"Really frustrated and upset that the author doesn't take the time to mention that some of the herbs used in these tea blends could cause health complications. Holy basil is fine so long as you aren't currently pregnant or looking to become pregnant, or if you are on blood thinners. I'm so sick of seeing people publish books without any consideration of the serious health effects they are carelessly suggesting. Herbs are medicine, and being aware that different people in different situations could become very ill or even cause death is something that should not be taken lightly when publishing a book."

"this audiobook will be played on a loop when i get sent to hell. guaranteed."

"Extremely disappointed with this one. Made out to be a a cozy, delightful Gilmore Girls/Practical Magic combo which was a big stretch, but it ended up being dark and messy both in plot and writing. The author has stated they had over 500 rejections of this book before it was accepted and honestly, there’s a reason for that!!! Here are my issues:

- Practical Magic in the sense of the magic portion, but the only Gilmore Girls vibe was they live in a small town where everyone knows each other. With that, you’re thinking this takes place somewhere like New England or maybe North Carolina� it takes place in California. Not only that, but there’s lots of mentions of just how cold the weather is, so it’s not even stated if it’s in northern California.

- Long chapters for absolutely no reason. I read this on my Kindle and truly some of these chapters were 30 minutes long. Was there no editor editing this and saying “I think we can cut this chapter short here and go into the next one.�

- Absolutely bizarre combo of Christianity and magic in this. The main character goes to a Christian church, some verses are mentioned but the connection isn't explained. It was really weird. At one point the characters specifically say to not call them witches, but they use magic?? They say “Magic doesn’t mean witches.� That's literally what a witch is, but ok. This book just had really weird conservative energy and Christian ideology for that alone I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone.

- Sadie sucked. She’s 28 and has the emotional maturity of a teenager. Angry at people for leaving her in their small town, but fails to remember that people have agency over their own lives. This girl is truly morally questionable. She steals her love interest’s dog and refuses to give him back. Uses truth-telling recipes on people without their consent. The biggest “woe is me� character.

- The writing truly was cringe at times. There was an overuse of similes that truly did not make any sense, at one point I started highlighting them.

“the summer heat cocooning them like a secret�
“Tava’s tiered skirt rustled like whispered secrets.�
“it smelled like a promise�
“everything she ever saw as true was slipping through her fingers like starlight.�
“Her words were buoyant and calm, and Sadie turned them over in her mind like a sand dollar you find on the beach.�

Other things described like “the gingersnap wind� or “her stomach was a raging sea of angry lightning bugs.� It was like the writer was trying to be poetic, but was putting things together that just didn’t have any connection to make the simile make sense.

And the overuse of “shit ass� and “pissant� was so annoying and cringe.

There were very cringe millennial pop culture references like Harry Potter and Frozen. I highlighted “She felt like Elsa. Control it. Conceal. Don’t feel.� CRINGE.

- Did not care about Sadie and Jake’s romance. There wasn’t enough context to their romance from ten years ago for me to care whether they got back together or not. Also, she hadn’t seen him in TEN YEARS and it takes nothing for them to rekindle. After ten years this man may as well be a stranger to you.

- Really bizarre character behavior. Sadie’s brother Seth comes back after being gone for a year and she’s absolutely pissed at him, but soon enough they’re buddy-buddy again. Their mom comes back after being gone THEIR ENTIRE LIVES and soon enough it’s all “honey� and “sugar� and sharing feelings with each other. It was bizarre. Other bizarre behavior, Sadie literally steals Jake’s dog and refuses to give him back.

- VERY casual mentions of very serious topics (not in order). First is the mention of r*pe resulting in Sadie and Seth’s existence. It was so casual that it caught me off guard. It’s then later used in a victim-blaming moment between Sadie and her mom. Second, was an attempted s*ic*de that one, came out of absolutely nowhere, and two, was so casual and resolved in the one incredibly long chapter it was in. Third, was a fake pregnancy that is (very problematic) revealed because Sadie feeds the girl a pie with an ingredient that encourages truth telling. You mean to tell me Sadie just accidentally put too much of that ingredient in it? Fourth, literal murder that’s just like “oh well, that happened I guess.� Fifth, a mention of the mom getting pregnant by a random man again for what exactly?! ANYWAYS, these were so casual and made me so uncomfortable. How are you marketing this as a cozy book when NONE OF THESE TOPICS ARE COZY?!

- So many different plots in this book. A curse, a grandma dying, a love interest back in town, potential ominous ghost, family problems. Stop half-assing (in this case, quarter-assing) many things and instead whole-ass one to two things, please, I’m begging.

- Mentions of mental health, therapy, grief counseling, but it felt really forced and put in there to check a box. A character’s bipolar disorder is discussed for seemingly no reason. And the therapy/grief counseling mentions felt like too little too late after the situations that transpired.

ANYWAYS, I’m sure I have more problems with this book that I’m forgetting at the moment because my brain is already working to block this book out of my memory. This book was marketed entirely wrong."