The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic

The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic was published in 2023. It is Breanne Randall’s debut novel. The novel’s setting in the fictional California town of Poppy Meadows is inspired by Randall’s own hometown in rural Northern California. Centering on the magical Revelare family, the novel includes elements of contemporary fantasy, romance, magical realism, and recipe book. The protagonist, Sadie, runs a café with her grandmother, Gigi, who dies of cancer during the novel. Sadie has the power to imbue food with magic, but is cursed with heartbreak. Randall develops themes of The Danger of Guarding Against Heartbreak, Familial Grief and Coping with Terminal Illness, and Second Chances. It was a New York Times and USA Today bestseller.

This guide refers to the 2023 Alcove Press edition.

Content Warning: This guide refers to terminal illness, mental illness, and attempted suicide.

Plot Summary

Sadie Revelare runs a café that serves a selection of magical baked goods in the small town of Poppy Meadows. Cooking and baking are central to the plot of the novel, and each chapter is followed by an interlude that contains a related recipe. The Revelares are one of seven magical families that originally founded the town. Sadie lives with her grandmother, Gigi. Her twin brother, Seth, left town a year earlier without explanation, and Sadie remains angry over this departure. Sadie talks with her grandmother and her best friend, Raquel, about her curse. All Revelares have a curse along with their magic, and Sadie’s is that she will experience four heartbreaks that threaten to take away her magic. Committed to protecting herself from heartbreak, Sadie is upset to learn that her first love (and first heartbreak), Jacob (Jake) McNealy, has returned to Poppy Meadows to work at the fire department.

Gigi tells Sadie she has been diagnosed with stage IV cancer. While Gigi has accepted this news, Sadie plans to use magic to save her grandmother.

Jake comes into the café, and Gigi invites him to a family dinner. Sadie and Jake go on a walk, and he seems to want to tell her something. The attraction between Jake and Sadie is still strong, and they are about to kiss when Sadie’s phone rings: It is Seth telling her that Gigi has fallen and they’re on their way to the hospital. Gigi’s injuries aren’t serious, and they bring her home. Knowing she will die of cancer soon, she tells Seth and Sadie about their past. Their mother, Florence, had been taken advantage of by their father, Julian. Gigi killed Julian to protect the twins, then magically tied her own life to theirs to protect them. Gigi tells Sadie and Seth that there is a “life debt,” and after her death they will need to find a way to satisfy it, or one of them will be at risk of dying.

Gigi’s children—Kay, Anna, Tava, and Brian—arrive. The only one missing is Florence, Seth and Sadie’s mother, who is cursed to stay away as long as Gigi lives. Sadie collects a powerful flower, Mount Diablo buckwheat, and enacts the spell she hopes will save Gigi. Seth and Sadie give it to Gigi, and she says that she feels better but that it will only delay her inevitable death. Sections of Sadie’s garden repeatedly die, and she sees a presence at the edge of the woods. She worries that a malevolent spirit is hovering nearby. Later in the novel, she realizes that her own panic is causing the garden to die, and the presence is her grandfather, who is waiting for Gigi to join him in death.

Sadie visits Jake, and he tells her what he has been meaning to tell her: that he is engaged to a woman named Bethany, who is pregnant. He says Bethany will be arriving to join him soon, but he wanted to enjoy the time with Sadie and try to become friends before that happened.

Gigi tells Sadie and Seth that they’ll have until the first full moon after her death to satisfy the life debt, and that their mother will return. Gigi dies, surrounded by her family. The family all mourn differently, but together. Sadie finds a box of letters from Gigi to every family member. Her letter tells her that she can satisfy the life debt and save Seth by sacrificing who she is.

Seth and Sadie’s mother, Florence, returns. She expresses regret about her mistakes and tells Seth and Sadie she will help them figure out what to do about the life debt. Extended family members arrive for Gigi’s memorial dinner. Sadie and Seth seek advice from the other families in town and attempt several spells to satisfy the life debt, but nothing works. Sadie thinks about Gigi’s suggestion of sacrifice and begins drinking a tea made from poison cherries, but Seth, who is not present when she drinks the tea, senses that something is wrong and rushes over to administer the antidote and save her life.

Sadie visits Bethany, bringing a recipe for scones that promote openness and honesty. Under the influence of the scones, Bethany tells Sadie that she isn’t really pregnant and only said she was to stop Jake from leaving her. Sadie finally realizes that Gigi’s letter means that she needs to sacrifice her magic, not her life. Before her magic is gone, she makes a pie with an ingredient that causes justice and gives it to Jake and Bethany in the hope that he’ll realize the pregnancy is a ruse.

They decide to enact the ritual on the night of the full moon, which is also the town’s Fall Festival. At the festival, Jake arrives and tells Sadie that Bethany faked the pregnancy. They kiss and decide to be together. Sadie, Florence, Seth, and the rest of the family enact the ritual. It works: Seth’s life is saved and Sadie loses her magic. The novel ends ambiguously with a note from Florence, who tells the twins she is going to try to find a way to restore Sadie’s magic.