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A review by kittykels
Always Practice Safe Hex by Juliette Cross
dark
tense
fast-paced
3.0
I thought this book would be my book. Broody, dark, mysterious supernatural man that's extremely dominant and has shadow tentacles? I couldn't ask for anything more.
But this story lacked a lot of interest. Even a straightforward, low-stakes story needs something interesting to drive the plot forward anda random dude who wants to SA and murder the FMC just doesn't do it for me. We barely even see him and he's barely even a threat, except for at the end for like, 2 seconds. I'm glad it didn't get graphic or worse than it was, that's not what I wanted . But I just didn't like this as the plot or the conflict.
I also thought theshaving scene was weird. I know it's supposed to be an intimate moment between them, but it was just cringe to me.
Someone said these books get better but I think it's the opposite. In the first book, the silly YA language made sense because the FMC was depicted as young-at-heart and nerdy and the MMC loved her in all her weird and quirky glory. The other sisters aren't supposed to have this same personality yet the language has stayed the same, and it seems to be just the language the author writes in. These women are supposed to be in their late 30s at least, yet they're all speaking like teens. Even some of the male characters, who are even older, will sometimes use this immature language. I just don't like that this would be the generic language choice for a bunch of supernatural adults who are supposed to be cool and sexy and serious. It doesn't add up, except in Evie's case.
Lastly I have to mention the song choices. A lot of the songs mentioned I was familiar with, but one of them, the one Gareth mouths to Livvy while they're dancing, I hadn't heard of before and looked it up because it sounded like a song I would really enjoy. I wish I wouldn't have because despite liking the song, it was a terrible mental image picturing Gareth singing that to her. I feel like setting Gareth up to be dark, serious, and dominant and then having him do something like this (among other things) was a really poor and out-of-character choice. A simple change to Livvy being the one to sing the song to him would have made it less weird. Maybe I'm nitpicking at this point, but I really wanted to love this series so I'm just a bit disappointed.
But this story lacked a lot of interest. Even a straightforward, low-stakes story needs something interesting to drive the plot forward and
I also thought the
Someone said these books get better but I think it's the opposite. In the first book, the silly YA language made sense because the FMC was depicted as young-at-heart and nerdy and the MMC loved her in all her weird and quirky glory. The other sisters aren't supposed to have this same personality yet the language has stayed the same, and it seems to be just the language the author writes in. These women are supposed to be in their late 30s at least, yet they're all speaking like teens. Even some of the male characters, who are even older, will sometimes use this immature language. I just don't like that this would be the generic language choice for a bunch of supernatural adults who are supposed to be cool and sexy and serious. It doesn't add up, except in Evie's case.
Lastly I have to mention the song choices. A lot of the songs mentioned I was familiar with, but one of them, the one Gareth mouths to Livvy while they're dancing, I hadn't heard of before and looked it up because it sounded like a song I would really enjoy. I wish I wouldn't have because despite liking the song, it was a terrible mental image picturing Gareth singing that to her. I feel like setting Gareth up to be dark, serious, and dominant and then having him do something like this (among other things) was a really poor and out-of-character choice. A simple change to Livvy being the one to sing the song to him would have made it less weird. Maybe I'm nitpicking at this point, but I really wanted to love this series so I'm just a bit disappointed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Violence and Sexual harassment
Minor: Pregnancy