The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling Book Review
“Whatever she is, I’m telling you there is no way she could’ve placed a hex on you. It’s ridiculous. Preposterous.”
(pg. 71)
About
Author: Erin Sterling or Rachel Hawkins
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance
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Synopsis
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.
Review
Spoilers Contained Below
To all the exes we wish we could curse,
If you’re on bookstagram, you would have seen The Ex Hex popping up all over last year’s October feed. Literally. Every picture was The Ex Hex, which I wasn’t mad about because the covers are beautiful and give the perfect amount of aesthetic and spooky Halloween-October vibes. So, of course, I had to read The Ex Hex! By the time I read it, I was a little too late to post a book review about it because it would have been Thanksgiving time or something and I didn’t feel like posting a spooky book review then would have fit the holiday change. Alas, this is 2021 as I am writing my Ex Hex book review to post this year 🙈. So hi, future me.
Anyway, I didn’t know Erin Sterling was Rachel Hawkins until I read the back cover. I enjoyed the Rebel Belle books by Rachel Hawkins and Prince Charming, so I was excited to see Rachel Hawkins as a New Adult writer. I would say, I enjoyed reading The Ex Hex because it was witty, funny, and it had the perfect October fall vibes. I also loved the magical realism and the small town aspect of the story because it reminded me almost like Halloweentown but not as cool. Not that that is a bad thing or I didn’t like the small town, but you really can’t compare to Halloweentown, but the town gave me similar Halloween-y vibes. You know. So no hate to the setting, just Halloweentown is cooler. I’m a big Halloweentown fan if you can’t tell 😉. But I felt like the book missed a lot of depth with some characters or storylines.
One of the things I wanted more of was more romantic scenes between Vivi and Rhys.
Rhys and Vivi had a whirlwind romance in college, which I liked having a little prologue or before story moment and then a time jump to when they were older and a bit more maturer. But when Vivi was in college, she met Rhysand one glorious night, they looked into each other’s eyes, they danced and fell in love. But then Rhysand came out and was honest with her and said he was berthed to another woman, and he broke Vivi’s heart because she actually loved him but this whole time he was going to be married to someone else. I don’t want to give Rhysand any credit because doing the absolute bare minimum as a person doesn’t deserve praise, but at least he was honest and didn’t keep the relationship up. But, bro should have told Vivi from the beginning that he was betrothed to someone. I mean, that would have been better so she knew not to get attached to him because gosh knows she did love him. I felt like Rhys also felt the same about Vivi because he never had a real relationship with someone after her, so it flew like she was the one that got away because it didn’t seem like anything happened with his betrothed.
I mean, what the actual freak happened with Rhysand and this supposed girl he was going to marry, and thus broke young Vivi’s heart. Because it sounded like he didn’t marry the girl, so he broke Vivi’s heart for no reason when they could have been together the entire time and Rhys wouldn’t have been cursed. IDIOT. But it did seem like nothing happened because Rhys didn’t mention a wife, yet alone a ring on his finger. So I felt the whole curse didn’t need to happen because nothing happened on Rhys part in the end, but I guess they both lost 🙃 because nothing freaking happened.
“We’re cursing this di**bag,” Gwyn replied with a grin.”
(pg. 5)
The curse was iconic. We love cursing our exes 🤪, especially the ones who deserve it.
“I told you,” she said. “I took a bath, list some candles, and then Gwyn and I said a whole bunch of silly stuff about your hair dad clitorises that was obviously not a real curse—your hair looks good really good, by the way, and I don’t actually want to know about the rest of it—but at one point, there was like, this whoosh of flame, and I might have said, ‘I curse you, Rhys Penhallow,’ but I didn’t mean it.”
(pg. 93)
Oh, she sure did mean it.
Their curse was kind of petty, but in a hilarious way. I loved the touch about the clitoris because some things are just funny 😂. I mean, if they were going to curse the fu**neck, they were going full throttle.
Also, I must say I freaking LOVED GWYN. Best part of the whole book 🖤.
