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Title: The Ex Hex
Author: Erin Sterling
Sub-genre: Contemporary? Paranormal?
Release Date: September 28, 2021
You may have noticed a whole slew of witchy but otherwise contemporary romances slated to come out over the course of the next month or so. I wasn’t sure how to classify this one, and I also wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy it, but this turned out to be such a delightful read.
Vivi is a witch who lives in a small town that was founded by witches, but is now home to both witches and muggles (is that just the general term for non witches?). She’s a professor at the local college and loves hanging out with her cousin/best friend and enjoying their charming little village. But the village quickly loses its charm when Vivi’s ex boyfriend Rhys comes back into town. Rhys is a descendent of the town’s founder and so he comes over from Wales to “charge the ley lines” and basically keep the magic running in the town. Unfortunately, when Rhys broke Vivi’s heart back when she was nineteen, she and her cousin put a hex on him. A hex they assumed didn’t actually work because it was done more in fun than in any hopes of actually cursing him. And Rhys has lived all these years with no curse-like effects, but being back in the town activates it and all kinds of things start going wrong for him. When he charges the ley lines, he infects the source of the town’s magic with his curse and everything goes bananas. Vivi and Rhys have to work together to find a way to break the curse to save not only Rhys, but the entire town. And because this is a romance, they totally do (and they bang along the way!)!
Okay, so right off the bat, I was sold on this story. I’m a fan of Erin’s other books (she also writes as Rachel Hawkins), but this is the first romance of hers I’ve read (I think the first one she’s written) and her voice just absolutely hooked me. I also just loved the whole setup of this sort of drunken I’m mad at you for breaking my heart curse coming back to haunt Vivi after all these years. Vivi and Rhys had excellent chemistry and I was very much here for them having to work together (forced proximity for the win) and all the pining and sexual tension that led to. It’s interesting because even though there are clearly paranormal elements in this book (the whole conflict is about breaking a magical curse) it reads a lot like a contemporary rom com. I enjoyed the sort of genre bending nature of the book, it really worked for me in this instance. The voice is great, the side characters were hilarious, the chemistry was bangin’ (literally), the book had everything I want in a rom com, and also had the bonus of witches! This is the perfect book for the fall season and it’s one I think I will go back to annually!
Overall Rating: 5 stars
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