Review: Practical Rules for Cursed Witches by Kayla Cottingham

Practical Rules for Cursed Witches
by Kayla Cottingham

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Cozy Fantasy Romance
Age Category: Young Adult
Type of romance: f/f

Blurb:
From the New York Times bestselling author of My Dearest Darkest comes a cozy fantasy romance 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 sets out to complete her magical Calling and gain her full powers as a witch, she has the perfect task in mind—breaking the Bea family curse.

But Delilah’s Calling is hijacked by Kieran Pelumbra, the spoiled son of the most powerful family in the country, and breaking his curse suddenly becomes her official assignment. Every generation, a pair of Pelumbra twins is doomed, with one twin draining the other of their life and magic. Kieran grows weaker while his sister, Briar, becomes…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 thing, the rest of the Pelumbra family doesn’t actually want their curse broken—and they’ve sent hunters after the trio to ensure they fail. For another, something about Briar gets under Delilah’s skin, distracting her and making her want to kiss the perpetually grumpy look off her face. But with time running out for the twins and Delilah’s own true love curse getting in the way, they may not stand a chance of finding their happily ever after.

My Review

When I saw this book I knew I had to read it, it sounded exactly like the type of book I enjoy and that turned out to be true. I really love the cozy fantasy genre and this one just sounded great. I decided to get the audio format and started it almost right away. I really enjoyed Practical Rules for Cursed Witches. It follows witch Delilah who is setting off on her Calling, a six month quest she has to complete to be allowed to stay a witch and keep her magic. Except someone hijacks her Calling and now she has to break a tricky family curse instead of her own curse.

This book has that nice cozy fantasy vibe that I like, despite the dangers and struggles I knew things would be alright. I liked the baking scenes and the magic. As well as the found family theme. I also liked the adventurous vibe this book had, Delilah and the rest of the characters travel from city to city in aeroship and land in all sorts of trouble and adventure along the way while trying to break the curse.

I also appreciate how despite the cozy vibes it also touches upon some heavier topics, the twins both have childhood trauma and my heart broke for what they had both been through and how they had been treated by their family. This isn’t the focus of the book, but it’s still very clearly there and part of the story. Delilah has never know her father and is dealing with a curse. And some of the side character also have some tough things they either deal with or had to deal with. I love this balance of cozy vibes while also touching on some heavier topics.

I liked reading about Delilah and how she is determined to break the twins curse. It made sense she is a bit peeved when her Calling is hijacked, but I also liked how she quickly becomes friends with Kieran and wants to break his curse. I wasn’t sure I was going to like Briar at first as she’s very prickly, but she quickly became more likable and once I found out about her past her behavior made much more sense. I liked the side characters as well and how as the story progressed Delilah grows closer to them and find out more about them.

I liked the slow burn romance between Delilah and Briar. Especially the end was so well done when the depth of their feelings really can be felt. They definitely have some struggles to overcome along the way. I liked seeing them grow closer and I loved how they loved each other for who they are.

The plot kept my attention and I liked learning more about the curses and how they work. The magic was pretty interesting too and I liked the world building. It’s not a typical medieval fantasy world, instead there are cars, telephones, radios and aeroships. I liked how this gave the book a different vibe than most fantasy settings. The magic was integral enough to the story and it felt like part of the book. I liked how the mentions of past events made it feel this world had history and depth. The descriptions have enough detail I could easily imagine how everything looked like.

I liked the narrator and easily got into the audiobook. I liked the different voices for the characters and how I could always easily tell who was speaking. I felt like the narrator did the different emotional tones for the various scenes really well too without it feeling overdone. It was a joy listening to this book.

To summarize: I really enjoyed this book. I really liked the cozy fantasy adventurous vibe of the book and how it also touches upon some heavier topic. It also has a nice done found family vibe and I liked reading about all the characters and getting to know them better as the story progresses. I wasn’t sure whether I was going to like Briar at first, but she grew more likable soon and her behavior made sense once you know about her past. The romance was a nicely done slow burn and I liked seeing them grow closer, there are some great scenes featuring them and especially toward the end I could really feel the depth of their feelings. The world building feels fresh as it doesn’t have the typical medieval fantasy setting, but instead a slightly more modern one. I liked the unique touches and the descriptions. The history also added depth to the world building and the magic and curses were interesting to read about. The narrator was pleasant to listen to and I liked how she did the different voices and emotional tones.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– Audible
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.