ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

A girl tries writing love spells for her school's marketing project...

What could possibly go wrong?

A lot, that's for sure.

And I definitely wanted to read about it as soon as I finished reading the blurb.

I enjoyed from the start. As soon as I started reading I knew that I would love the story and the plot. It was a nice change from the heavy and emotional reads I've been getting into recently. The story follows Rowan, a schoolgirl with a mother who communicates with ghosts and other spirits. Rowan has always shied away from her mum's celebrity status within the town, simply wanting to blend into the walls and introvert in peace, but as soon as her and her worst enemy, Abby, start working together on a marketing project in class, her status skyrockets as people start approaching her for some spell work to get their crush to like them. But as Rowan soon finds out, magic has a way to twist and turn and not everything goes the way you might've planned it.

This book was the good kind of chaos. Even from the blurb itself, you knew it would go down a topsy-turvy path. Although being a light hearted read as I mentioned earlier, it did go into deep topics and issues such as abuse, sexual assault and getting over grief and loss. I loved how that was explored through Rowan's perspective as we got to see how something that starts off as harmless and fun can end up changing the lives of the people around you for the worst. Her character developed over the course of the novel, making her a wiser decision maker and a better friend in general. I think I liked the ending the most, although it wasn't necessarily the ending I expected. I liked how the overall message of the book was kindness and to always put people over profit, a message that was seemingly lost with Abby's character. Although she, at first, acted like a stereotypical Disney villain, I loved how her character was developed on to show something more than what she let on. Abby had reasons to do the things that she did which brought along a depth to this book that was a nice element to have.

My one issue was the infatuation between Luca and Rowan. I was going to rate this much lower than my current rating for how that relationship panned out. That being said, I did like how it ended up and how reasons for said infatuation were justified. Don't get me wrong, I did like their relationship overall but more so towards the end than when Rowan first laid eyes on Luca. I hated the fact that she changed her whole appearance to have a certain sex appeal to a boy she only just had a conversation with even though he said he liked her just the way she was. That infuriated me but I did like how Luca went about it and thought him very mature for wanting to take things slow.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book. It was a light-hearted book that touched on many issues and themes that I think would resonate with all sorts of readers. Although being marketed as YA, I think this book is more towards the middle-older end of the genre (maybe 15+) since it does contain a few sexual references and mentions (at times) abuse.

ACTUAL RATING: 3.9 STARS

Wowww.. This book was such a cutefest.. A fun YA Novel revolving around love and friendship and the consequences of our actions and intentions.. It had a very strong and powerful message of being kind and believing in one self that it sucked me in all hearts..
The narrative was fun and breazy and cute, a whole hearts and soul kinda love story with a bit of Magic.. But again none of the characters really stood out for me.. They were pretty much stereotypical and i didn't really like them all till the ending where it was explained anyway..
My Rating : 4/5

It was fairly difficult for me to focus on the book. I just didn't feel as connected as I'd like with the characters.

It is a while since I have read any YA books but I loved the cover and the title sounded interesting. The book itself reminded me of "The Secret Circle vs The Craft" it is definitely full of that high school vibe, and the popular kids and the nerdy weird ones. Rowan our MC is definitely in the latter group according to the rest of the school, she lives with her Mother in a rambling old  house, where her Mother careers revolves around the paranormal. Her and her gay best friend Ethan stand out from the crowd, but stay close together until Rowan has to work along side her nemesis Abby on a school project and all number of things start happening, and she realises magic might actually be real and it shouldn't be taken lightly.

Love Spells and Other Disasters is a fun, entertaining read, which centres around magic the paranormal and all your normal high school troubles. I haven't read anything by the author previously but I would definitely pick up her books in future I really enjoyed it. I think the addition of Rowans Mother and her continued efforts to prove the paranormal exists and in deed her dead husband kept the book from feeling too young adult which kept me invested. The characters were all likeable even Abby, once the author explained to us why she acted the way she did for most of the book.

I am sure any fans of the books/films I have mention above would love this.

