October 8, 2024 • 60 mins
Join us in this week's episode to discuss The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling. In this episode we talk about everything from our personal plans to curse an ex to Christina's actual worst nightmare! Please send us book recs and follow us on our socials @theRPHpodcast https://linktr.ee/raunchypowerhour
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome to Raunchy Power Hour, a book club for discussing romance, from the erotic to
(00:05):
the erroneous.
As always, this is an explicit podcast and contains strong language, adult themes, and
sexual content.
If you are sensitive to these things, we urge you calmly but sincerely to turn off your
radio now!
This month we are reading The X-Hex by Erin Sterling.
This is part 1 of The X-Hex.
(00:27):
This podcast will contain spoilers through Chapter 17.
If you want to read along with us, stop listening now!
It's okay, we'll wait for you to come back.
This book contains no content warnings.
You have been warned.
I'm your producer Ashlyn.
I'm one of your hosts Sydney.
(00:50):
And I'm back up from the basement!
It's Christina.
Now get ready to get raunchy.
Well, hello Christina!
Hello Sydney!
Welcome up from the basement!
(01:11):
Welcome back!
I'm so glad to have you here!
Thanks, the sunlight is nice again.
I'm kind of like, you know, getting a little used to it up here.
It would be kind of nice to not be locked in the basement all the time.
Not all the time, but we'll see about that.
Well, before we get too far into it, before I ask you a question, just wanted to introduce
(01:32):
to the world that Christina is going to be my new co-host sometime!
She's been promoted from basement dweller to partial co-host sometimes.
We'll see.
We'll figure out the whole title later.
We haven't figured that out yet for the contract.
(01:54):
It'll be so official.
I'm no longer the unpaid intern.
I'm just unpaid?
Yeah, there we go.
We could do that.
Honestly, that is a really good title.
We might do that.
But for right now, because we do need to have one person in the basement at a time.
Lauren is down there currently in a timeout basement time.
(02:15):
But don't worry, we do feed her regularly and sometimes give her sunlight.
Christina, I have a question for you.
What's that, Sydney?
Out of all of the Halloween candy that is out in the world, which one do you think is
the sexiest?
(02:36):
What is the sexiest Halloween candy?
Okay, maybe this is just me personally, but three musketeers.
I mean, it's just new.
I mean, if you got three musketeers, that's better than like a Skittle.
(03:00):
Like what's a Skittle?
That would be so stupid.
But three musketeers, you can imagine that.
Yeah.
What are you imagining with a three musketeer that makes it sexy?
Use your imagination, everybody.
I feel like there could be three super sexy musketeers or there could be one weird hundred
grand.
(03:20):
Like, you know, like, pick one.
There we go.
There we go.
True.
Truly.
I was just thinking about this and I was like, what would be the sexiest?
I think we can both agree that the least sexy Halloween candy is like fresh fruit.
Like nerd alert.
Oh yeah, never.
Or raisins?
Absolutely not.
Oh God, we wouldn't get raisins.
(03:42):
I was going to say though, it's like those full king size Hershey bars.
Those are pretty sexy.
Okay.
Okay.
Well, okay.
You're like, mmm.
I don't know.
I still stick with my three musketeers answer, but now I'm thinking about the fresh fruit
because while an apple is not sexy, what if you were given an eggplant instead of fruit?
(04:04):
Simple.
Moving on.
Well, as you guys heard in the intro, this month we have been reading XX by Erin Sterling.
So it's time for that spooky season.
And this is our Halloween special.
(04:25):
So we have been rearing to read this book since last year.
We were actually planning on reviewing this book last year, but we unfortunately never
got around to it.
And now we have Christina here to read and review.
So this is very exciting.
But before we jump too far into it, I am here to give you your usual general notes about
(04:46):
the book.
And to start off, this book was first published back in 2021 and the author is known as Erin
Sterling that is the author on the book.
Or that is a pseudonym for another author, which many of you may know, aka Rachel Hawkins,
(05:08):
who is a New York Times bestselling author and has written books such as The Reckless
Girls and The Wife Upstairs.
So I don't know.
I just thought it was really interesting to have an author who had a pseudonym and a pretty
famous one kind of, I don't know, just write the book.
I thought it was interesting.
It's not hidden.
(05:28):
She's open about her pseudonym.
Yeah, and honestly, I would love to ask her why she has like a pseudonym, you know?
Like I would love to ask her that question.
Why?
Because the pseudonym is saved for her romance books, primarily.
And Rachel Hawkins, this can't be for thrillers.
Maybe it is just sexier.
(05:50):
But she has written a lot of YA and Rachel Hawkins actually studied gender and sexuality
and Victorian literature at Auburn University, which fun fact is where we all met.
It's where all the RPH girlies met each other.
So that's kind of cool to have.
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Weagle Weagle man.
And yeah, so she's a local from there and she's written a lot of books and it's just
cool to have that connection to her.
The book itself is about 308 pages in the paperback specifically and has the Goodreads
Choice Awards nominee for best romance in 2021.
(06:34):
So on Goodreads, our average rating is a 3.5 stars out of 156,403 reviews.
And on Storygraph, we have an average of a 3.54 with 29,402 reviews.
Is there anything else you want to mention, Christina, before jumping into characters?
