Kayla Cottingham does not miss.

Her first cozy fantasy was spot on. Curses, a trial where you have to succeed or you lose your powers, a found family, and LGBTQ+ love stories? Sign me up.

We follow Delilah, a witch who just turned 17, as she goes on her Calling: a task either of your choosing or assigned to you that proves your abilities as a witch.

Raised by a single mom in a small town, Delilah navigates a new world, new friends, and a very long magical history as she works towards breaking a curse.

I really enjoyed this read. Would be perfect for spooky season. I will continue to read all of the books Cottingham publishes.

This is a brilliantly funny, adorably charming story that brings to mind the likes of Kiki's Delivery Service, Eva Evergreen, and the Honey Witch. a delightfully cozy read that fills you with joy, comfort, laughter and a passion for baking. (and man do i wish this book came with recipes.) a beautiful queernormative world, with a colorful cast and crew. a fantastical coming of age story filled with magic, life lessons, and a good deal of witty banter. you'll laugh, you'll roll your eyes, you'll giggle and you'll want to hit the main antagonist in the face! all in all, a fantastic read!

we follow seventeen year old Delilah as she goes on her Calling. a test that every Witch must undergo in order to keep their magic. She had it all planned out, and then some kid comes in and hijacks it! well, whatever, breaking one curse is just as easy as breaking another right? well, so she hoped. catching feelings was never part of the equation. especially not when she and her entire family were cursed so that no one could ever fall in love with them.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC for the ARC of this YA cozy romance, super good. Will be recommending this to my daughter once the book is published. Great representation of LGTBQ. I loved how the book played out and how it had a happy ended. Hopefully I can read more with Delilah, Briar, & Kieran

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I really enjoyed this cozy little read! It has just such a great vibe- found family, going on a quest/adventure and finding yourself, tons of diversity and well developed characters. I’ll check out more from this author!

I haven’t read any of Kayla cottinghams other books, but while I haven’t heard the best reviews of my dearest darkest, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I like this!!

literally all the vibes were there, and it really got right into the story which was very engaging

I LOVED the whole band of misfits go on a journey ->found family
it was so so sweet, just like the ending-it was very satisfying

I also really liked the romance subplot and tension between briar and Delilah (and Kieran +his love interest-no spoilers :)

loved the magic, curses, family relationships, friendship,journey, and again, the overall vibe

highly recommend checking this out when it is published on August 26!!!

When a young which comes of age they must complete their “Calling” a task that will allow them to official become a witch and keep their magic. Delilah, he’s a curse on her family that none of the women will ever fall in love with a man. If the man falls in love with them, they will forget them. Delilah decided she is going to break her family curse for her Calling. But, her Calling is commandeered and she finds herself racing against the clock to break the curse of others before they die.

This story has a fantastic plot that keeps you intrigued from the very beginning. The development of plot, characters, and world is wonderful.

When I started this, I did not realize this was an lgbtq book. This is not my typical read. If that is not your preference, then this book is not for you. Otherwise it was an excellent book.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book for free!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC! This one was a great cozy fantasy novel with lots of diverse LGBTQ representation. I’m not always a cozy fantasy fan but the clear road trip style adventure plot kept me going and I loved Kayla Cottingham’s last book so much I had to give it a shot. A little on the slower side to start but picked up a lot in the later parts of the book and there were a few little horror elements that I really enjoyed but I don’t want to give any spoilers. I don’t want to call it a light read because there were some heavier themes throughout, but it is a good comfort read option in my opinion. If you’re looking for found family and quests, pick this one up!

What a delight to read from start to finish!

This book checked off so many boxes for me. Witchy. Cozy fantasy. Sapphic and achillean romances. Butch/femme and short/tall pairings. Bi and nonbinary rep. Monster loving. Lovable, relatable characters. Found family. Magical libraries. Fairytale elements (curses, the power of true love, and happily ever afters). Plus a dash of steam punk.

The magical system was also fascinating. I enjoyed the different types of witches, how magic had particular scents, and the way curses worked (especially the loopholes that might break them).

This is the perfect book to enjoy with a mug of hot cocoa, a snuggly blanket, and a furry reading buddy (if you have one).

I received an advanced copy from the publisher and am voluntarily leaving this review.

Oh my word, where do I start with this book?! It was so good! I absolutely loved everything about it! It was so cozy and such a sweet witchy romance. I loved the characters and plot. It was well written and well thought out. I flew through this book! I didn't want to put it down. I absolutely loved it and would 100 percent recommend this book to anyone! 5/5 stars and so worth a read!!!

