Vivi and Rhys have amazing chemistry, and the only times I wasn’t mad if they weren’t on page together was if Vivi was talking with her cousin Gwen (who was an absolute delight). However, The Ex Hex has stellar banter, smoking hot sexy times, and a bit of a witchy mystery, so overall I quite enjoyed it.

The second is that there were a few plot threads here and there that I didn’t really feel added much, but that honestly isn’t as big a deal as miraculously amazing sex at 19. So everything else related to their feelings about their short relationship felt real. 19-year-olds are nothing if not emotional and full of dramatic moments (I would know, as I live with one). And while I don’t doubt that some people have amazing sex the minute they fall into bed with each other at 19, I would say it is not your typical experience, and honestly, it kept grating at me, because it just felt so unrealistic. First of all – and maybe I’m being too picky here – the two main characters, Vivi and Rhys, spend an absurd amount of time thinking about how good it was when they were together at 19. I started The Ex Hex late on a Sunday night and stayed up absurdly late finishing it (mistakes were made, folks), because it really was adorable and fun and surprisingly, exactly what my brain had set me up to expect.

I’ve read maybe half of her YA, and I apparently did not really enjoy Hex Hall, her debut novel (Kate in the early 2010s was apparently a lot less picky about reading material – I gave the book two stars and I kept reading the series?! Who does that?).Īnyway, all of that is to say that I went in expecting to love this book, because my fickle memory told me I loved all of Rachel Hawkins’ previous books, and luckily, my expectations held. When I fact-checked this (thank goodness for Goodreads, despite its many flaws), I found that was not, in fact, the case. When I was mentally writing this review, I planned on opening with some comment about how I’ve read so many of Rachel Hawkins’ books, and I loved them all.

The ex hex erin sterling