The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic

Breanne Randall. Contemporary romance/witchcraft.

I wanted to like this book: a small town family with cozy magic, a handsome neighbor, and recipes at the end of each chapter? Maybe an Alice Hoffman vibe with warm croissant on the side? Yes please! The basic summary is, Sadie is a baker whose magic comes with a curse of four heartbreaks and she struggles with family secrets while her grandmother dies. Sounds straightforward. But right from the beginning, I needed more exposition. There is a whole backstory of founding families and different magical abilities and a multitude of extended characters who have too many lines but none of that is laid out for us in a cohesive manner. I couldn't figure out how old Sadie was for several chapters - she alternates between a teenaged and a middle-aged voice - until finally I decided if Sadie is an accomplished baker and small business owner with a romantic breakup at least ten years in the past, she must be in her very late 20s or more likely her 30s . Then Sadie's mom Florence shows up on the scene with a 7-year-old daughter and I have to recalculate everyone's ages...I guess if Florence was quite young when she gave birth to Sadie and her twin, and they are now in their 30s, Florence could conceivably be in her very early 50s after giving birth to Sage in her mid-40s but why would you put your reader in a position of having to unravel that twisty thread? By the way...I keep rewriting this review, trying to explain why I was so disappointed in the book and why I am taking more time than necessary on a lovely Saturday afternoon to gripe. I think because there was a whole world available to us with the magic and herbs and recipes and mysteries and ghosts but they were left unexplained. Flat. What a waste.