I laughed with how they got drunk and cursed Rhysand even if their family motto is to never mix vodka witchcraft. I thought the motto was funny the first few times, but after a while it felt a bit repetitive. I felt like they could have stitched this motto on a pillow or something because it was said a lot. But I get it, because they didn’t LISTEN to the darn MOTTO in the first place. I cackled with how the curse was a joke, but I knew that it was going to be a full blown thing that was real. There would have been no book if the curse hadn’t been real. One thing I noticed throughout the book was the irony Erin Hall would have the character say one thing and then it would happen. Sort of like how Rhsyand’s dad said Vivi wouldn’t be powerful enough to curse him, but she was. I thought the irony was funny and had a comedic touch. I also thought in the beginning that the curse only extended to Rhysand being in the town, which I thought was rich because all these bad things seemed to happen to him only when he was in town.
But because Rhys and Vivi had this history, there was an enemies to lovers relationship going on, which was fine. But I felt like when then finally did get together, their relationship felt more sexual than there was any real substance or connection. I mean, practically every scene they were wanting to jump each other’s bones or they were jumping each other’s bones. In other scenes, they were trying to keep the curse in line or to reverse the curse on the whole town since a cursed Rhysand recharged the ley lines, therefore cursing the whole town. I mean, we all knew that if he was cursed, him recharging the ley lines wasn’t the smartest idea. His dad also sounded like a trash bag who didn’t listen to his son. The dad needed to get off his high horse. And also, Rhysand was a grown-butt man who should have used his intuition and made the call to not recharge the ley lines if he felt it was wrong. I mean, couldn’t he have made his own decisions. I know, I know, he wanted to do what his dad wanted him to do to impress his dad or not anger him, but gosh darn. Rhysand, make your own choices, your old enough.
But back to Vivi and Rhys relationship. Yea, I just didn’t feel a true connection or a lasting relationship because all they did was have sex. I wanted more rom-comy cute moments, which I understand this wasn’t a typical rom-com book. I just wanted a bit more to be said with their relationship than what they were doing in Rhysand’s vampire-esque bed. I mean, gosh darn, I can’t believe he actually had a house like that 😂. I kept imagining something between what the Darkling from Shadow and Bone would sleep in and Gru’s house from Despicable Me. Or maybe something like The Adam’s Family house. I think Bella and Edward slept in a less creepy condition. I also wanted them to rekindle their relationship with actual conversation and have a cute date or a cute moment or something without it feeling like a sexual thing. I felt like that would have helped me understand or like their relationship better.
I mean, Vivi was already saying she loved him and him vise versa, but I didn’t buy it because it didn’t feel like love and more like sex. Did she only love him because of who they were together and that she thought that was who they could be again? I think so much time has gone by that they would be different people, so they should have relearned each other as who they were now rather than jump into saying what they had was love when it was love from two past people.
But I remember Vivi also said:
“Sometimes she thought what she’d really fallen in love with that summer was the version of herself she was when she was with him.”
(pg. 208)
That quote hit differently because Rhysand made this sort of insecure, fresh to the world college girl feel powerful and confident in a good way. She liked who she was with Rhys and she missed that like she missed him. So Rhysand was part of a pivotal moment in her life and that’s why he was someone important to her. I also liked that he made her feel more confident to be herself or to be the witch he knew she was because we need someone who sees the greatness in us and make su feel comfortable enough to bring that out to the world.
But also, they treaed very carefully around each other without telling each other how they really felt in their time apart. We knew Vivi was torn up about it, but she would never admit that to Rhys, which I get, but it was kind of funny to see how much they both missed and liked each other, but didn’t want to admit it to each other. I was like, “Just tell each other how you really feel already!”They were just a lot of back and scene moments I read between the two of them trying to fight how they really feel or what they wanted to say but didn’t want to say and it just felt like a lot of things weren’t said, you know 😂. JUST SAY IT. There was also the whole thing with how she wanted him to stay but she didn’t want him to stay when he had his whole other life because that wouldn’t feel fair. But he wanted to stay but he didn’t want to stay because he didn’t want things to be awkward if Vivi didn’t want him to stay. But if Vivi told him to stay, he knew he would stay. Stay, don’t stay, they were both driving each other nuts with not talking about what they wanted or how they felt. They drove me nuts sometimes. I felt like if they had that open and honest conversation, maybe they would have had a stronger relationship that felt long lasting. Also, I felt like some things could have been said to move on from the obvious pain or hurt they both felt at either breaking things off or cursing each other.