Practical Rules for Cursed Witches was a sweet queer rom-com. A teenage witch has decided to try to break her family’s curse to prove her competency in magic. Unfortunately at the last second, a different curse to break is foisted upon her. She must travel out of her smallish village to new places and work with new people in order to get the information necessary to break the curse. I enjoyed this book! I thought the friendships felt genuine and the world building was spectacular. I liked that the plot was easy enough to follow that the author spent a lot of time describing interactions between all of the characters, and really making the group feel like a chosen family.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

After reading all of Kayla Cottingham’s books, I can positively say this was my favorite one. It’s so sweet and fluffy. I loved literally every character except of the obvious bad guys. All the villains were written to be so horrendous you can’t help but hate them. I even got a soft spot for Klaus, even though he is kind of a jerk. Literally everyone in the little family unit was great. Santiago, Ariel, Adelaide, & Kieran were so cute! And Ash! Had me giggling and kicking my feet! In the beginning I wasn’t sure what to think of Briar but after reading more you see why she acts the way she does. The grumpy/sunshine trope can be annoying to me sometimes but they grow on me.

This one had a good amount of twists in the plot that kept me interested. This was such a cute book. If you want a quick read that will make you smile I highly recommend.

Cute, cozy story with witches and magic. Great story with found family and breaking crazy old curses. Delilah is fun, witty main character and it was a blast following her story and being forced to help break another families curse. It brings so much backstory and easily get to know the characters in this stand alone and has a fulfilling ending.
Thank you NetGalley and Delacorte Press for the opportunity to read this e-arc.

This was a prefect read for me!! I loved the cozy vibes but also the clear adventure plot and loved the world building and the massibe cast of characters. I had such a fun time reading this story!! I loved the rep and also the adventure focused read. I would love to spend more time in this world with the side characters and just really loved this one!! if you are love cozy vibes but need mroe of a plot in your story check this one out!

This was just so completely cozy with an unexpected humor that made me laugh out loud more than once. Delilah is such a wonderful protagonist. She's unabashedly herself and doesn't let anyone question her worth. And her relationship with Briar is just so sweet. It starts out with a very hilarious "get out of my school" type of vibe before morphing into a friendship, then just the sweetest, most awkward love story. I loved seeing their relationship blossom into something more. I also really enjoyed Delilah's relationships with her mother, Kiernan, and the others on the ship.

The writing was very lush and descriptive, inviting the reader into the world and painting an almost Ghibli-esque picture. While some people might not enjoy it, I did enjoy the mix of partially modern technology alongside the more magical aspects. Again, it's giving Ghibli in the best way.

The thing that kind of stopped this from being a 5 star was that there were some awkward transitions in certain chapters. Places where it felt like things were wrapped up a little too quickly or at an awkward moment before heading off to the next point. Also, aside from the curses, I feel like magic sort of only played an incidental role, especially in Delilah's case. There were some explanations of the magic in the world and how it works, but I don't really think it ended up amounting to as much as I was expecting it would. The focus of this story is definitely on the relationships between characters, how you can make your own family, and healing from past trauma.

Overall, though, I highly recommend this if you want something cute, sweet, sapphic, and cozy.

This book is so incredibly endearing and made me feel so warm and fuzzy inside. It has the feel of classic whimsical fantasies, but it's also so incredibly queer.

Kayla Cottingham is a master at writing witches and curses and magical boat road trips and cat familiars and magic.

Truly lovely. The magic system was unique and fun. I really enjoy experiencing the scents of others' magic and curses with Delilah. I would also like to find out how I can get my own Cinnabar. I need him.

Sapphic YA Beauty and the Beast road trip with three cursed seventeen year old witches, two boring 25 year old staff members, and a mute immortal witch. Break your curse or die trying (or lose your magic or live forever in silence or become a monster). It's hard out there for a witch.

The story was very cute! A little more towards the lower end of YA, minus one use of the f word as profanity. Some of the characters and relationships could have been more fleshed out and there was some clunky info dumping at times, but all in all, this was a quick, easy read about magical teens with bad parent(s) who find love and choose their own families.

Thank you to NetGalley, Kayla Cottingham, and the publishers for allowing me access to the e-Arc.

4.5 stars

I was definitely intrigued to read this book because of it being a queer fantasy romance with witchy vibes. I mean if that doesn’t convince you to read then maybe the found family vibes. I really enjoyed this story. I thought that it was unique that the main characters all had curses that needed to be broken. The fact that Delilah the main witch character could smell curses was so interesting.

I highly recommend it!

I had a genuinely fun time reading this book. It falls somewhere between a cozy fantasy and a National-Treasure style mystery. Delilah's coming-of-age adventure might be set in a world of magic, mysteries, and curses, but her experiences are ones that we can all relate to. I loved seeing how accepting this world was of queer relationships and how that acceptance and the changing times played into particular subplots. All-in-all, its a fun, easy-to-read, and heartwarming story showing us what it means to be family. 3.5 stars, rounded up to four.