(07:00):
All right.
Well, I will let her introduce our main players.
All right, we've got a whole slew of main players in this book, which was relatively
short but packed in a bunch of people.
We've got Gwen Jones, who is Vivi's best friend and cousin, who also has a super adorable
(07:22):
cat, Sir Percival.
Gwen lives with her mother, Elaine Jones, who is Vivi's aunt, and they're all witches,
all the above.
We have Simon Penhollow, who is Reese's father, and we've also got Wells Penhollow and Bowen
Penhollow, Reese's brothers.
(07:43):
We talk more about Lou Wellen, Wells, but Bowen definitely gets a mention.
He's got a beard.
Got important things.
That is important to know.
Bowen's got a beard.
That's kind of all we know about him.
And then other minor mentions would be Alwyn Jones, Piper McBride, Grifford Penhollow.
(08:05):
Alrighty.
Thank you, Christina, for introducing some characters for us.
Now, to get in to the book.
And just to remind everyone, we are not doing chapter by chapter summaries anymore.
We're just going to kind of go over main events and not mention like this is chapter one,
two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
And then we're going to go into two and blah, blah, blah, blah, because that took forever
(08:27):
and I don't want to do it anymore.
And now we begin.
Our book opens with Vivian Jones, who is currently heartbroken in the bathtub, drinking some,
I think a vodka cranberry.
And yeah, she's really sad because she just she is 19 years old, devastated because she
(08:51):
just broke up with Reese Penhollow.
And why, you may ask, they break up?
Well, it's because we find out that Reese is like a part of this old witch family who
were old.
He has a he's so old.
He has a betrothed and he didn't tell Viv about it and she was not happy.
(09:15):
So she broke up with him immediately.
As one does, I honestly know it was giving Mama Mia vibes.
It was giving Donna and that other guy breaking up at the beginning.
So Vivi, of course, being really sad and drunk is moping where her cousin comes in, who is
(09:39):
Gwen and goes, hey, man, like we need to do something silly to make you like feel better.
And they just quote unquote curse him so they don't they are not intending to actually do
it.
So they put on like a bunch of different like little things like he won't his hair won't
do the thing, which we don't know what that is.
But imagine what your the thing is with hair and it's that and that he would never be able
(10:02):
to please another woman because he wouldn't be able to find the clitoris.
They really don't need for these.
They did.
They did.
I was like, damn, that that does suck.
But as they're doing it, Gwen Vivian gets out of the tub and is like sitting there doing
this.
And she sits there and says, I curse you, Reese Penhollow.
(10:26):
And suddenly like the flames go up and it's like a big thing.
They're like, whoa, isn't that crazy?
Isn't that crazy?
Didn't curse him, though.
No way.
There's no way you could curse him.
But of course, as they turn away, the candle relights and the smoke filters out into the
(10:47):
night and it's like, oh, I think they may have cursed him.
It's so dramatic, but I kind of love it.
Oh, it was honestly like it was so visual the way it was written to like you could totally
see this as a movie scene.
Oh, 100 percent.
Very hocus pocus.
It's so it's honestly the way I was describing this book is it is bewitched meets Gilmore
(11:15):
Girls with bits of Mamma Mia sprinkled in.
Yeah, the Gilmore Girls vibes were heavy, heavy, and I kind of loved it.
So nine years later, we get a little time skip and now we're back and Reese's POV and
(11:36):
he has just arrived home in Wales.
And I did write down here that I was really confused because I was like, I said, OK, but
is Reese Welsh or from Georgia?
And I just went definitely Welsh with a brother name.
And when I found out what his brother's name was.
But I don't know.
Sometimes in Georgia, you can be surprised.
(11:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
With how they they spell certain names anyway.
So Reese is back in his hometown in Wales where he doesn't really like to come and he's moping
because he has because he has to go speak to his dad.
And Wells, who owns a bar in the town, basically tells him to like, suck it up, go talk to
(12:20):
dad because dad's messing with the weather.
Because for context, the Penn Hollows are known to be like a very old like we kind of
said an old witch family, very powerful and both like the human world and the wizard witchy
world.
So yeah, now they are.
(12:42):
So Reese goes to the house and is like, hey, dad, and dad's like.
Ew, I hate you.
They do not like each other.
They hate each other.
There is a lot of animosity between the two.
And it's just because I mean, Reese doesn't live up to his expectations the same way that
(13:04):
his other two sons do and whatever.
Anyway, Reese's dad, Simon Pound in Hallow's like, hey, man, I need you to go back.
I need you to go to Graves Glen, Georgia and go recharge these lay lines.
And Reese is like.
Fuck, I don't want to do that.
It's like, I don't want to.
(13:28):
Yeah, very peak that.
And he's like, well, I can't bow under Wells do it.
And his dad's like, well, they're living their own lives and doesn't matter.
Anyway, Reese is set up to go back to Graves Glen and he's not excited about it because
(13:48):
he worries about how the way things ended with Vivian because he still thinks about her nine
years later.
Nine years later after their three month relationship also.
Hey, man, if it's good sex, good sex.
I'm going to think about it nine years later.
Nine years of it.
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Nine years.
In Wales.
So Reese is like, OK, I guess I'll go back.
He goes and tells his brother what happened in Georgia and Wells is like.