OOOH, the end really had me with this whole back and forth. It was like BRO JUST TELL HER YOU LOVE HER AND don’t say goodbye to her!!! I think what was kind of worse was he was going to tell her but then he didn’t. I mean, we didn’t have to have this whole goodbye scene where he left and he was miserable and then she stayed and she was miserable and they were both miserable sods without each other. IT WAS LIKE YOU BOTH COULD HAVE BEEN HAPPY IF YOU JUST COMMUNICATED WHAT YOU WANTED TO SAY. IdiOTS 🤪. We could have had the grand gesture sooner if he realized that he couldn’t live without her. I guess, sometimes we need to distance ourselves from someone we love to realize how much we love them and want to stay with them, but bro really chose to walk away rather than open his mouth. HAHAHA, he loved to talk, but not about his feelings about her.
Also, I found it kind of creepily funny how he just showed up as a teacher with one of the offices. A nice surprise, but kind of creepy if Vivi didn’t take his homecoming well.
“Rhys might have been The Fool, but maybe she was, too, because she realized that the image, a person walking merrily off a cliff, wasn’t necessarily about being reckless.
It was about taking a leap and trusting something—someone—would catch you.”
(pg. 307)
I liked how we returned to the tarot cards because in the beginning Vivi and Gwyn talked about the cards and how Rhysand was The Fool, naturally. But it felt like a full circle e moment the they were fools in love and that they were taking this leap of faith to be in a real relationships with strings attached and not just sex. I was also slapping my forehead with how quick they were to speak now about how they would go where the other person was. Like, you both couldn’t tell each other these things sooner 🤪. What and ever.
I I got way ahead of myself because here I am talking about the ending. But let’s backtrack to the cure. So, the whole town was cursed because Rhysand the cursed recharged the ley lines and cursed the entire town. In addition, it was kind of Viiv and Gwyn’s problem too because they cursed Rhys who cursed the town, the said town which was now going to said shiz.
To be quite honest, I wanted more with the curse—-nothing too malice. But I felt like the curse of the events in the town weren’t as epic as I would have liked them to be. I mean, if we’re going to do a curse, let’s do a CURSE. I wanted the whole nine yards of drama and suspension. I wanted to be on the edge of my seat in horror or fear. I wanted to be more worried about Rhysand’s safety while also laughing my face off because of the curse. But to be honest, I felt like the curse created all these separate scenarios in the town without ever really doing anything; the curse stirred up more irritation with the town people rather than being some grand adventure or scale of a thing that we explore. I also felt like the curse didn’t do much, which was disappointing. I don’t know, I just wanted more than a library ghost coming back to life or little toys attacking a storefront. The toys attacking the store reminded me of the Toy Story 2 scene with all the creepy toys coming out of Sid’s bed. Or even a Salem the cat moment from their newfound talking cat, Sir Purrvincial. I loved the punned name, I’ll say. But yea, I expected more of the curse.
I liked how we got some family ties and history with what happened and why Rhys and the town might have been cursed. Apparently, the curse worked because Aelwyd, a Jones ancestor, was screwed over by Gryffud Penhallow who stole her magic and used her so he could say that he saved the town. So only Aelwyd could reverse the curse. I’m assuming Aelwyd was there the night Vivi and Gwyn mixed vodka and did witchcraft and decided that if her two descendants wanted to curse a Penhallow, then let’s do it. We love when we have people looking out for us. But in all honesty I wanted to rage for Aelwyd because how DARE Gryffud use her and take credit for his magic just so he looked good. Honestly, this sentiment reminds me too much about how some people in the workplace take advantage or take credit over women’s ideas or anyone’s ideas and they use it as their own. I don’t like people like that because they don’t have a brain to think for themself and yet they get all the glory or benefits because they have balls and were at the right place at the right time. I also thought for a second, how interesting it would have been if the story was that Aelwyd Jones and Gryffud Penhallow were actually lovers back then and they never worked out and Aelwyd cursed Gryffud like Vivi cursed Rhys because they never worked out. I thought that would have been a cool parallel to the present because it would instigate that there had been a Jones and Penhallow romance fail and maybe that’s why the curse worked. But the story was much worse. I think the romantic parallel would have worked well. But that’s okay.