Thank you to Netgalley and Entangled: Teen for giving me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My rating scale
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Absolutely loved it! Gave me a warm fuzzy feeling or made me cry. And took me on an emotional rollercoaster.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Really liked it. Will read more by the author and other books in the series.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ - It was just okay, didn’t move me, but don’t feel like I wasted me time reading it either.
⭐️⭐️ - Didn’t like this book and probably won’t read other in the series.
⭐️ - I did not care for this book at all and feel like I wasted my time reading it

Once upon a time, we've all had a crush.  Whether it was the boy/girl next door, the class jock, the study body president, or someone that flew under the radar, we've all had our hearts twisted in knots over the perfect guy/girl.  In the moment, we would've given anything for them to notice us, pay attention to us, heck...fall in LIKE with us...and the same goes in this story.  So is a love, or rather crush, spell that far out of reach?  What about when you see the thoughts thought, the desires written...start to come true?  Coincidence?  Or perhaps something more?  I wish I may, I wish I might...

It IS February, after all, so it's about time to break out all the books on love, about love, even somehow tethered to the idea of it, whether it be in the moment or forever...and this book fits the bill perfectly!  He's not looking for love, but has always wanted to approach her.  She's not looking for pretty much anything, and yet the sparks flying are too hot to ignore.  Their friends have their own agendas, as do their frenemies, but some things won't be denied.  Problem is, things have been cast in such a way that one can't help but wonder when realization is going to dawn.  I mean, it's one thing to wish for something, or rather someone, but to magically influence their attachment...I don't know about you, but I've seen one too many 90's teen witch movies to not realize SOMETHING will come of all this, and it won't be pretty.  It doesn't mean they won't survive the fallout...but it does mean some hearts are gonna get bruised along the way.  Let's just hope they don't break beyond repair.

Overall, I enjoyed the story.  Her unexpected abilities discovered by chance, the understanding that there is a responsibility built into it, but the teenage approach of "what could go wrong', totally felt right for the book.  I definitely was wondering about her Luca hookup...not that I was doubting our girl was worthy, but the timing was oh-so-convenient and the speed at which they achieved item status was faster than a speeding bullet.  I adored her bestie Ethan and all his prowess (so fierce!), cringed at her newly forged connection with Abby because really, how could that end well, and cheered when the sweet moments came about unexpectedly (way to go Luca for acting the gentleman!).  It was a teen story with teens acting like...well, teens...with a heathy dose of magical possibility blended in.  What more could you ask for?

Love Spells and Other Disasters is a cute, fun YA contemporary - with a pretty big magical element mixed in. In this book we follow Rowan Marshall, who has never believed in magic, despite her mother apparently being pretty much surrounded by it. So when she is paired up with her 'worst enemy' for a project, and they decided to sell crush spells, Rowan thinks no more of it. 
However, the crush spells work, and their project is going swimmingly. Rowan even starts gaining the attention of what has to be the dream guy. Everything seems to be going so well.. until it doesn't, and Rowan starts realizing that dabbling in magic might not have been the best decision. 

This book was fun. That is the strongest point of it. I had a lot of fun while reading it. The plot is definitely unique and it succeeded in grabbing my attention very quickly. It's written in a way that keeps the reader engaged, and while the plot is very predictable at times, I was still excited to find out where things would go as I kept reading. 

As for the characters... pretty much none of them stood out to me, except Ethan. We stan Ethan. Rowan was a little bit of a stereotypical YA protagonist (which I'll get back to in like 2 seconds). The love interest Luca, was pretty much the dream guy. He was great, but at no point did I manage to feel a connection to him, nowhere in the book did I find myself really invested when it came to him.. which wasn't great. Rowans mom really annoyed me. Towards the end things are explained more and things from the start of the book does start making sense.. But I'm tired of seeing parents who are basically there but not really there, you know? As for the rest of the side-characters... stereotypical, pretty much. A lot of the book centers around Rowan suddenly being part of the popular group of kids, and these characters are all pretty much standard popular-kid characters. There's nothing more to say honestly. 

Right from the start it becomes very apparent that our main character Rowan is one of the token 'not-like-other-girls' main characters. She's not one of the popular girls, she's sort of an outcast because everyone thinks her mom has lost it.. And of course, her not being like other girls, gives her the right to look down on other girls for liking other things than she does. Luca, her love interest, even says so. TWICE. He outright says 'you're not like other girls'. Just please don't. Stop it. Thank you. I'm just very tired of that narrative. Not my favourite. 