Suck it up, buttercup.
Gotta go.
And Reese is on his way to Georgia.
Da da da da da.
(14:36):
I just need you guys to listen to this, too.
What I said.
I also wrote down Dad is dark academia is dark academia's wet dream.
Literally like Dracula's wet dream to like pair them all together.
Honestly, honestly.
(14:59):
So now we're going back to Gwen's not to Gwen.
I keep saying Gwen when I met Vivian.
That's so weird.
I kind of want to do that, too.
I don't know why.
Yeah.
All right, so now we are back with Vivian and Graves Glen is giving such hard Gilmore
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Girls vibes like the whole town.
I'm like, dear God, I don't under I don't know what town in Georgia would be this fall
idyllic thing, but.
I love it.
100 percent stars hollow and there kind of is a town that's sort of like this town where
it's a witchy and got a college.
Tennessee.
The University of the South.
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It definitely got that witchy vibe.
I think at one point they all wore robes, but.
Oh, fine.
Anyway, we have a reveal that Vivian is a professor at Penn Penhaven College.
She is a professor, though, not in witchy shit, but in just normal history.
She's just very interested in it.
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And this is kind of where we get some background into that Vivian wasn't really raised a witch
herself and that after the death of her parents, she came to Grave Glen to live with her aunt
and her cousin.
And that's where she learned she was a witch and had powers and so on and so forth.
Very Harry Potter.
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Very, very.
And what happens is that she's never really felt connected to her witchy side, which is
why she kind of teaches history on the more human side rather than going to the other
side of the school, which we find out is the witchy side.
So there's witches classes over there.
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I would love to major in potions.
Oh, come on.
Yeah, potions and like any like honestly, like a major in cursing would be fun.
Oh, OK.
So I have I have my major in hex curses and my minor is in potions.
The pretentious students.
(17:18):
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah, you have to.
So she so we get to that and she's running late for family dinner.
So she basically just like is running home real quick and arrives at the house and Gwen
is in the kitchen and Gwen is the one who tells Vivian that.
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She thinks Reese's that Reese is coming.
And Vivian's like, well, we have to like double check.
And how do they do that?
They use witchy shit and tarot cards.
Obviously, obviously.
There's so much witchy shit and it's so cute.
But they pull like some tarot cards, which when is like painted and the fool falls out,
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which is the one that.
Gwen painted to look like Reese.
So it's a true best friend.
Honestly, honestly, I love it.
And so it is confirmed that Reese is coming and they're like crap.
Well, the last time we kind of did this witchy stuff was back when, you know, we cursed,
(18:27):
we cursed him, wasn't that funny when we definitely didn't actually curse him.
So Vivian kind of denies that she's like feeling anything.
She's like, it's just that guy I broke up with after three months.
Like definitely shouldn't be thinking about him.
But she's also been thinking about him for the past nine years.
So they're both kind of in the same boat of the one that got away.
(18:50):
She even think about him and stalking him on the Internet.
She knows what he's up to.
Yeah, I mean, I get it.
I used to look up who my old crushes were and keep tabs on what they were doing.
See have they gotten any better in the last nine years?
Have they gotten downhill?
Where are they at?
They've gone downhill.
So I know I stepped up, so I'm fine.
(19:14):
I know I'm doing just great.
Anyway, so we're jumping back into Reese's POV and we get the most accurate description
of trying to drive through Atlanta traffic ever.
Oh, it's so good because it's so bad.
I hate driving through Atlanta.
It is my own personal hell.
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It is my own personal hell.
I hate it so much.
But he is backstage side and he is just like having the worst luck.
Like he nearly missed his flight.
Now he's going through really bad traffic.
And then as he's driving up the mountain, suddenly his tire pops and he's like stranded
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on the side of the road and he's like, what the fuck is going on?
Like this is so weird that this is happening.
And there's like rain and he's like regretting not asking his dad for help.
But he's also like, I would never ask my dad for help.
No, no, no, no, no.
I have daddy issues, so I'm not going to ask anyone for help, especially my dad.
So he's just going to stand on the side of the road.
(20:18):
Like we want to do obviously.
Well then he does try to do magic to fix the tire and the tire blows up.
And it's like, OK.
So as so he grabs his bags and he's trying to head up towards the house and who's coming
down the hill in her car?
None other than Vivian.
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But as she's driving, she nearly hits and kills Reese, but he's able to jump out of
the way and he rolls into a ditch and she like hops out and she's like, oh my God, are
you OK?
She's like, oh my gosh, I didn't mean to like hit you.
I didn't see you.
And as soon as she sees it's him, she like goes.
Oh, I should have hit you.
It was on site.
(21:00):
Yeah, she was like, I'm going to I wish I had hit you.
And there was like a little bit of banter and the bushes and all of that.
But inevitably, she decides to leave Reese on the side of the road and drive back towards
her aunt's house.
And I'm like or her apartment.
Sorry.
(21:21):
And I'm like, fair the fuck enough.
So good.
Like I have so much respect for her, like immediately coming out of this book.
Like what?
She left him on the side of the road.
That's great.
That's fantastic.
Yeah.
Good job, Vivian.
We're so proud of you because, oh yeah, that's honestly how you should treat an ex-boyfriend
if you see him after nine years and he didn't tell you he was betrothed or anything.
