Reviews

Felt much the same about this one as the first in the series (including the same opposites attract trope), but in this one we start getting a little deeper into the status of familiars in this society, which interests me. The short stories in this series are also worth a read (but don't read them one after another as they're quite similar to each other, though all enjoyable): The 13th Hex, A Christmas Hex, Wild Wild Hex.

hpstrangelove's review against another edition

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5.0

Audio book review. Narrator: Tristan James

We return to the same universe as Hexbreaker, with many of those characters playing supporting roles. We have two new characters, Dr. Owen Yates and fox-shifter Malachi. There's some interesting history introduced, about shifters and their witches. The narrator did another great job, especially with the sex scenes. The author has just the right balance of plot and sex.

becka6131's review against another edition

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4.0

Cute, sweet, it's getting four stars because I love the world building in this series.

daniellesalwaysreading's review against another edition

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4.0

Such an enjoyable series to read.

jennifox's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I really wanted to like this more than I did. The relationship felt really rushed (they had a lot of sex, but never really communicated). I had a hard time warming up to Owen, which was odd cause I liked him well enough in the last book. He just felt stuffy and oddly unwilling to question societal norms that should have been obviously questionable to someone who's otherwise so concerned with justice. I'm also finding the world increasingly uncomfortable. The treatment of familiars is so bad that it's hard not to see everyone as complicit. And that may be the point, but it's not what I'm looking for from a romance novel.

Also, the third-act breakup was particularly dumb and obvious from the start. The whole resolution to the mystery was unsatisfying.

Content Warnings

shanaqui's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Back to Hexworld, and this second book is as fun as the first. I think I liked them a tiny bit less than Cicero and Tom from the first book, and I thought they needed to do a heck of a lot more communicating (including about their boundaries during sex, which they just kind of plunge into), but Malachi and Owen have a totally different and interesting dynamic, and it worked out well. The power differential between witches and familiars is present in all of these stories, but most of all here, where the personal relationship balances it.

I think overall I'd have liked a bit longer for Owen and Malachi's relationship to develop; the compressed timescale didn't quite work for me here, and I could've used seeing a little more trust starting to develop between them. The relationship crisis definitely echoed the one in the first book, but I'd felt more closely connected to the relationship in the first book.

I'm curious to see where the overarching plot is going, and I love the background of the world -- Owen's trans brother, because of course hexes can help with that; Egyptian archaeology being relevant for the history of hexes... It's all pretty fascinating, and as always the book is pacy and fun.

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