This book was also very insta-lovey. There is a sort of explanation for the instalove, which I can't go into because it would be a major spoiler. That definitely made me a little less mad at it, but I still did not love it. I just, get where it came from, I guess. That brings me to the fact that I did not feel any chemistry or connection, or any sort of feeling, between Rowan and Luca. Zero. The romance made no sense to me, even with the way everything unfolded towards the end. Still made zero sense to me. So while the romance was cute.. I didn't find myself enjoying it as much as I probably could've, had it been developed better. 
Besides that though.. it's very, VERY, cliché. So many clichés. Not gonna lie, some of the more cliché moments were very cute and I did not mind. But.. there were one too many. Maybe more than one. Probably like 6, at least. 

I would have loved for the magic element to be further explained. I think Angie Barrett set up the magic use in an interesting way, and definitely used it in a great way, but it was never explained. It just was. And then at the very end of the book, we get some sort of explanation as to why this magic is present. But it's still just.. there. There is no logical explanation. No reasoning. At the core, this is a contemporary. It deals more with the consequences of the magic use and also focuses more on other things than the magic. But I still would've liked for it to be explained better. Because the magic was very interesting.. it just didn't make any sense. 

I did like how things weren't fixed all quickly and nicely. There were costs for the main character, and she actually had to work for it. That being said, I would've loved it to be shown even more, not just told to us - mostly related to the magic again. Rowan had to fix the mess she made and there were consequences for her actions, but at the end of the day, it was fixed, and that was told to us.. not really shown. 

Overall, I didn't hate this book. But I didn't love it either. It was fun, but not something I am every going to go back to. Entertaining but not something that left any lasting impression on me.

Wow. I was really impressed with this book. First off, I am a sucker for YA romance books. This is unlike any other I have read...in an absolutely good way. The characters and storyline are unique and interesting. I loved every bit of it.

Love Spells and Other Disasters is such a cute and fun story. I really enjoyed it and it was the perfect mix of a contemporary story with a little realistic magic mixed in. 

After the unlikely duo of Rowan and Abby are partnered for a marketing project, they come up with a booth that sells crush spells. Things start getting a little weird when the spells Rowan writes actually work. 

I really liked Rowan. She is so comfortable with herself and that’s not saying she doesn’t have some insecurities. I think it’s the little things she doesn’t even realize. Like if she does a makeover she isn’t going to cut her hair because she likes it. She might dress differently for a party but she doesn’t throw out all her comfy clothes. Even as her friends and life might change a bit, she’s still Rowan.

I loved that Rowan’s mom is a ghost hunter. My FIL was actually a ghost hunter before he passed. He was part of a group that would go to houses for free to help ghosts move on. So I enjoyed having that be a part of her mom’s life. I also liked that they seemed to have a solid relationship. No relationship is perfect but even though Rowan is not a fan of her mother’s activities, she still supports her. 

I also love her relationship with her best friend, Ethan. I love a story that has some strong relationships already established. I think he reminds me of friends I had in high school so I had a fondness for him. 

I loved the plot! It’s one of those ones where you keep reading because, first you know things are going to go bad somehow and you want to know how. Then you keep reading because you want to know how they are going to get out of the situation. It is such a cute and unique idea as well. It is fast paced and engaging.

So if you are looking for something light and fun. This is a great read. Gives you those good vibes.

Love Spells and Other Disasters? Well, considering the story is about a love spell...I’m not even surprised there are many disasters that came with it. After all, it is a love spell, the spell that doesn’t last long and have too many negative side effects. In conclusion, don’t try doing love spells even though it was just for fun because you may never know it might work.

The whole story is just like any other YA-Contemporaries; there are obviously high school drama, instant attraction, silly crushes, getting humiliated in front of many students, friendship is being tested, everything was fine until later when one thing gone wrong and the rest of the disasters followed after that etc.

This was a cute read filled with love, magic and high school drama.

