The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic

A Novel

De: Breanne Randall

Narrado por: Laura Horowitz

For fans of Practical Magic and Gilmore Girls, The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic is a debut novel that explores the shields we build around our hearts to retain our own magic.

Sadie Revelare has always believed that the curse of four heartbreaks that accompanies her magic would be worth the price. But when her grandmother is diagnosed with cancer with only weeks to live, and her first heartbreak, Jake McNealy, returns to town after a decade, her carefully structured life begins to unravel.

With the news of their grandmother’s impending death, Sadie’s estranged twin brother Seth returns to town, bringing with him deeply buried family secrets that threaten to tear Sadie’s world apart. Their grandmother has been the backbone of the family for generations, and with her death, Sadie isn’t sure she’ll have the strength to keep the family, and her magic, together.

As feelings for Jake begin to rekindle, and her grandmother growing sicker by the day, Sadie faces the last of her heartbreaks, and she has to decide: is love more important than magic?

Listeners who love the magic of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake and the sense of community found in The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches will enjoy this warm, witchy novel.

©2023 Breanne Randall (P)2023 Blackstone Publishing

I want to be apart of this family!

Super cozy and just all around a wholesome book that pairs perfectly with this chilly autumn season right now. I loved every second of it!

Met my witchy itch

After reading the secret society for irregular witches I was desperate for another comforting and cozy witchy story.
I made it all the way through, and I quite liked parts of the book (the baking, the main female lead and the love story) however I really struggled to like or root for the grandmother and the brother characters - I felt like he was unbearably negative and whiny. I also felt like there were too many dramatic storylines happening at once.
All in all a successful magic world - i would love to see this author write a paired down version in the same genre.

A bit of a slug to get through

I felt that the story had potential but kept dragging on and I got pretty tired of the protagonist’s inner voice. Finally finished it.

Great Autumn Read

Very well written. Some of the descriptions of scenes were so in-depth that you were immersed in the character's pain and loss. Beautiful familial sacrifice. Great narration with good character inflection and change without sounding cheesy. Overall thoroughly enjoyable.

Magical and cozy

This book was a perfect fall tale. You meet these cozy characters, follow them on their journey and somehow love them even more by the end. Bonus, you get recipes to try too.

It’s an ok listen

I thought the characters were immature or it may have been the performance. Most were whiny.

Not great

So many elements of this story felt painfully predicable and cheesy. An eye-roller of a story that left blatant loose ends that made me really angry at some points. Character development was shallow at best…honestly some of the plot lines made no sense at all. Kinda infuriating. Frustrating to get through.

The narration was bland and lacked appropriate depth and emotion. At some points I wasn’t sure if it was the writing or the narration that distracted me from enjoying the book.

Overall, pretty bad.

love!!!

Enchanting story with great narration. I cant imagine anyone reading this book and not falling in love with it.

What a delicious and wonderfully witchy treat!

The story for me is really great. A lot of similarities between the characters and things that have happened to me, so I liked that. It was like having my great grandmother back for a moment and truly it’s a wonderful story and I highly recommend this book and its author! I can’t wait to hear and read more from her!!

Great narrator! Predictable story

I enjoyed this story, but the second half was really predictable. I felt like I guessed everything and I was just waiting for the book to catch up. Still a sweet story.