This month at Revolver Reads, we found ourselves with a fun palate cleanser after last months surprise bullet in the chamber, June was the month of Erin Sterlings, Ex Hex.

 If there is one lesson to take away from this novel, it’s that you should ALWAYS mix vodka and witchcraft, it’s exceptionally helpful when getting over the local nepo hottie, Rhys Penhallow. Erin gives us a first installment of a trilogy, and the first book packs and exciting and warm punch. 

Our Ex Hex journey starts with a drunk and broken hearted Vivienne Jones and her bestie in arms, Gwyn, who suggests putting a hex on her ex. 

Years later absolute chaos ensues when Rhys Penhallow returns to Graves Glen to juice up the local leylines. Met with disaster after disaster on his journey in, he becomes slightly suspicious that the ex he’s super horny for has cursed him.

Of course, as the classic ‘ye old tale Shrek taught us, people are like onions, they have layers, so does Erin Sterlings first installment. As our two leads toe the horny leylines between love and hate, we get to peel back the layers of this story. Just like Rhys peels back the polkadot dresses that leave him so hot and bothered. 

Through a conveniently placed ghost, we find out that perhaps the Penhallow founding of the town and it’s magic doesn’t exactly match up to the origin story they’ve been selling for years. In fact, their ancestor was a magic thieving murderer. The very origin story that brings full circle why Vivi, our magically constipated witch, could use an Apple Orchard candle and destroy orgasms for women that were ever involved with Rhys Penhallow. 

We get an epic battle of good and evil, a leading man ready to lay it all down for love, and a happy ending that leaves you wishing that maybe Graves Glen is the perfect crossover of all your favourite CW shows to live in. 

In all honesty, we were really pleasantly surprised by the book. Sterling does a wonderful job of working with the popular tropes in the genre, the novel comes across refreshingly self aware, and honestly super hilarious. 

Rhys and Vivi aren’t just stock leads, they have fully fleshed out stories, especially in the years apart, and in a surprise turn of events, most of the side characters have their own personality apart from aiding their love story along. Magic isn’t just something that is quickly explained away, hoping the reader will just go along with it, there is a logical way for it to coexist in the town and go unnoticed. Everything has a wonderful way of tying together loose ends, and not requiring the reader to brain blank anything that has to suspend their disbelief too far.

If you’re looking for something that a beautiful blend of Gilmore Girls and Halloweentown, Ex Hex is the perfect beach read for you. Come join us as we talk about everything about Ex Hex that made it a perfect RomCom to read at Revolver Reads: A Book Club Russain Roulette on your podcast platform of choice, or @revolverreads on instagram, and let us know what you think! We are also ALWAYS keeping our eyes peeled for new reads to add to our list, so feel free to message us on instagram with your suggestions, or email us at [email protected]