Rowan’s mother is famous for rehabilitating ghosts (she’s absolutely not a ghost hunter!) who believes in magic and spirits. Just don’t tell anyone (especially her mom) that Rowan doesn’t really believe in it. However, after she starts a project at school she begins to wonder if there are a lot of strange coincidences or if she may actually have the ability to write love spells.

This was a quick and entertaining read. Rowan has always preferred to be blend in with the crowd and doesn’t quite know how to feel when people start to notice her. Particularly Luca who is the former quarterback from the football team. They have more in common that Ro could have expected and are a sweet couple together. I love Ro’s best friend Ethan who embraces who he is and encourages Ro to do the same. This book felt like a typical coming of age story with many of the issues of high school we’d usually see with the addition of love spells which was certainly an entertaining complication.

“That’s not the way to build a relationship. It’s not true love to force something that was never meant to be. Love that is forced becomes warped and wrong. …You tried to make something happen that was never meant to be. You took away their freedom to choose.” 

This was another one of the ARCs I got from Netgalley a couple weeks ago and I loved it! It was a perfect read to get me into the Valentine’s day mood! Rowan is a plain jane and is only known in her high school for having a mom who is a well-known medium involved with magic and talking to spirits. Although Rowan despises anything that involves spells and magic, she is forced to write crush spells for her classmates when she is paired with the most popular girl in school, Abby for a business project. Rowan is okay with writing these silly spells until she realizes that they are actually working and people start asking for more permanent love spells from her. Throughout the novel, Rowan realizes that you can not force love on others, and that the best type of love is one that is natural. I really enjoyed the more magical aspect to this book, especially Rowan's mom and her unique profession. Although some of the situations are unlikely, I loved how we got to see how some of the characters were more than what they appeared on the outside, (like Abby wanting a crush spell from Rowan in order to try to get her divorced parents back together and Luca, one of the most popular football players in Rowan’s high school, falling in love with her because she is different). I also fell in love with this beautiful cover! Overall, I really enjoyed this cute YA read, especially because it wasn’t your typical romance and had a little bit more depth to it than typical YA romance books.

Love spells and other disasters? Well, considering the story is about a love spell…I’m not even surprised there are many disasters that came with it. After all, it is a love spell, the spell that doesn’t last long and have too many negative side effects. In conclusion, don’t try doing love spells even though it was just for fun because you may never know it might work.

The whole story is just like any other YA-Contemporaries; there are obviously high school drama, instant attraction, silly crushes, getting humiliated in front of many students, friendship is being tested, everything was fine until later when one thing gone wrong and the rest of the disasters followed after that etc.

It was too predictable and there are too many clichés, and yet I still enjoyed it. It was a nicely written story and even when some parts made me feel frustrated, I still ended up liking the book. What made the story unique is the fact that it has a few fantasy elements in it making it a magical realism story. I’ve read quite a few magical realism books before and now this one, so far all of it are captivating.

This is a story about a girl named Rowan who was paired up with her nemesis, Abby, and they had to figure out an interesting school project which happens to be selling crush and love spells. Surprisingly, the spells are working and everything seems fine until it all went wrong.

I find that the idea of selling crush and love spells for their school project is really smart, especially since Valentine’s day is just around the corner in the story. I had to give it to Abby for coming up with that brilliant idea but of course, majority of the credit had to go to Rowan since she was the only one who can make the spells worked. Since the first moment Abby introduced her idea for the project, I knew things will eventually go wrong sooner or later.

If you want to get an actual happiness or find true love, just be patient because true love will find you and it will bring you an actual happiness. Using a magical spell is just wrong on so many levels because you were interfering with someone else’s destiny aside from your own, and you were forcing someone to be with you even though they aren’t meant to be with you. And you wonder why it doesn’t last long? Well, you know the answer. It’s just a spell and the effect will runs out eventually. Nothing is permanent when it comes to magical spells. If you want to keep going, you will have to cast the spell again but this kind of magic is dangerous. I’m sure everyone knows that.

When those students got mad at Rowan because their crushes stop talking to them and start to ignore them, I was like, “what do y’all expect? Y’all know that the spell doesn’t make things permanent!” Even Rowan knew and Abby warned them already, yet nobody listened.