(21:45):
Anyway, now we're coming to what's called Founders Day.
So this is like a big celebration in the town of Graves Glen because basically Reese's ancestor
named Griffith Penhollow.
We did have to look this up because we were all struggling to say this name.
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It was so bad.
We were like, how the fuck do you say this name?
I've just said Griffith.
Griffith.
I just went Griffith instead of Griffith because I just like, my brain could not compute.
I was like Griffith it is.
But he is said to have found the town and he also created the ley lines in the town
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and basically gave it like a lot of, like just perfect for witches in a lot of ways.
And so they celebrate the day and that is why Reese is in town is to celebrate his great
great grandpappy and also charge the ley lines for the future because they have to be recharged
every 25 or so years.
(22:47):
Anyway, it's a really big day for Vivian and her family because they own a little witch
shop both for actual magical needs and for people who are non-magical and it's called
something wicked.
It's very cute.
It's a cute little shop.
It gets mentioned a lot.
But what I find interesting and I'd like to this aspect of the book is that other witches
(23:10):
didn't love the shop and it was because they use a lot of like witch imagery and other
stereotypes to like do merchandise.
And I was curious Christina what you thought about like this part of the book, like this
little like little bit of world building because I personally loved it.
(23:30):
I loved it too.
I think it made a lot of sense.
Like if I saw someone going around and like, you know, selling my stereotype and making
like a not a buttload of money off of it, but like, you know, like adding to the adding
to the name, I'd be like these fools again.
Like I personally would be upset.
But then also I'm like, but they're having a grand old time.
(23:52):
Like it's so fun to just lean into it and they are and it's cute and they have so many
random people walk in.
Yeah, it's like it's not like they're like making fun of it at all.
Really?
They're just like, we're in on the joke.
They're in on the joke.
Yeah.
And the town, the town of witches from the school are not in on the joke.
(24:16):
And you can tell.
No, no, because they're too uppity.
They have sticks up their butts.
Anyway, so it's been a big day.
Brooms up their butts.
I love it.
That was so good.
So yeah, it's Founders Day.
So Vivian is trying to help out the shop and like sell stuff.
(24:39):
And in comes in the mayor.
So the mayor is she's looking at Reese because he's meant to give a big speech.
And the reason she's coming to something wicked specifically is because her and Gwen have
like have had a thing.
And Gwen's like, well, you know, Vivian and Reese used to be friends because Vivian had
(25:02):
just told Gwen about the whole thing from the night before.
And Gwen was like, well, I'm eating it up.
I need you to tell the story of how you nearly run Reese Penhall off the road at my funeral.
So obviously teasing her cousin and being like, what are you doing?
And Vivian's like, yeah, I guess I knew him.
(25:22):
I can go find him.
And the mayor is like, yes, please, because I'm freaking the fuck out.
She goes and gets Reese and she finds him at a coffee shop.
And I just wrote down, we get the pendant line.
Do you know what line I'm talking about with the pendant?
(25:43):
I think so.
Oh, my God.
I do have it marked.
Give me just a moment.
Let me find her.
I do have her.
Where is she?
I hope the rest of his outfit was equally great.
Gray trousers, a white button down unbuttoned just so.
(26:04):
A deep charcoal vest and around his neck, a silver pendant with a dark purple jewel.
Vivi had a sudden explicit memory of that same pendant dangling against her chest as
he moved above her.
And I was like, I was gagged.
I will say I was like, oh, that pendant is going to mean something.
(26:26):
It's going to mean something.
And I just love how she's like, she's like, she didn't even like jewelry on men before,
but it suited Reese.
And I was like, yeah, it did.
But it was just like the pendant line.
I'm like, I have to underline that.
(26:47):
I have to talk about that later.
It felt like, you know, like you're reading along and you're like, OK, then you read that
and you're like, oh, oh, pause for a second.
Yeah, you're like, I have to clutch my pearls.
Pearls?
Consider them clutched.
Consider them clutched.
(27:10):
And then we jump back into Reese's POV, which is a little bit of time has passed.
And it's after his speech because he nearly got killed by the statue of his great, great,
great, great grandfather in the middle of his speech because for no reason whatsoever,
(27:31):
the guy's head just fell off and nearly crushed Reese.
Which honestly, I kind of wish there was a version of this book where he did get hit
because that'd be kind of funny.
It would be.
But what I love is that he hasn't.
Well, he did.
He did kind of put two and two together.
He's like, something's weird.
That's a lot of bad luck.
(27:51):
It's a weird thing to fall on you.
It's not like, oh, like, you know, I got hit with like bird poop or maybe even like a squirrel
fell out of a tree.
Like, nah, this was a statue.
Yeah, like this is a statue that's been there for years and years.
Like how like that just doesn't happen.
So.
(28:11):
So Reese thinks he's been possibly cursed by Vivi and he's just like, I don't know.
So he decides that he needs to call his dad and call him up.
Oh, actually, wait before we go there, before this whole thing happened, Reese, before he
went up and did a speech, invited Vivi to the latelines to go charge them.
(28:37):
And this is like a big deal for Vivi because it's kind of like a sacred witchy thing to
not go to the latelines.
So the fact that Reese invited her to come with him to like charge them is kind of like
a big deal.