While we’re on the Jones and Penhallow dynamic, I wanted to know more about Rhysand’s family. Rhysand said he felt like the black sheep of the family to his two brothers. One brother was more successful and was more like the dad and the other brother lived in some mysterious mountain doing who knows what. So I don’t know why the dad was still so hard on Rhysand when the one brother was chilling in a mountain. I don’t know. I felt like it would have been cool to see more of the brother dynamic rather than see or feel it from a distance. I would have also liked for the brothers to make an appearance. I’m curious about the one on the mountain, like bro, why are you still on a mountain? There’s nothing wrong with being on a mountain,I was just curious. I was also curious about the whole betrothed thing. If the betrothed thing didn’t work out, was it really that big of a deal that the dad had to give Rhys shiz for it? The dad needed to build a bridge and get over it. Also, get this guy a partner or a cat or something so he stops giving his children shiz 🤪.
I also wanted more details about the magic system. Like how did Vivi and her family get their magic or where did their magic come from? What is the history behind that? How did the magic system work? What portion of the town did make up witches and warlocks and were there other towns with witches and warlocks? What was the deal with this Amanda chick and what did she want? I also wondered about the magical hierarchy because of the Penhallow and Jones family dynamic? I just wanted more answers about the magic and the world because I felt like a few aspects were set up and explained, but it didn’t entirely make sense to me. Also, the whole ley lines plot gave me The Raven Boys vibes’ The Raven Boys was the first book I ever heard about the ley lines idea, so I was like, “Oh, nice.”
Along with the magic system, I wanted to know more about Vivi’s parents and why they didn’t want her or let her use bigger magic. Because it seemed like Vivi wanted to use magic but for some reason she just didn’t grow up in a magical household because her mom didn’t like magic or Vivi using magic. I can understand where the mom was coming from because lots of magic equals a lot of responsibility, but I wondered why the mom was so opposed to magic. Was it because the mom knew about the Penhallow and Jones history? Or did the mom have a bad experience with magic? I also wanted to know more about where Vivi’s parents were and why Vivi lived with her aunt and cousin. I know she lived with them because the mom didn’t like using magic and Vivi wanted to use magic, but was there another reason? I think it would have been interesting if the mom made an appearance so we could understand Vivi and the mom’s relationship because I thought that was something that could have added a lot more to the book.
I was also slightly confused at the whole side plot of people selling potions to elicit different things. Another thing that felt like a side plot that was the whole Amber person. That woman gave me bad vibes the minute she walked into the room. I was like, she is too nice and too good to be true. She was up to something. And something about walking away in the middle of the bushes wasn’t normal. Also, I felt like the Eurydice candle solution felt like too easy a fix for their problems. There had to be something more to it than that. Again, it felt like a lot of mini adventures with the curse rather than addressing the real curse. I felt we could have switched these other ideas and spent more time on a grand curse.
