About the Book- The Ex Hex
New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins, writing as Erin Sterling, casts a spell with a spine-tingling romance full of wishes, witches, and hexes gone wrong.
Nine years ago, Vivienne Jones nursed her broken heart like any young witch would: vodka, weepy music, bubble baths…and a curse on the horrible boyfriend. Sure, Vivi knows she shouldn’t use her magic this way, but with only an “orchard hayride” scented candle on hand, she isn’t worried it will cause him anything more than a bad hair day or two.
That is until Rhys Penhallow, descendent of the town’s ancestors, breaker of hearts, and annoyingly just as gorgeous as he always was, returns to Graves Glen, Georgia. What should be a quick trip to recharge the town’s ley lines and make an appearance at the annual fall festival turns disastrously wrong. With one calamity after another striking Rhys, Vivi realizes her silly little Ex Hex may not have been so harmless after all.
Suddenly, Graves Glen is under attack from murderous wind-up toys, a pissed off ghost, and a talking cat with some interesting things to say. Vivi and Rhys have to ignore their off the charts chemistry to work together to save the town and find a way to break the break-up curse before it’s too late.
Nobody is taking anything seriously or at least nobody wants to address the elephant in the room but just refer in passing. Every major incident in the book was turned into a hookup point
Read on for our review of the book
Our Review of The Ex Hex
In theory, there is nothing wrong with the book. But I felt that The Ex Hex was too casual and sweet. It felt like nobody was taking anything seriously when clearly things were worst. There were literally world-ending crises, death threats and a whole lot of frightening stuff happening and yet in the book, it all felt as casual and normal as going to get ice cream and finding out they don’t have your flavour so you settle for something else. Problem solved. Except that some of the problems are not that easy to solve.
Since I had the book on Audio, maybe it was the narrator or the book, in general, was so casual ( ok I may need another word for Casual, I am kind of overusing it now) It was getting difficult to take it seriously when the characters itself is taking it so …..ahh! Here we go again…Casually. The book is supposed to be a funny rom-com except I think the funny worked oppositely 🤪
Let me tell you this again that per se the book isn’t bad. What I couldn’t manage with was the… repeat with me… C A S U A L tone of the book. If you read the book, you will understand that the reason why the girl ended up with a broken heart is so massive… Like that is a reason why therapists charge so high. Why there are painful ballads written. Hell, I think, it was even the reason why alcohol got invented in the first place. Or at least women started drinking in the first place. Ok, that is a treacherous path. Anyways my point is that the whole thing is so casually brushed under the rug that I felt icky when the romance scene came on …I mean when the girl was swooning over the character, all I could think was why they broke up in the first place. If I keep talking I may give out spoilers and plus these are dynamics of the plot and character qualities that each reader will have a different opinion about so no point poking at that.
Also what world is this set in where they have witch academies, witch shops and basically witch festivals 🤨 Basically Witch royalties and it all feels like a normal Suburban neighbourhood… Where is this, The Sweet life of Witchyville? Ok fine Now I am being a witch ….pardon …BITCH 😝
Nobody is taking anything seriously or at least nobody wants to address the elephant in the room but just refer in passing. Every major incident in the book was turned into a hookup point which is good for a romance book but not when you have the plot to concentrate on. Just because it is a romantic comedy, it does not have to have a hookup scene at every interval and make a joke out of everything. Trust me there are romance books out there where there is just one kiss scene but it is a toe-curling level of swoon.
Conclusion
In conclusion, as I kept shamelessly repeating, The Ex Hex is too CASUAL. The book definitely had a good story plot although I am not sure where exactly the whole story is taking place because it is certainly different and also not very informative. The only issue with the book is that everything major is so lightly treated that even you can’t take it seriously or hold it to your heart. But it just could be me and for some other readers the book might be the exact level of lightness they needed to unwind after a long week or day
Squirrel Rating
Book Recommendation
1. Bookish and the beast by Ashley Poston
2. You have a match by Emma Lord
3. It happened one summer by Tessa Bailey
4. A Spindle Splintered by Alix E Harrow
