Book Review | The Ex Hex

The Ex Hex

By Erin Sterling

HarperCollins  |  2021  |  320 pages

⭐️⭐️⭐️

You broke my heart, Rhys Penhallow. And we curse you. You and your whole stupid, hot line.

Vivienne Jones handled the biggest break-up of her life the way that any witch would: vodka, bubble baths, and a curse on her ex.

That was nine years ago. Now Rhys Penhallow, descendant of the town's founders, breaker of hearts and still irritatingly gorgeous, is back. Rhys has returned to the quaint town of Graves Glen to recharge the ley lines and make an appearance at the annual fall festival. But when his every move results in calamity, Vivi realises that hexing her ex might not have been so harmless after all…

As the curse starts to affect the magic of the town, resulting in murderous wind-up toys, an outraged ghost, and a surprisingly talkative cat, Vivi and Rhys must put their personal feelings aside and work together to break the curse and save not just the town, but also Rhys's life.

This was an interesting one to read. I have been looking at this book for weeks now and I finally decided to buy it and had the intention to read it a lot sooner than I actually did. I got delayed as I actually picked up A Court of Thorns and Roses just before this and obviously, if you have read my review for Acotar, then you’ll have seen my excitement to read more of the series. 

I had set myself up to read this after Acotar but I finished that and immediately wanted to read Acomaf and so disclaimer; I do feel like I maybe didn’t give this book a fair chance and I may need to actually reread it at some point because I saw there was hype over this book over on booktok and yet… I didn’t understand the hype once I finished reading it. 

Before I start, I wanted to just clarify where my brain was at when I read this. I did finish it pretty quickly; I started it the evening of Christmas Day and had finished it by the end of Boxing Day. I just think I possibly wasn’t in the mindset or headspace to read this and appreciate it properly because as I did read this, I was just thinking of starting Acomaf.

We’ll do it the usual way and start with pros as there is unfortunately, less pros than cons. 

The book was short and the font wasn’t super tiny so it was an easy read. It was lighthearted and didn’t take itself too seriously which was a nice experience. Although I enjoy a heavy plot and I think background and I like worldbuilding, it is nice to occasionally go for something a bit simpler. Overall, I liked the fact it was such an easy-breezy kind of book. There are sequels but it isn’t like a hard hitting plot where you absolutely need to read the next ones, you know?

The book had a cute little romance going on. I think it was handled in a very nice way; there wasn’t any drama for the sake of drama or anything like that. It wasn’t close to being melodramatic which I personally prefer; I hate over the top romances that are set in every day life. There’s a bit of spice in this book; nothing that major, I don’t think but enough to perhaps make the odd person blush a little bit at what they’re reading. 

The vibe of the book, I feel, did live up to the hype I had heard about it. It very much had vibes of Gilmore Girls; the town was perfectly described as a small town with local businesses and those autumnal kind of vibes. It was a mix between Gilmore Girls and Sabrina The Teenage Witch, in my opinion. I really liked that and I loved the less intense magical, witch themes. It wasn’t like full on fantasy books where magic is left right and center. As this is set in everyday life, it is more relaxed and dealt with in a comedic way in a lot of chapters. 

And coming onto humour… this book was funny beyond anything else. I felt like I was reading a sitcom. I really loved some of the characters in the book. The main character Vivian was okay… I wasn’t overwhelmed by her traits and she didn’t really make a huge impression in either way; she wasn’t memorable as far as characters go but she also wasn’t awful and horribly flawed or anything like that. I actually liked the male lead character, Rhys, in this book. His phrases and responses to bad situations throughout the story had me smiling and chuckling a lot of the time. He was very much the comic relief character whilst also being one of the main characters. I could envision Rhys very easily since I’ve genuinely met people that matched his personality and to me, that shows that he was written well. 

The other character I liked was Gwyn; she had a good few comedic moments, to the point I almost wish she had a bit more in the story? She is there a lot anyway since she acts as the side character to Vivian but I would have happily taken a bit more scenes of her. 

She was similar to Rhys; her humour broke any sort of tension etc that would crop up within the story. She was likeable and relatable too; quite a modern witch as such. We didn’t really delve into the backstories of those around Rhys and Vivi too much so we still don’t really know a whole lot about the family history and all that. 

And with that, I will swiftly move onto the cons and we’ll start with worldbuilding or lack thereof. For me, I felt it wasn’t the greatest in terms of feeling out the characters or exploring backgrounds. We only really delved into Rhy’s family history and bits and pieces about him and not much of anyone else… we did get a little bit about Vivi and Gwyn’s family towards the very end. Again, it might be something that is covered a bit more in the second book but as for the first book of a series, it did a bit of a 50/50 job in that aspect.

I didn’t think the writing style was amazing either… it’s quite simplistic and repetitive in terms of phrasing and word choices. I may sound a bit snotty saying that, but I am personally drawn to writing styles with a bit more variation wherever possible. I found it quite easy reading which is a pro and a con. It was easy to get through because my attention didn’t have to be rapt and I didn’t have to focus on it too much. 

The plot was okay. Like, it wasn’t anything groundbreaking but it wasn’t bad either - it was just fine. The small plot twist on who actually cursed Rhys was someone who I had already guessed too. It was medium paced too, I’d say. It dragged in parts but it wasn’t a rush towards the end or anything so I’d call it a medium pace.

The romance was a tad eyeroll for me, not going to lie. It was cute and I smiled at it but the fact it had been a 3 month Summer romance and yet they were supposedly madly in love like 9 years later was a bit… meh for me. I don’t know, I just think in standard fiction it’s a bit like, really? Whereas fantasy books, I can kinda let it slide because you have things like trauma and fate and magic and it’s not in a normal setting. Also, if it’s well backed and explained, then I can let it slide too but the writing here constantly called back on the fact they had a 3 month relationship and it was 9 years ago and they picked up like they knew each other super well. They hadn’t spoken or anything in all that time, both occasionally thought of the other but then when they met back up, they referred to each other like they’d known everything about each other which… just wouldn’t be the case when it was only 3 months, you know? It would be different if you have context like they grew up together or something and then had the short romance but otherwise, yeah I was a bit on the fence on that.

As I say, this is in no way trying to diminish this book - it is a fun, easy read but it isn’t one I feel is going to stay with me afterwards, you know? Maybe that’s a me problem - maybe I was too expectant of this book. It is a cute little general fiction/romance for a reason. Regardless, I will at some point, read both the sequel books in the series just for the sake of continuity. 

The book overall was just alright. I didn’t love it but I certainly didn’t hate it either. And so, it gets 3 stars!