Review: 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.

This book came out of nowhere for me. I hadn’t heard a whisper about it and then all of a sudden everyone was talking about it. It felt like every blog that I went on, there was a review or a mention of it on a TBR list or in a tag. So I knew that I had to read it. And it did not disappoint.

I loved this book so much. It was a perfect, light read that was set in the days leading up to Halloween (so perfect for this time of year). Vivi and Rhys dated when they were younger, however their quick romance ended and left Vivi heartbroken. As most people do after a breakup, she got drunk and sad and placed a curse on her ex whilst proving to us all that vodka and witchcraft should not be mixed. Vivi doesn’t have a great amount of magic and there wasn’t any great repercussions afterwards, so she assumes that it hasn’t worked. However, this is proved wrong when Rhys returns to Graves Glen years later and things begin to go wrong.

There is a talking cat (which I partly wish had a few more lines), a ghost who is very mad at Rhys’ family, a few murderous wind up toys, chemistry and lots and lots of banter. This book had me laughing at so many points within the novel.

I loved the dual point of view. I seem to be enjoying books with more than point of view recently, so this was a perfect read. The dynamic between the two of them and the bouncing between the points of views really helped me connect with the characters. It was clear that the characters, in this second chance romance novel, had chemistry from the very beginning. They had such great banter and there was such fondness between the two of them. One thing I really loved about Erin Sterling’s writing was that they were able to use the awkwardness between the two of them in the beginning as a way to create these wildly hilarious scenes that inevitably excelled the relationship.

I loved the dynamic between Vivi and her cousin and aunt. There was such fondness and love between the three of them that is was so nice to read about. I have heard some rumours that there could potentially be other books set in the same world and I really hope we get one from Gwyn’s perspective because she was such a funny character!

As someone who is a mood reader, and wanted to read a Halloweeny book but did not want to read a scary book, The Ex Hex was the perfect novel. I highly recommend. It has left me longing for some more small town witchy novels!

Twitter ~ Instagram ~ Bookshop Affiliate Link ~ Goodreads