It seems like I’ve been only talking about things I didn’t quite like, but there were many moments that were funny and endearing. I liked Gwyn, her humor and energy were unmatched. I loved how he and Vivi had these inside jokes with the curse like if they saw Rhys and his hair did that falling thing and they would groan that the curse didn’t work on that. Or how they would roll their eyes or be curious if Rhys ever found the clitoris because of the curse. He did. The spicy scenes brought the spice. I liked the scene where Rhys and Vivi visited that abandoned or creepy house where they wanted to find the shrine for the library ghost and one of Vivi’s least liked students was there to get it on with a girl. LIKE BRO. If you’re taking someone you liked to a CREEPY, SLIMY, NASTY abandoned HOUSE to have sex in, that’s going to be an absolute hard no from me. I don’t know who he was kidding or who he was trying to impress because that’s not a place to get your freak on 😂. WHAT A LOSER. If that’s his idea of romance, I’m gonna say you can do WAAAAAAAAYYYYYY BETTER 👏🏼! Anybody could do WAAAAYYYYY better than what this creepy weirdo had in mind. I liked when Vivi and Rhys made noises or used magic to scare them off. I would have liked to see Vivi or Rhys use their magic in more playful ways if there wasn’t the curse. I think it would have been really fun to see what mischief they could cause together. I also liked when they had meetings in the cool, magical back room of the shop. Those were always fun times.
“You have the annoyingly cheerful manner of a woman having an absurd amount of awesome sex.”
(pg. 238)
Yea, she did 😉.
I also loved how Gwyn and I would be on the same wavelength of knowing that Rhys and Vivi loved each other or had something going on and how Gwyn would tease Vivi for it. We love sisterly joking. They did feel like sisters 🖤.
The ending was cool and had a dramatic flair. I liked the drama with how they did summon Aelywd’s ghost and how she said that the town curse couldn’t be reversed and would go to pieces by Halloween. Oh, and the Penhallow would pass. That really got me because you could tell then how much Vivi loved Rhys because she didn’t want anything bad to happen to him. Rhys was ready to accept his fate, but Vivi didn’t want to just do nothing. I liked how they all banded together to go to the ley lines and reverse the curse when it looked like Aelwyd wasn’t going to reverse the curse. The ending reminded me a lot like Halloweentown: Return to Halloweentown. I thought they were going to reverse the curse by pulling a power of three where the power of the same three witches could break a curse. I thought that would have been cool. But I also felt like the ending with reversing the curse felt a bit easy and I wanted more hardship to lift the curse. I don’t know, maybe I’m getting mixed up with a fantasy book but I wanted more challenge to reverse this curse. Give me the gruesome and the struggle! I did think the ending was kind of epic with how Aelwyd took over Vivi’s body and how Rhysand basically told her ancestor that he loved Vivi. I loved that he wanted to save the town because he knew how much the town meant to Vivi. I mean, his gesture did showcase how much he loved Vivi if he would do anything to save something she loved. But summoning and apologizing to Aelwyd didn’t do anything, so they held hands and went to ley lines and hoped for the best. I wanted more from this scene because all they did was hold hands and hope, and I guess that’s all we can do. I wanted the detail and the angsty emotion of how they were feeling with a mix of hopelessness and triumph and fear and just something. Again, nothing wrong with what happened for them to reserve the curse, but I wanted more.
That was the motto of reading the book for me: I wanted something more. I felt like there was so much potential and fun in this book with the idea of cursing an ex and having witchcraft. But there was so much miscommunication and other curse adventures they chased rather than the actual curse, which was what I wanted. I also wanted more romantic cute moments or conversations rather than both of them bottling up their feelings and leaving each other’s lives and then talking when it finally matters.
I really do think the book was a good and fun read. It is a nice, light-hearted rom-com with magic that sets you in good spirits for the spooky season. Just don’t go cursing your exes because you never know what may happen 😉.
Anyway, what was your favorite part of the book? Least favorite part?
What did you think of the book? Let me know below in the comments as I love hearing from you all 💕
What is your favorite thing about spooky season?
I hope you have a beautiful day whenever and wherever you might be reading this 😊.
And as always, with love,
Rating
3.45 Full Bloom Flowers
Characters: I loved Gwyn, what a gem. I also liked Rhys, he seemed like a good dude who had good intentions, but might not always do the right thing at the moment.
Writing: Funny, witty, and light-hearted
Plot: I liked the idea magic and cursing an ex, but I would have liked a more grand curse plot rather than mini curse subplot adventures because it felt like if we focused on one thing, the story would have been funnier or funner rather than a bunch of different things
Romance: The romance has it’s banter and spicy moments, but a lot of lack of communication that gets in the way of them actually having something real for a long time.