Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic by Breanne Randall

42 reviews

gracenevitt's review against another edition

3.75

really cute book!! didn't necessarily expect the christian elements in it because it's a book about a family with witchy magic?? it didn't bother me much though bc it wasn't mentioned overly much. in general, it was a little slow and repetitive at times, but the vibes were adorable + cozy as heck. I also LOVED the fact that there was a recipe at the end of each chapter! I ended up saving over half of them hehe

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Cancer, Death, and Suicide attempt

macykey's review against another edition

emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I didn’t hate it, it obviously was compelling enough to keep me reading until I finished it. But there felt like too many storylines were crammed into this book that none of them were able to be fleshed out very well. It also could’ve used another round or two of editing. There was punctuation where it didn’t need to be (and I’m not talking about a comma instead of a semicolon, I’m talking quotations where no one is speaking), there were passages where the person who was supposed to be speaking wasn’t actually the person named on the page. There were a few sentences that I thought were really beautiful, but other than that, this felt more like a class project than anything else. I actually feel like Seth’s story would’ve made a more compelling book. There is room for a sequel to be made based on how the book ended, but if the conflicts are spin offs of conflicts from this book then I’m good. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Abandonment

Moderate: Cancer

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

kerryamchugh's review against another edition

adventurous dark lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness and Abandonment

textappeal's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Abandonment

Minor: Murder

lizthereader92's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.5

Trigger warning for sure. I don’t know if this was maybe just my print run but the editing wasn’t great. There were a lot of typos and even the wrong character listed as speaking in a scene. This just wasn’t what I pictured for a cozy read. I wanted to love this book but in the end I couldn’t.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Grief, Death, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Abandonment, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

anntharai's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Grief, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Abandonment, and Death of parent

ehoustonmyatt's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Abandonment, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Infertility, Mental illness, Abandonment, Drug use, Addiction, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Terminal illness

Hey, no dogs or cats die so I guess that’s one win!

amyteurhour's review against another edition

1.0

Content warning: cancer, abandonment, rape, infidelity, toxic relationship, murder

This was annoying. The mystery/curse was intriguing, but not intriguing enough that I was willing to get through the whole book. The overuse of "pissant" and "shit ass" was also annoying and not an adorable quirk (like what I think the author was trying to go for). This is compared to Practical Magic, and though I've only read a little of PM, I would agree, in that the sexual assault is just super casually mentioned and then buried in boring nonsense. To be honest, I got further than I expected because I've been in between audiobooks and didn't have any I wanted to start on my shelf, so I just kept defaulting to this when I was doing chores around the house. 

I also didn't love the audiobook, finding the narration to be either very flat and boring, or super grating depending on the character. I ended up skipping the recipes at the end of each chapter because I was tired of the voice and just wanted to be done with the book. But this book is so long for seemingly no reason. 

Stopped at ch 11 (7:37:15). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Toxic relationship, Murder, Abandonment, Infidelity, and Cancer

lawmixitup's review against another edition

hopeful mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Started reading it because a review said if you like Practical Magic you would like this.  It is like Practical Magic but it overly relies on the miscommunication/ lack of communication tropes that just made it infuriating to me. The ending also makes less sense the more you think about it. Overall it's fine but not more than that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Cancer, and Grief

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Cursing and Rape

ulviyyask's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment

Moderate: Death and Terminal illness