Book: The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling
Reviewed by Your_bookish_fantasy
Rating: 3/5
3.25*
I enjoyed reading this, there were some funny bits and lots of cute moments but it just didnt hit the mark. All of the right ingredients were there, but the method used created a pancake rather than a delicious, luxurious chocolate layer cake.
I love the ideas this story was built on, however, the author just seemed to rush through it like a school essay was due by morning. I wish she had taken some more time with it to really develop the characters and add layered relationships because then it would have been one hell of a book that it really deserved to be.
Best bits:
*It's based on Halloween with spooky shop displays and fall day celebrations
Gothic school with magical lessons
*witchy families and ancestors
*cute spicey scenes
*easy read
*historic references
*good world buidling
*good pace
Things that could have been improved-
*I feel like Simon was made out to be very scary but posed no actual threat, there was no references to his backstory or history to dip into to help define his character and it really annoyed me he wasn't bothered about his son being Cursed or even how one of his family got Cursed. I just expected so much more from his character that just didn't deliver.
*No spoilers here, so in code - the curse was really simple. Again, I expected more - more build up and more complexity and just more... considering the whole book is based around this... *Also as much as I love spice - having the characters more interested in humping each other than battling the curse is quite odd. And the spice was so odd- it wasn't open door but it was too spicey for a YA , I got really confused because it seemed like it was building up to a great scene and all of a sudden it was done with... so what was the build-up for? Like, why have details but no sex? It's just odd.
*Another thing I didn't like was how a new chapter started in the middle of a paragraph- for example, one of the spicey scenes starts on the last page of a chapter and them a new chapter begins and continues on with the spicey scene....? I've never read a book that does this, normally a new chapter starts with a new scene.
I'm glad I read it. It's left me hurting though, as it could have been so much better if the author believed in herself and gave it a bit more time. I won't read it again and wouldn't recommend it openly, but if someone just wants a pallette cleanser, halloween themed, cute read, I would say this was spot on. I'll leave the next one on my tbr, but I won't be reading it next, I'll use it as another quick read in between bigger books or series.