In Erin Sterling’s debut novel The Ex Hex, she unpacks some seriously steamy, paranormal, witchy romance. As the first book of a duology, The Ex Hex offers readers a campy new tale of modern witchery, and how it can be waylaid by vodka and Bath and Body Works candles. The second book in the series, The Kiss Curse, is rumoured to come out September of 2022.
During a moment of drunken heartbreak, 19-year-old witch Vivienne Jones accidentally-on-purpose curses fellow witch and ex-summer fling Rhys Penhallow. When she finally crawls out of her hungover state, she forgets the whole thing, which would have been fine if Rhys had not come back to their tiny home town of Graves Glen and noticed that he is most definitely cursed. As Halloween approaches — the most magically significant night of the year — Vivi and Rhys have to work together in all their awkward, memory-filled glory to try and break the curse and save the town, without admitting what that summer eight years before really meant to them both.
As someone who occasionally finds herself in the kind of reading slump that can only be broken with a frankly embarrassing number of sappy romance novels, The Ex Hex could not have come at a better time. After reading too many other romance novels since the end of the winter semester, I wanted something cute but a little different, and Sterling’s novel certainly delivered. The twist on the common trope of vengeance on one’s ex was funny and made me immediately love the main character, Vivienne. I loved the combination of historical witchcraft elements and a modern setting. The idea of witches living their best spooky lives in the real world was handled well, and was done in a way that made it actually seem possible. With a lot of interesting elements like Greek mythology, paranormal activity, a mid-90s ghost, and found family tropes, this was a fun quick read.
Unfortunately, the novel’s ending was very predictable. This might have been more interesting if the plot had been better developed, but at only 308 pages, the resolution of the story and the resuming of Vivi and Rhys’ relationship was very sudden and conventional. In the same vein, the characters themselves were underdeveloped, but not in such a way that it took too much away from the story. I wish that the characters had been explored more and their motivations made more clear. There are a lot of cool and quirky characters in The Ex Hex, so it seemed like Sterling missed an opportunity to go more in-depth by just hinting at their lives and experiences.
When a romance is so short, it is hard to really develop the love story, especially when the story is set after the initial relationship. To help combat this, Sterling adds in flashbacks to the summer that Vivi and Rhys got together, but they all just consisted of the couple remembering about how good their past sex was. However, canonically they were 19 at the time, so I have some real doubts about how good it actually was. Outside of their physical relationship, there is not really much information about how Vivi and Rhys were as a couple, but readers are expected to understand that even though they only dated for three months, they are still in love with each other eight years later and are destined to be together. This does seem like a common trope in romance, but still, I was not a fan.
Luckily, Vivi’s spunky attitude, the witch theme, and the funny side characters saved the otherwise questionable romance and made it into a good read, but maybe not an all-time favourite.
Allison is starting her BA in English with a minor in Criminology to become a publishing contract lawyer. In her spare time, she watches way too many true crime shows and reads a lot of Y.A. fiction, while slugging along on various articles.
