Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic by Breanne Randall

43 reviews

keeperkaylab's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
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lectricefeministe's review against another edition

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emotional funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

5.0

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marissaumble's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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laurenbrodehl's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Very slow. Had interesting concepts, but told too slow and cheesy.
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touchegiantsquid's review against another edition

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dark emotional lighthearted slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

The thing that bothered me the most was the main character's suicide attempt led to her love confessing his feelings to her.

Was it just me or did it feel like she and her twin brother had too much sexual tension? Maybe it just didn't sound like different characters had different enough voices.

I was surprised her best friend referred to her as cariño - I thought you'd only use the masculine suffix for people with masculine identities.
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celestepaed's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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morebookspls's review against another edition

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lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

It’s a hallmark movie but with witches who also go to church. I enjoyed the book more than the audiobook but it’s not my favorite.
The love interest being engaged is a huge pet peeve of mine. It felt so unnecessary to the story
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anntharai's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Cried. Twice. Amazing storytelling. 
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itschelseaw's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I think the marketing of this book kind of ruined it for me. It was marketed as a mix of Gilmore Girls and Practical Magic, and because of that I saw just how much was inspired by Practical Magic and just how lacking it was in comparison to Gilmore Girls.
Gigi killing Florence’s boyfriend to save her. All of the Revelare’s magic having a curse associated with it. The curse that keeps Sadie from looking for love!! Like!
It became really difficult for me to see it as a truly original story; it felt like a semi-fan fic of PM that reimagined things slightly? And also weirdly like a cookbook?
It felt like this book was trying to do too much at the detriment of the story and building up the characters.
All of the aunts and uncles felt like caricatures rather than characters worth investing in. Sadie was very much caught up in her own head (fair) but that kept her from actually connecting with people, including her twin.
Her immediate reaction to Seth telling her his magic was just the proof he needed for exactly why he didn’t tell her before. She wasn’t good at listening to others, but blamed it on wanting to keep her magic.
I had been so excited to read this one, only to feel let down by the chaos of the story. It also seems like it’s setting things up for a sequel that I will not be reading!
Edit: I’ve seen other reviewers say this was both under AND overwritten and honestly YES. That’s EXACTLY it. It was too much and not enough and both of them were in exactly the wrong ways.
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ehoustonmyatt's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

This had potential to be so fun, even with darker themes. It, instead, focused on things that weren’t important and whizzed past the reveals that were supposed to be big. The Bethany of it all was very stereotypical and predictable, the love interest sucked, and it dropped some big dark themes too casually and not very thoughtfully. Also, the diversity included seemed like a performative afterthought. 

It’s sold as a “cozy” read that feels like Gilmore Girls meets Practical Magic but it didn’t deliver any of that.
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