Wanted to bring that up before we continue too far down the road and I didn't get to
mention that.
Anyway, back to Reese finally thinking, I should maybe call my dad.
(29:03):
So he calls up his dad and he's like, hey, dad, so I think I'm cursed and Simon.
Simon's like.
Simon sounds like the guy who's like, we haven't had a female born in this family in like the
past five generations.
We literally produce men.
Like you know, you know what I mean?
Like that's the energy it was giving off.
Oh, exactly.
And I think what he calls him on a mirror.
(29:25):
So that's dramatic.
Oh, the scene mirror.
Yeah, because Simon, if you guys are not picking up on we're putting down, is very old.
Old, which does not like modern technology or old or things like that.
He's like, he will stick in his ways.
But Simon's like a guy who would look sorry.
He's the kind of guy who would die in the hole that he was born in.
(29:46):
You know, 100% but he he's just like, no, no one can curse a pen hollow.
No one's cursed a pen hollow and like hundreds of years and like if they did like, it's giving
very alpha male and Reese is like, okay, bye.
But Reese was like, legitimately concerned because he was like, well, I don't want to
(30:09):
like he was trying to bring up concern because he didn't want to like charge a late lines
if he was cursed and his dad didn't listen.
So anyway.
Yeah, so he basically tells Dries to just go do his job and get the shit over with.
And now we are with Vivi and Reese driving up to the Leyline cave.
(30:34):
And this is our first of a couple Harry Potter references and my favorite is the full going
full Potter.
And I thought that was kind of funny.
Full Potter, which is when someone is raised not being a witch and then they find out later
they are a witch.
And Vivian not realizing certain things about being a witch because she just didn't grow
(30:59):
up that way.
So that was kind of cute.
I did like that reference.
I was like, I wonder if they're going to mention it and they did.
And it was pretty well done.
So they drive up to the cave and as they're going there, Vivian like explains that her
mom didn't really like magic.
She was a witch, but she never did it.
(31:21):
She kind of thought it was dangerous and there was like a whole memory with Vivian doing
some magic and there was flower petals and her mom being like, it's really dangerous.
Don't do that.
Anyway, they reach the Leyline cave and they go in.
(31:42):
And there's a funny side effect.
They go into the cave, they get lost a bit and then Vivian like helps Reese find the
way and they go into the little cave where the Leylines are.
And the side effect, warning, if you decide to take Leylines, you may get inexplicably
horny for your nine year old from your ex from nine years ago.
They just suddenly get really horny.
(32:05):
Are we explained why they get horny?
No.
No, it's never mentioned.
I'm so confused.
But I thought it was really funny that they were just like, oh my God, I'm just so hot
and turned on right now.
I'm so horny at the Leyline.
They walk in and they're like, it's time to get witchy.
And then they're like, actually.
(32:26):
Not actually.
And he doesn't really know, like Reese doesn't a hundred percent know what to do.
And then they basically stop out of it because Vivian's like, did you bring me here to have
sex with me in the Leyline cave?
And Reese is like, no, I'm not that much of a creep.
(32:48):
And Vivian's like, fine, let's get this over with so you can go home and get out of my
life.
And Reese is like, fine.
So he goes in and tries to charge the Leylines when things don't go quite how they were meant
(33:08):
to.
And basically spirals out of control because Reese has put his hands on the Leylines and
they turn like this.
It's the evil purple color that you see in Disney all the time.
That's like honestly what I imagined was the evil purple from Disney you see whenever it's
evil witch magic.
It was a hundred percent evil witch, like Ursula, black and purple magic.
(33:33):
So they rush out of the cave.
They realize things are really going wrong and they see the magic, the purple magic flowing
down into Graves Glen, which is spooky because they don't know what happened.
And Vivian realizes that she did in fact curse Reese all those years ago.
(33:56):
And the next little bit opens with them literally like racing back trying to get back to town.
And Reese is like so mad that she cursed him.
He's like, you cursed me.
Why would you do that?
And she goes, I don't know.
I was 19 and drunk and I was heartbroken.
I was mad at you.
He's like, so you so you curse people?
And she's like, no, you were just a dick.
(34:20):
I don't curse people, but I did curse you.
I did curse you because you were a dick.
And they run, they get back and they are, they get into something wicked where things
are occurring and some plastic skulls have somehow become possessed and they're trying
(34:43):
to attack some customers in the store as well as Gwen.
So both Reese and Vivian trying to do some magic and it becomes like much stronger than
they were actually intending to do.
Anyway, Aunt Elaine, who I just imagined as, oh, what's her name?
(35:03):
Stevie Nicks.
I just imagined Stevie Nicks all the time for Aunt Elaine.
Well, that makes sense.
Like she did talk about how she has like a moment where I kind of want the Aunt Elaine
lore because she talks about her time with Led Zeppelin.
I know.
I know.
I wrote that down.
I was like, bring up what happened with Led Zeppelin.
(35:25):
Well, I need the lore behind her because like Stevie Nicks vibes is true there.
Yeah.
Hey, um, Erin Sterling, aka Rachel Hawkins, we love you so much.
Can you please give us an Aunt Elaine prequel with Led Zeppelin so we know what happens?
Please.
Please.
We're begging you.
(35:45):
We're begging.