I was happy that the story flow so well since the beginning but was also nervous to witness the consequences and the fallout which happened later on. I was glad to see the story ended on a good note and everyone are happy. There will always be a way to reverse the spell and even though it comes with a lot of complications, it still worked.

Now let’s talk about the characters…

Rowan is the main protagonist of the story. She’s an introvert and is not part of the school’s popular crowds. When her magic spells are working, she started to gain a lot more popularity at school. Her life changed in a big way including getting into one of the popular crowds, have a caring and loving boyfriend who is the former school’s football player, and finding out that she was born with a magical ability.

She is an overall a character you can easily relate to but also the type of character you want to talk some sense into. She came off as a really nice girl, but I do admit she does have many flaws. She fought back whenever someone told her to do something she didn’t want to do but then she always surrender which was so frustrating. She was easily manipulated and blackmailed by her nemesis, I just want her to grow a backbone. She also can be a bit selfish and that was her only trait I disliked the most.

I get not wanting to undo the spell because she didn’t want to lose her boyfriend, but it wasn’t like she actually casted a spell on him. I was glad to see she came to her senses and did what she needed to do in order to prevent any more people from getting hurt due to the spell. A love spell is not something you should play with—be it for fun or not. It has dire consequences.

She learned her lesson and vow not to repeat her mistake again. Agreeing to Abby’s idea was her first mistake and continuing to create the spells for everyone even after she knew it worked was her second mistake. She should’ve stopped after the first two successful attempts but she didn’t and still knew what consequences she will face. She was brave for owning up her own mistakes and didn’t shy away from apologizing to others whom she hurt by doing the random act of kindness. That was the best way to make people forgive her and also that helps her to improve herself.

What I’m mostly shocked by was learning that she was born with an actual ability which her mother called as ‘magic.’ I should’ve known from the moment a few students confessed how the spells didn’t work when they did it themselves and that when Rowan did it, it worked. Sure, I was wondering but I brushed it off and then…I was shocked after learning the truth. Still, that was really interesting delving into the past to learn everything about how she got her ability. I was really invested during that part. It was a really cool explanation and made more sense, it does help the readers to understand the origin of Rowan’s ability.

Overall, Rowan is a great character with many flaws (so does everyone), but she put up a hard work to be better. Her character development went through different stages but that’s what I liked to see, it showed how her journey was like throughout the book. And what did she learn from making those journeys and what lessons did she learn in order to be the better version of herself.

Luca on the other hand is way too perfect for a love interest and yet I wasn’t surprised considering he is the ‘hero’ in this book. He’s good looking, have a smart brain, good at carpentry, and also good at planning his future. Getting a concussion and had to leave football behind forever was devastating but he found new a passion in carpentry. He was really selfless, down-to-earth, have a big heart and love to help others.

It will be wrong to say he have flaws because the way I see it, he doesn’t have any. He’s not like a bunch of his jock friends, and his attitude and personality separated him from them. He was also a very open-minded person and is wise at giving advices to other people. It was unbelievable how perfect Luca was the whole time. He never gets angry because that is not like him at all but he do get disappointed at one point in the story and yet still manage to keep calm. He was written as the most perfect character and I’m not complaining even though it was really unrealistic, but he’s still a really likable character and I really enjoyed getting to know him more.

Ethan and Abby are the other two main characters in this book. Ethan is Rowan’s best friend and I really loved their friendship even though at one point both of them was hurting due to what she had to do in order to change everything back to normal. He’s the type of friend you want to have in your life. He was funny, so supportive, and always be there whenever she needed him. Rowan and Ethan’s friendship is amazing. Abby and Rowan are enemies, and I knew something wasn’t right the moment Abby partnered herself up with Rowan for the school project. Revenge might be sweet but it backfired on her in the end. I get why she was angry at Rowan and wanted to get back at her due to what happened to her science project in the past. What I didn’t expect was for them to become friends later on. That surprised me because she hated Rowan so much since the beginning. I guess new friendship formed under unlikely circumstances.

As for the romance. Well, Luca and Rowan have a great relationship going on in the story and even though the instant attraction irked me but I do get why it started that way. After all, the title of this book spelled it out for me. She doesn’t actually cast a spell on him, it was much more complex than that which I don’t want to spoil. You have to read the book in order to find out. What they have has nothing to do with the spell.

