I read Practical Magic so many years ago I don't think I could even find the original review, if I ever wrote one. Ditto the movie. I know the author has been writing prequels to the book and I haven't particularly felt like reading more about the Owens Love Curse during a period of time where you know it's going to be sad. But this book takes place after Practical Magic, so then I was interested.
Since then, Sally's lost another husband to death (bummed me out) and is closed off to love again. Gillian is still with her dude, but hiding that they're married to duck the curse. Antonia, a lesbian, is having a baby with her best gay guy friend, and Kylie's still secretly in love with her best guy friend Gideon. Unfortunately, Sally being all anti-magic about things has led to Sally NOT warning the girls that the family is cursed about love, and poor Kylie finds this out when her boyfriend is hit by a car and is in a coma.
Aunt Jet dies at the beginning of this book, but has about a week of warning before she does so, so she ties up loose ends and digs up a magical book that could help someone get rid of the curse. She left it for her sister Franny, but Kylie finds it and flies off to England, where the curse began. Unfortunately, the magical ally she finds there is Tom, whose line is also cursed and he's looking to do bad things. So most of the rest of the family, including Grandpa Vincent (gay, faked his own death to be with his true love), also fly to England, where they meet some new magical allies. Antonia is stuck at home, but falls in insta-love with the lawyer handling Jet's will. Most notable in this is Sally falling in instalove with Ian, an ex-con turned professor who investigates the dark side of magic. Honestly, I don't know if I lurve that particular relationship or not, but that's the one that gets the most development here. Antonia and Vincent also find true love again, but it's not covered much. Anyway, somebody needs to sacrifice, guess who, and it's time to end this whole thing.
Overall this was a pleasant enough book. I wasn't madly in love but was entertained enough. I think I felt the romances were all pretty shsallowly established. Kylie and Gideon only get a few pages, but it seemed like the healthiest relationship of the bunch. I wasn't too into Ian as a love interest--like, I get that he's not super evil at heart, but he's dubious enough that I was all "I really don't know about this dude as a match for Sally." But it has a happy ending, so I'm good with that. Three and a half stars.