So Aunt Elaine, the badass she is, comes in, saves the day, but the spell is more powerful
than she anticipated.
So she like, to Reese and Vivian is like, what the fuck have you done?
What did you do?
So it all comes out that Gwen and Vivi did curse Reese.
(36:09):
And they're like, okay, but like it doesn't make sense because his hair is still doing
the thing.
They bring up the hair thing a lot.
And he's like, what do you mean?
You cursed his hair?
They're like, yeah, we did.
Shut up.
And then and something about clitorises.
And he goes, what about clitorises?
And I love that Gwen was like, I feel like this is more of a punishment for other women
who dated him.
(36:30):
So we'll take that one back.
Which is honestly a good point because what does it do to him?
Like nothing.
Yeah.
But yeah, oh, and then this is when they bring up the Aunt Elaine thing.
And she was like, we've all done stupid things as teenagers.
And I'm like, what did you do with Led Zeppelin?
Tell me.
(36:50):
So they come up with a small plan and to try and figure out what to do with the ley lines
and basically lift this curse off of Reese and Reese is told to go talk to his dad.
The next morning Reese has come to breakfast and Vivi's like, oh God, he's still hot.
(37:11):
Even in my aunt's kitchen.
And that's really confusing for me.
Anyway, it is confirmed that Reese took that the curse that was on Reese was placed upon
the ley lines.
Not a hundred percent sure.
They aren't a hundred percent sure about what that means, but they think it just makes the
magic weird and do stuff it's not intended to do.
(37:37):
But what's good is that majority of the curse that they placed is most likely on the ley
lines and not on Reese anymore.
So it means he might be able to perform magic and not have it go completely haywire.
Anyway, but maybe we'll see.
And so Reese is like, well, I'm going to go to Penn Haven College to go do research at
(38:02):
the library.
And Vivi's like, well, I'm heading there for work.
So come with me.
And kind of throughout this whole conversation, it's revealed that there's a lot of research
on how curses can be laid.
Not a lot on how you get those back, how you take that away and how you strip it.
So that's a problem.
(38:23):
So that's why they decide to go to the library.
So they head to the library and they get him in to get him a little key card thing and
he gets to go study up on some literature.
And he's sitting there, he's studying, he's looking up all these things, he's transferring
(38:46):
things from Latin and so on and so forth.
A lot of not helpful knowledge is learned about curses.
Anyway, Vivi comes back from her classes and she's like, did you find anything?
And he goes, no, I didn't.
She goes, yeah, that sucks.
(39:08):
And I don't know how it happened, but the tension has been growing slowly throughout
this whole part since they've seen each other again.
It's palpable.
And it was something about the fact that I think Vivi said something like the summer
didn't mean anything to her, like trying to be tough.
(39:28):
And he calls her bluff.
Yeah, he calls her bluff.
And he goes, so if I kiss you right now, it won't mean anything.
She goes, no.
So hey guys, guess what?
They make out in the library and it's really fucking hot.
Yeah, like it gets really, really hot and heavy really fast.
Oh, I got steamy.
And I was like, hello, welcome to a new fantasy of mine, I guess.
(39:51):
And like, also, what kind of room are they in?
Because if it's anything like the library that I have been in that had like study rooms,
like you can see in those study rooms.
I assume it's like an old, I'm imagining like an old study room, like I guess with no windows.
No windows.
Someone knocks maybe.
(40:11):
Maybe a small window.
How about that?
Small, small windows so like they know where not to be.
Yeah, not to be.
Yeah, they get they're making out hot and heavy in the in the library when their little
smoochy smooch gets interrupted by screams, which is not what you want to hear when you're
(40:34):
in the middle of a makeout session.
It's in a library that's supposed to be quiet.
It is supposed to be quiet guys, no screaming.
What the hell?
And that's weird.
So they decide that they need to go investigate.
And Christina, you all know what they find?
Hmm.
(40:55):
They see a motherfucking ghost.
I was like, it's about time for a ghost in this town.
I was about to say, where is the ghost, which is funny because they mentioned that ghosts,
the lot of witches haven't seen ghosts.
So I'm like, oh, interesting.
I don't know, it's just a little bit of lore.
It's just a little bit of interesting lore.
Anyway, this ghost is like, kind of agitated.
(41:20):
She's like looking at like through the books trying to like find stuff.
And she doesn't look like she's been dead for very long, like the describers like having
like converse and like jeans and like a, I think a Nirvana t shirt.
I'll be real the way they were describing it.
I thought it was like someone from the early like 2010s, not the nineties, which we eventually
(41:42):
find out is the ghost died.
But it's just because like, yeah, that's not came back really popular when I was in high
school.
So I was like, whoops.
No, that's fair.
I, when they were describing her, I was like, oh, she's going to be another love interest.
Oh, you thought she was going to be a love interest.
Interesting.
(42:03):
I thought she was going to be a love interest.
I was like Nirvana shirt?
How will he stay away?
Oh my God.
But yeah, ghost is like looking around and then as soon as she locks eyes on Reese, she's
like the cursed Ben Harlow.
And we're like, yeah, he is cursed.
(42:24):
That's weird.
And she's like, it does a banshee scream at him.
And it's a really bad situation because the library is used by non-witches and witches.