I do agree that the instant attraction doesn’t make sense, but the more time they spend together it proved that these two people who are really different from one another have a naturally strong chemistry which made their relationship real and make a lot of sense. Even after putting everything back to normal, they are still attracted to each other and their chemistry didn’t waver, it just becomes a lot stronger than before.

Luca and Rowan’s romantic relationship was really cute. He was so sweet to her and she really cared for him. These two and their romantic moments made me happy. He had been through a lot and so was she, and they found each other even though the way it all started was so abrupt. Sweet and heartwarming relationship like this in YA books is my favorite. I’m glad the author written it in a nice way and putting a lot of effort in developing the relationship between these two characters so that it would look realistic. Insta-love or instant attraction usually isn’t my favorite trope but this one right here was handled really well that I liked it way too much.

This story put me on the edge quite a few times but I really find it interesting how a contemporary book like this can evoke such feelings from me. I blame it on the consequences of the spell. I was both excited and nervous to see what kind of horror the characters are facing from the spell. This book basically teach us that magic comes with a price, and sometimes the price is higher than we can afford. If you’re looking for a sweet contemporary with magic on the side, try to pick this one up. You may like it.

A very unique storyline that is perfect for high schoolers. Can you imagine what it would be like if the love spells you wrote came true? Rowan is about to find out and all the drama/attention that comes with it. 
A sweet magical romance with an interesting twist.

Love spells and other disasters by Angie Barrett was the lighthearted, fun book I didn't know I needed! Full of romance, magic, humor and friendship the plot really keeps readers engaged and connected. While the romance was predictable it was still fun to see play out and the characters felt genuine.

I can totally see my High School kiddos liking this story. It had enough social pressures, romance pulls, and magic ties to offer something for several reader types.

My biggest issue with this book was the word choices and sentence structures. There were several times I had to re-read a sentence because the word choices were stilted and didn't flow. I don't think my HS kiddos would catch those, though.

Supppppper cute and romantic! i really had a good time reading this and enjoyed it so much! Perfectly written and just in time for Valentine’s Day!

Love Spells and Other Disasters left me with mixed emotions. It was a nice mix of contemporary and magic. Magical realism is one of my favorite types of stories. The story is mostly cute and fun in the beginning, but towards the end things did get a bit dark. I was expecting a light fluffy read and I am not really sure how to express more of my thoughts on the rest of the book without possible spoilers so be warned to stop now if you want to avoid those. Okay, so the twist with Luca I definitely saw coming, but didn't mind as I really liked him as a character and thought things still came out to my liking in the end. The things I did not like were the abuse that takes place as a result of the spells, but more than that was the fact that some of those people were still mad that the spells got cancelled out and wanted a new spell. Like what?!! You are no longer under a spell, but want to go back to being abused?!!! Also Ethan after the spell was removed was so annoying and just plain childish. Ugh, he really got on my bad side lol. There was also a scene were it subtly described two teens having sex which made me feel a bit awkward. I know it's a reality of life, but I didn't expect it in the story and would rather not read that. So although I enjoyed the story overall there were some things that made me cringe.

Loved it a lot! So cute and quirky and i actually laughed out loud in some places. Especially enjoyed the wacky science aspect of it all

This was such an entertaining and cute book! The plot itself was full of magic (though it was a bit different than what I was expecting), great friendship, romance, and humor! The characters were really good and I really enjoyed their friendships and the cute, funny moments and adventures they went through. The romance between Rowan and Luca was predictable but adorable just the same. The magic aspect was different than the magic one normally expects in these books and it was entertaining to see Rowan's growth with it. If you enjoy cute YA books with great characters and interesting magic elements than this is definitely the book for you!

The magical book I didn't know I needed. Love Spells and Other Disasters is an adorable coming of age book about a young woman discovering herself and her abilities. At first, Rowan doesn't really know what to expect from the love spell, surely it couldn't' be real. As those around her begin to change, Rowan realizes that these love spells might just be real. The characters were engaging, and I felt mature topics were respectfully dealt with. 

4/5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing, LLC for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.