Book Title: The Ex Hex (Ex Hex #1)
Author: Erin Sterling
Purchase: Amazon
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Description from Goodreads:

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.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars 

I’ve seen this book everywhere across lists and photos and posts. It sounded like the perfect October read so I hopped on the train and devoured it in a single weekend. Overall, this is a cute, quick, witchy read. It reminds me a lot of a cross between The Vampire Diaries TV series and Disney’s Halloweentown, with its witch-populated town and Founder’s Day event.  

I like both the main characters: Rhys Penhallow the Welsh witch, and Vivienne Jones, the history professor who learned about her witch ancestry a bit late in life (“the full Harry Potter”). These two meet when Vivi is in college, have a summer fling, and then don’t speak for nine years until Rhys shows back up for the fall festival, seemingly cursed. Vivi and Rhys are repeatedly thrown together as they try to undo the curse that spreads from Rhys to the whole town. 

The benefit of meeting Rhys and Vivi when they already share a history is that we can skip right over the whole insta-love trope. It only makes sense that they’re still attracted to each other given they’ve dated and left things unfinished, so we can jump right into conflict and sexual tension. From Rhy’s POV chapters, we learn he’s truly interested in how adult Vivi has changed and wants to get to know this new yet familiar woman.

Vivi, for her part, just seems floored by Rhys’s enduring hotness. What’s weird is that they never address the thing that broke them up in the first place—the fact that Rhys was secretly betrothed while they were together. Isn’t Vivi worried that might still be the case? Isn't it worth confirming first? Is it just assumed he isn’t because so much time has passed?

Vivi is fine, if largely ordinary She’s close to her cousin and aunt, and wants to lead a more non-magical life despite being a witch. Her aunt even remarks that Vivi won’t use magic to clean her house, which is something I’d be ALL about. I admire her independence and that she really just goes for what she wants.

The race to undo the curse has a silly tone, like an episode of Scooby Doo. The stakes never feel that high until the very end when all of a sudden death is on the line—too little, too late. Subsequently, I found myself more invested in the romantic relationship and didn’t care as much about the curse investigation.

For being a story about ancient families of witches, very little actual magic is done and every time it is, everyone is weirdly impressed, describing standard spells as “big magic.” I want a little more actual witchiness—like circles and spells and rituals—and a little less Halloween decor. However, it’s a smart choice not to bog the story down with an extensive background of Wicca because that level of detail isn’t needed to understand the world and characters.

That’s not to say I don’t like the Halloween vibes because I very much do—the atmosphere is perfectly depicted, especially the descriptions of Rhys’s family homes, both in Wales and in the States. I particularly enjoy the descriptions of his bed with its black silk sheets 😉 and the haunted house 👻. But as a magic lover, I want a little more.

I probably won’t reread this book, but I did enjoy reading it and would read a sequel if there is one. I especially want to better understand Rhys’s relationship with his father and why that guy is so dang mad all the time. Would also be cool to actually meet Rhys’s brothers, and to see Vivi and cousin Gwyn work together a bit more. I would recommend for anyone wanting a quick contemporary Halloween-themed read.