Hex and the City - Kate Johnson

Things you should know about Poppy:

1. She’s a witch

2. She has magical hair like Rapunzel from Tangled

3. She lives with Iris, the head of her coven, in a beautiful, ramshackle house next to Highgate cemetery

4. She works at Hubble Bubble, a magic shop in Covent Garden. Though none of it is real magic as that would be highly irresponsible. Until…

…Poppy accidentally sells gorgeous celebrity magician Axl Storm, all six-foot-four of him, a cursed pendant. When all hell breaks loose can the guy with fake magic and the girl with real magic fix the chaos they’ve caused? Or will sparks fly both in and out of the cauldron? (link)

My review: 3 / 5

I enjoyed this book! I know you might look at my rating of a three out of five and think “What? But normally, when she really likes a book she rates it a 4?” or maybe you don’t have any opinions of my reviews because you don’t care that much. Honestly, no hard feelings... I know I have a solid four subscribers (shout out to those subscribers, because y’all are the only thing tethering me to hope at this point!) Back to my review, I gave this book a three out of five because I liked it, but I wouldn’t necessarily say that I liked it.

If you’ve read multiple of my reviews by now, you know that it takes me only a few days to get through any kind of book, whether I really enjoyed it, or I hated it. This book is a great example of finding a solid average.

Let’s get one thing straight, if you tell me that there is a romcom about a witch in modern times, I’m gonna gobble that shit up. Did I enjoy it? Yes. Did I read it in less than 3 days? Yep. Did it have me kickin my feet? Of course.

But here’s what I keep doing to myself: reading romcoms, and hoping they are going to fill a void within my soul that I am (clearly) missing from real life. And then what happens? We all know not to rely on para social relationships with books, and know not to hope that they can fill a void in our soul, right? Well then why do I keep doing it? And why do I keep letting myself down?

The few rom-coms I’ve read this year have continuously been “nice” but not amazing or “hard to put down.” I think I have a hard time with the predictability of rom-coms, as an avid realistic romance reader… Maybe going forward I should stick to what I know… but how boring would that be?

Back to the book once again! I thought this book put a great fictional spin on witchcraft. I think witchcraft gets a really bad rap, what with burning witches at the stake and such… I think painting a picture of witchcraft as something that can be done by people who are not trying to harm other people really gave it a few points in my book. Also, If you didn’t know, I am a practicing witch, so I’m a smidge biased.

I also really liked the spin of the woman having the power and the man having to rely on her. Yada yada yada, feminism, blah, blah, blah. Whatever, hate me if you want, but I love a good "strong woman fixing things" trope. Even when she's fixing things she messed up in the first place! I especially love it when the man still tries to take care of her (projecting!!??) Add some details about magic hair? You're gonna get me. (It gave me major Tangled vibes.) Also, big points for being set in England! (Note to self: read more British books?)

Basically, I would recommend this book for someone who needs a light read after a deep, psychologically traumatizing book. Should I have read this after I’m Glad My Mom Died? Probably. I think this book gives a really cute vibe of a busy city filled with magic that no one can see - but not in an overdone, Harry Potter way. So, the music on this playlist gives me vibes of a bustling city with magic under the cobblestones. Happy listening!

Spotify: LINK