether or not you'll be allowed to keep your magic. Obviously, the Calling she suggests is breaking her family curse, especially since her father is a renowned curse breaker, and then it's hijacked by Kieran Pelumbra, member of a very rich, influential family with a lot of secrets. One of those is that, every generation, a pair of Pelumbra twins are born, cursed that one will slowly drain away the other's life force until, well, something terrible happens. It's all a big secret and would be a huge scandal if it got out. Kieran would like to get it out because, well, this is going to kill him. So he takes Delilah off on a quest to first find his twin, an obnoxious, asocial girl named Brier, and put the pieces together before time runs out, or his family catches them.
See? It sounds cool. They even get around via airship. However, I found it...really boring. I could not get invested in any of the main characters. The stakes were life and death (and Delilah's magic) and I just could not care. The characters were so flat. Kieran's only personality trait was naive optimism, Delilah was somehow even flatter, and Brier was the most interesting at mean and antisocial. On top of this, Cottingham was trying to sell a romance between Delilah and Brier? I was not going to stick around and watch that continue to unfold.
Shame. Very intriguing premise, unspectacular execution.

When a witch comes of age, they must complete a Calling to prove their skill. If they succeed, they become a licensed witch. If they fail, they are stripped of their magic. Delilah intends to use her Calling as a chance to break her family curse. Bea women never find love, because when feelings start to grow, their men forget all about them. Just as she is about to set out, Kieran shows up and hijacks her Calling, asking her to break his curse instead. He and his twin are doomed. One is draining the other of their magic and is cursed to become a monster. Together Delilah and Kieran set out to find Briar, his twin, and to bring an end to the Pelumbra curse. The two girls get off on the wrong foot, but there is something about Briar that Delilah can't ignore.

Read if you like:
-Coming of Age Stories
-Frist Love
-Magic and Curses
-Found Family

I really enjoyed Practical Rules for Cursed Witches. It was vaguely reminiscent of several movies and TV shows I enjoyed growing up without being too close to them that it felt like a carbon copy. Kayla Cottingham has filled with pages with a lovely supporting cast of characters to build a wonderful found family for Kieran. They seamlessly adopt Delilah and Briar as the story progresses. I also enjoyed the romance between Delilah and Briar. They both dealt with their fears and found a happily ever after. The quest took readers across the kingdom to a number of unique locations.

The only thing that kept me from giving this book five stars was that I was never fully clear on the look and feel of the setting. Was it fantasy? Steampunk? Historical? Modern? I couldn't place it. Eventually I just gave up and focused on the characters.

Thank you! Just downloaded and will read asap! Final review will be shared on scheduled tour date with TBR and Beyond for book tour!

Review will be posted on instagram, Goodreads, and Amazon.

Thanks to NetGalley & Random House Children's for the early copy in exchange for an honest review. Sadly, I DNF'ed at 20%.

I thought the worldbuilding was rushed and messy. The characters were also rushed and I was having a hard time getting emotionally invested. Kieran was incredibly dull and I don't generally like "rich boy" characters either.

Practical Rules for Cursed Witches offers an intriguing premise with its mix of family curses, magic, and a slow-burn romance. Still, it falls short of fully delivering on its potential. The story follows Delilah Bea, a witch with a complicated family history and an even more complex love life, as she navigates the challenges of breaking her family's curse and that of the powerful Pelumbra family.

The novel excels in its world-building. Cottingham creates a magical landscape that's richly detailed and filled with interesting lore, particularly regarding the curses that drive the plot. The tension between Delilah and the Pelumbra twins, Kieran and Briar, is palpable, adding layers to the narrative as they attempt to break the generational curse that threatens their lives.

However, the book suffers from uneven pacing. The first half is engaging, with plenty of action and intrigue, but the second half drags as the story becomes bogged down in unnecessary subplots. Delilah's growing attraction to Briar is a highlight, but it feels underdeveloped and somewhat rushed, especially given its weight in the narrative.

Character development is another area where the book could have shined more. While Delilah is a likable protagonist with clear motivations, the secondary characters, particularly Kieran, come across as one-dimensional. The dynamic between the twins, which should have been a focal point, often feels overshadowed by the romance subplot, leaving Kieran in the background.

In the end, Practical Rules for Cursed Witches is a decent read for fans of supernatural romance, but it doesn't quite rise above the standard tropes of the genre. It’s enjoyable enough for those looking for a light fantasy with a touch of romance, but it may leave readers wanting more depth and stronger character arcs.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children’s for providing me with this arc! This is my second book from this author (getting to My Dearest Darkest soon!) and I wasn’t disappointed. I absolutely loved This Delicious Death, so I had high hopes for this cozy fantasy, that it definitely met.