So you know, non-witches seeing a ghost, not a good thing at hiding magic.
So Piper the ghost, that's, we found out her name's Piper.
(42:48):
She's screaming and flying around and then she just like disappears.
So Reese and Vivi get back to her office and he's like, okay, that's really weird.
Why would that happen?
And then they get summoned basically to the dean's office, to the principal's office.
And the dean is the dean of the witchcraft side of the college.
(43:09):
And it's revealed that the ghost was none other than Piper McBride.
And she was a witch back in the nineties when she died and her soul had to be bound to the
library because she was trying to do some things with like dark magic and like try to
resurrect someone.
(43:31):
And instead of fixing it themselves, because Reese and Vivi, they don't know about the
curse yet.
They just know that Vivi and Reese caused the problem.
And they're like, instead of having like the college fixing it themselves, they're like
Vivi and Reese, go fix it.
Go fix the problem.
(43:51):
Which is honestly good for them.
True honestly.
So and Vivi and Reese are like, yes ma'am, gotta go fix that problem now.
Bye.
Especially because the way that the dean is so like on their butts, like she does have
(44:14):
a broomstick up her butt.
I would be scared too.
I would be freaked.
I mean, getting called to the principal's office is not fun for anyone of any age, honestly.
Especially not an adult.
Like he doesn't even go there.
No, no, the university is named after him though.
So not a great image.
(44:36):
Yeah.
And they go back to Vivi's office and he finds out that she actually majored in like Welsh
history and folklore.
And she's like, I definitely didn't like learn about it because of you because you know you're
Welsh.
And he goes, uh-huh, sure.
And as readers we're all like, uh-huh, sure.
(44:59):
She knows someone else who's Welsh.
Of course she does.
And then moving on to our last chapter before we are at our little halfway point.
We are back at Something Wicked with Vivi and Gwen and they have a little chit chat,
a little talk about how Vivi kissed Reese and Gwen's like, well, why did you kiss him?
(45:24):
And Vivi's like, I don't know.
I just like doing it, I guess.
And Gwen's like, well, you're allowed to like it and you don't have to put strings on it
with him.
Like you're not 19.
And Vivi's like, yeah, I guess.
I guess you're right.
Maybe I could do that.
And Reese then takes that moment, of course, to walk into Something Wicked and ask Vivi
(45:50):
to go for a cup of tea.
Ooh, a cuppa.
A cuppa.
Guys, it's literally written as he asks Vivi if she wants to go for a cuppa.
It's so good.
It's so silly.
I kind of love it.
I loved how some of that stuff was written out like cuppa, but I do wish there were more
(46:14):
southern things.
For being in Georgia, I was hoping there'd be someone who said fixin'.
Someone.
I'm fixin' for a biscuit.
Honestly, yeah, now that I'm thinking about it, I wish Vivi, because Vivi grew up in Atlanta,
which yeah.
I mean, you could argue that it is southern, but it's a big city and it's a little bit
(46:38):
different than other southern places.
But yeah, or maybe Anne-Laine being like, yeah, I'm fixin' some biscuits or muffins
or something.
We were robbed of her being a super southern grandma.
I do think we were robbed of that.
We were kind of robbed.
(46:59):
It's okay.
There's still another chance with the prequel, right?
Yeah, of course.
Please.
Please, Aaron.
We beg you.
But with that, that's our halfway point.
That's where we were gonna leave off and you guys get to tune in another time to listen
(47:22):
to the rest.
But before we go, Ashlyn, do you have some questions for us?
I always have questions for you, baby.
You know how it is.
Ooh, please.
Get my mic set up.
Okay.
So first and foremost, the very beginning of the book, Vivian curses Reese with vodka
(47:46):
and a Bath and Body Works candle.
What questionable household items would you use for your cursing toolkit?
Bonus points if you can tell me what scent of candle you would use.
Ooh, I feel like a good scented candle.
I'll jump to the end of the question would be like kind of like a Merlot cherry or cranberry
(48:12):
scent.
I don't know.
That's giving curse vibes.
Here's what I would use.
I actually have my candle right here that I would use.
We've got a prop.
We do have a prop.
I would use Macal's Candles Mule Apple Cider to curse someone because it smells exactly
(48:33):
like hot apple cider.
It smells the fucking best.
So if I feel like I'm like really wanting to curse someone, this bad boy, she's hefty
too.
I feel like she's got good curse and energy.
Yeah, that's like a pretty like witchy looking candle too.
It's got what a handle on the top?
That's wild.
Got a little handle and like I swear to God, I haven't even lit this thing yet.
(48:55):
If I just open the lid, it smells like hot apple cider.
Ooh, that would be the smell of cursing.
I love it.
Yeah, it is the smell of cursing.
And I think if I were to like a drink, if I was not, if I wanted to curse someone and
I want to be drinking something while it happens, pumpkin spice latte.
(49:20):
Ooh, pumpkin spice latte.
That would be a good curse.
I feel like you just saw a really great curse.
Do you want to curse me?
I feel like I did too.
Ooh.
I curse you, Christina.
Do I have to drink the drink if I'm cursing or can I just pour it into something?
Because I feel like a Bloody Mary would be pretty funny.
(49:42):
That would be pretty funny.
But boy do I hate tomatoes.
Like that would be awful.
