SPOILER ALERT! I'm not in the business of ruining books, so if you haven't read this book yet, turn back now!
Author: Jessica Clare
Series: Hex Series book #1
Category: Paranormal Romance
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
I’m a sucker for a girl in the wrong place at the right time and it’s mysterious circumstances that land Reggie the job of familiar to witch Dru. Even better, she thought it was for an assistant position for a card game, an honest mistake I guess!
Dru was beyond hilarious, I love crazy secondary characters. And she was definitely up there in the crazy department though I wondered half the time if she was just old enough not to care anymore. I laughed out loud when she started a food fight at the fancy restaurant and the drama between her and her frenemy. If I was two thousand years old, I'll bet I would try to see what shenanigans I could get away with as well to pass the time.
It’s Dru's world and we're just living in it!
Reggie was are stereotypical OCD-type MC wrapped in a healthy dose of childhood trauma. Apparently unable to stop organizing to the point of losing several previous jobs, I thought Clare laid on the neat freak a little much for comical effect. However, seeing as Reggie cleans when she is stressed, and her life has been one cluster after another, it is still very relatable. I have been known to start cleaning the floorboards when life gets intense.
Reggie's biggest weakness is the ability to stay in denial instead of accepting reality and moving forward with her life. She refuses to believe in magic for a good chunk of the book, despite the ever-growing evidence and multiple people saying it is real. Finally, Dru pulls out all the stops to convince Reggie the hard way, I guess being turned into a cat can break through any stubbornness.
It was very annoying and downright sad how much Reggie wanted to believe in her parents as they let her down time and time again. Again she wasn't ready to believe what was right in front of her. She gets there in the end but after we learn all her parents had done to her, I was ready to knock them out myself a time or two.
Ben was such a softy! From Reggie’s point of view he started out as your typical standoffish alpha male but the moment we get inside his head, Ben is all talk and no bite. It was refreshing to have a male MC fall in love first for a change, Reggie totally got under his skin in all the best ways. He was endearingly protective of her from day one and when he came to her rescue and was so genuine in caring for her cemented his good guy status no matter what his reputation seemed to be. It was clear that Ben was trying to cover up how little he thought of himself with gruff indifference and overachieving in the magic world. I cheered when Reggie FINALLY understood and saw Ben for who he truly was.
Also, can I mention how sinful the bedroom scenes were? Ben took worshiping freckles to the next level and Reggie is one lucky girl.
The world-building was a bit sparse, we were told where magic originated but not much else. I would have liked to understand more about how magic exists alongside the ordinary world. It seems like a bit plot hole that somehow big corporations are paying warlocks to curse their competitors but magic is still a secret to the general population. We don't get a whole lot of interaction with the other family houses outside of hostile encounters and vague threats. I still don’t understand the difference between a familiar and a witch/warlock other than they descended from the Roman gods, other than their skill level in magic and how ornery they can be.
Anyone who likes a bit of magic along with their enemies-to-lovers troupe will be delighted with Go Hex Yourself. I'd recommend putting it first in line because book two, What the Hex, is right around the corner, slated for April 2023. Book two follows Penny's adventures as William's familiar, another barely tolerable Warlock with a rough exterior. Here's hoping we’ll get another fabulously written sunshine and the grump book - a favorite of mine to review!
Tropes and Themes: Enemies to Lovers, Magic, Witches, Romcom, Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Forced Proximity.
Blurb
When Reggie Johnson answers a job ad in the paper, she's astonished to find that she's not applying to work at her favorite card game, Spellcraft: The Magicking. Instead, she's applying to be an actual familiar for an actual witch. As in, real magic.
The new job has a few perks - great room and board, excellent pay, and she's apprenticing to a powerful witch. Sure, the witch is a bit eccentric. And sure, there was that issue with the black cat Reggie would prefer to forget about. The biggest problem, however, is warlock Ben Magnus, her employer's nephew and the most arrogant, insufferable, maddening man to ever cast a spell.
Reggie absolutely hates him. He's handsome, but he's also bossy and irritating and orders her around. Ben's butt might look great in a crystal ball vision, but that's as far as it goes. But when someone with a vendetta targets the household, she finds herself working with Ben to break a deadly curse. Apparently, when they're not fighting like cats and dogs, things get downright...bewitching.
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