Although this author mainly writes YA Horror, this YA Cozy Fantasy worked so well. To me, this seems like a drastic genre jump for an author, but Kayla Cottingham has managed to do so with grace and much success.

Thank you NetGalley and Kayla Cottingham for the ARC of Partial Rules for Cursed Witches! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this!! It was a cute cozy witchy ya and was the perfect book to get ready for the fall season!

I had so much fun reading this book! It had everything I wanted for a cozy fun fall read. Adventure, magic, betrayal, good versus evil. If you love Charmed or Practical Magic, you'll want to read this book.

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

Practical Rules for Cursed Witches by Kayla Cottingham is a third person-POV YA Sapphic romantic fantasy. Delilah is a young witch getting ready for her Calling, which will give her six months to fulfill a task or have her magic taken away forever. Delilah states her Calling will be breaking her family’s curse, only for Kieran, the son of a wealthy family, to assert a rite for Delilah to break his curse instead.

What I really liked was how we have two different curses going that both lead us to Briar, Kieran’s twin sister who hasn’t seen Kieran in years. Their family curse is slowly killing Kieran by siphoning his magic into Briar. Delilah’s family curse, meanwhile, is that anyone who falls in love with a member of her family will forget everything about them. Delilah and Briar initially have a lot of struggles and don’t really get along, but slowly start developing feelings for each other as Briar’s more gruff layers get peeled back and Delilah opens up further.

Briar was my favorite character. She’s completely uninterested in conforming to anyone’s ideas of a girl born into high society, femininity, being a teen, anything. She won't eat vegetables, she has a shaved head, she’s claustrophobic and needs a big room to accommodate her. In other words, she’s complex and pushes back against any societal standards for female love interests. The cherry on top is that she is quite short while Delilah is very tall, which creates the beloved trope of the tall, more reserved character forming a couple with the fiester, short character and we get the whole romance from the tall character’s POV. Usually, in M x F romances, the POV is either dual or from the woman’s, who is usually shorter. It’s a nice change of pace for a very popular dynamic.

The worldbuilding was sort of Kiki’s Delivery Service where there is one witch in small towns and witches indeed to fulfill a task before becoming a full witch. This plus the baking and the sweeter aspects of the romance all contributed to a cozier atmosphere versus the epic stakes that are more common in YA fantasy. The life and death stakes for Kieran and the ability to find a love long-term for Delilah will still satisfy readers who want something in between a cozy and an epic but still leans cozier.

I would recommend this to fans of cozy fantasy looking for a YA novel, readers of romantic fantasy looking for a story about curses, and those looking for a Sapphic romance arc with a height difference.

Thank you to @netgalley and Random House for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Well that was just cozy and truly delightful! I didn’t expect to love this book as much as I did when I picked it up but what a delight that was. I could of course be nitpicky and point out a couple of little plot holes and some weird pacing on occasion, the moments where some steampunk elements seemed incongruous with the rest of the story (Kieran on a corded phone talking with his crush? Really?) but there are such tiny moments compared to how much joy I got from reading this adorable delightful cozy sapphic fantasy that I’d rather just leave this review with how pleased I am I got to experience this world. I would love to see more in this particular universe- the rules of magic built into this story leave it open for so many other amazing stories that could be developed in this universe!

A cute, cozy story full of witches and magic? What’s not to love? I only wish I had waited to read this one until spooky season so I could really feel the vibes. Our MMC, Delilah, is so fun and witty I just loved following her story and watching her try and break another family’s curse.

If you’re in the mood for a sapphic, witchy book just in time for fall, this one is it! Thank you NetGalley and Delacorte Press for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Practical Rules for Cursed Witches is not a book you should use if you need to break your curse. You will need different help for that. This is a creative universe with witches and curses and air ships. An 18 Year old witch named Delilah must pass a test known as a calling in order to be allowed to practice magic. A handsome boy asks her to help him rid his family of a curse that is draining him of his magic and slowly killing him.
The story focuses on love, friendship and found family. Delilah and her new friends find love and magic as they travel across their county to break their curses. They face a lot of danger, some from family and some of which is the risk we all take when we share our feelings for another.
The characters in the book all fear rejection yet they all yearn to find a person who will accept them for who they are.
Thank you NetGalley, Kayla Cottingham, and Random House Children's | Delacorte Press

This book really provided the cozy fantasy vibes I was after from page one. I loved the found family and the “Calling” adventure, as well as the creativity and colorfulness of this world. I also really appreciated the casual queerness, and the displays of many different kinds of love, whether it be romantic, platonic, or familial.