About the Book:
From the New York Times bestselling author of My Dearest Darkest comes a sapphic fantasy adventure about a teen witch who must complete her magical training by breaking a powerful family’s curse. But her own affliction—to never find true love—gets in the way when she falls for the girl she’s trying to save.
Magic is in Delilah Bea’s blood. Her absentee father is the world’s most famous cursebreaker, while all the women in her family are fated to never find true love. So when Delilah graduates her magical training and must complete her Calling, she has the perfect task in mind—to break the Bea family curse.
But Delilah’s Calling is hijacked by Kieran Pelumbra, a member of the wealthiest and most powerful family in the country, and breaking his curse suddenly becomes her official assignment. Every generation, a pair of Pelumbra twins are doomed, with one twin draining the other of their life and magic. Each day, Kieran grows weaker while Briar gets closer to…something monstrous.
As Delilah and the twins set out on their quest, they quickly realize that breaking the Pelumbra curse isn’t going to be simple. For one, the Pelumbra family doesn’t actually want their curse broken—and they’ve sent hunters after them to ensure they fail. Secondly…it’s Briar. There’s just something about her that gets under Delilah’s skin and makes her want to kiss the perpetually grumpy look off her face. But with time running out for the twins and Delilah’s own curse getting in the way, they may not stand a chance of finding their Happily Ever After.
Content Warning: gore and violence, child abuse (off-page), parental abandonment, PTSD
My Review:
This book is a wild, fun, ride, full of queer love stories, magic, mayhem, and an honest look at the power of found family versus blood relatives. I wasn’t 100% sure what I was getting into when I picked up my ARC of Practical Rules for Curses Witches, but I quickly knew two things: I loved Delilah Bea, and this book wasn’t going to be what I expected. My presuposition that Delilah and Kieran would be the ones to fall in love was quickly eliminated, and I was excited to see what happened next.
For a book where one of the curses is definitely related specifically to falling (and staying) in love, I really found the love stories to be important, but weirdly not central to the story. Sure, there was a reason Delilah was trying to break the Bea family curse, but the real story wasn’t about romantic love as much as it was about finding your people – finding the ones that make you believe in love and believe in yourself again. And to that end, this book is a charming tale!
I loved all the secondary characters, and was pleasantly surprised when a couple of them turned out to be even more crucial to the story than I had originally thought. For someone who thinks they can guess books pretty easily, this one constantly had me surprised in the best possible ways.
4.5/5 stars
Where to Buy/Get More Information
Goodreads Amazon Barnes & Noble IndieBound
About the Author:
Kayla Cottingham (she/they) is a YA author and librarian. Her first book, My Dearest Darkest, was a New York Times and Publisher’s Weekly bestseller. Originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, Kayla lives in Boston where she loves to go hiking in the woods, play RPGs, and snuggle on the couch with her ridiculously large black cat, Squid.
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