So I'm like, you just pour it or if it's, if you can't drink it, maybe like, I don't
know, I kind of want to involve a Tide pod because it's like you want to eat it.
I want to involve a Tide pod.
No.
(50:03):
We're not doing this again.
You know what?
I did say questionable.
I will argue too for my pumpkin spice latte.
It does specifically have to be in a sparkly, like one of those like really obnoxious Starbucks
mugs.
And it's like plastic and everything, but it's like a hot drink inside the straw drink.
(50:28):
So then you know, I'm getting all my microplastics for the day, my daily dose of microplastics
and it makes the curse stronger.
Exactly.
Reese returns to Graves Glen and everything starts going wrong, like car trouble and magic
malfunctions.
If you were to curse an ex, what would be the first ridiculous thing that you would
(50:50):
curse them with?
And if they were to curse you, what would they curse you with?
That's such a great question.
OK, I think I know what I would curse them with, and I've kind of done this in the past.
Oops.
Spam calls.
Sign them up for everything.
But magical spam calls, you'd get those day and night.
(51:11):
Like I would make sure those are coming in at 2 a.m.
They're coming in like whenever your phone's on, do not disturb that magical spam call
is getting through though.
Oh, that's really good.
I know this is tough.
I'm like, how could you curse me?
I feel like sometimes I'm already cursed.
Sidney, I know how I would curse you.
(51:32):
OK, we could do that.
How about we curse each other?
How about if we were to curse each other?
Yeah, yeah.
OK, I'm trying to think of you.
Actually, I know exactly how I would curse you.
Christina, I would curse you so that every time you go to a pizza place, they don't have
(51:54):
white sauce.
And there's no cheesy bread and they're out of cheesy bread.
They don't even have a cheesy bread.
Do they have just regular breadsticks?
I don't know.
This is a hate crime.
I know it is a hate crime.
But here's the thing, guys.
(52:15):
This is a fun fact about Christina.
Christina basically lives only on carbs.
I love carbs.
Carbs are only what you have to eat.
Yeah, I'll say they don't have they don't have cheesy bread or white or pizza with white
(52:36):
sauce.
Oh, my God.
I think I would go insane.
That would that would make me a little crazy.
Oh, actually, it's all the places that you really, really like.
But like there's other places that have it, but it's just not as good.
Oh, wait, you still have it.
Just not as good.
How do you make it worse?
It's like just out of touch.
(52:56):
Like, I'm like, oh, but maybe maybe maybe this place is good.
And then but I should know if it's on the menu, it's not going to be good.
It's not going to be the same.
It's not the same.
No, OK.
I know how I curse Sydney.
Oh, no.
How do you curse me?
Every single design thing that you work on, it will be always slightly to the right.
(53:20):
You can never fix it.
Oh, I hate that.
That's evil.
That's so evil.
Wait, I'm going to I'm going to add on to that.
So your curse is like Ashlyn and I are teaming up on your curse.
Oh, no.
Try like Vivi and Gwen.
We're teaming up on this and so I'm tossing some extra things in there.
(53:41):
And so I'm like, OK, everything will be off center and everything will be slightly off.
But also your record will always skip.
And also your cats can speak, but they only speak 50 shades of gray.
This is my literal nightmare.
I give you a mild inconvenience.
(54:05):
It's my nightmare.
No, true.
Fair enough.
OK, if I were to X, if I were to X and X, what would I do?
I would curse them with.
(54:30):
Trying to think of all like I don't really have any X's.
Me neither.
These are all hypothetical X's, but I have some people with that.
Say enemy.
I have lots of enemies.
OK, a hypothetical.
If I had a hypothetical X and I would hex them, I would hex them with.
(54:55):
I love how you're starting ascendance and thinking that you're going to get there.
And then I don't get there because I cannot think of anything.
I honestly love the spam calls thing.
I think that's honestly the greatest idea.
I would hex them with every time their doctor's office calls them.
(55:19):
They just barely miss them.
Them picking up so that they have to call them back.
Oh my God.
Wait, what if it was like every important call they miss every time?
Not every important call.
I want it to be like, you know, like with those doctor's appointment things where they'll
(55:40):
call you and then you don't pick up.
You have to go through the whole list and it takes you forever to actually get to someone.
I'm living that hell right now.
My doctor's office keeps calling me and I don't know why and I keep missing it.
And then when you call back, they're like, sorry, we can't tell you who called.
So you'll just have to wait.
(56:01):
Oh my gosh, Ashley, you've been cursed by Sydney.
I'm sorry.
I didn't mean to.
I had to check and see if it could work.
Sydney, I thought you loved me.
I do love you.
I didn't mean to.
I was drinking a pumpkin spice latte out of one of those microplastic clubs and I was
lighting my little apple cider candle.
(56:23):
I didn't know.
Oh my God.
I'm sorry.
I can't believe we're living in our own little rom-com.
Oh no.
Oh, welcome.
Welcome to the rom-com.
Ashlyn, do you have anything else for us?
I have just one more.
(56:46):
Reese and Vivian keep running into each other despite all of the chaos going on in their
own lives.
Is the universe messing with them or is this the rom-com equivalent of we're stuck in this
elevator together?
Which rom-com trope would you hate to experience in real life?
Oh, okay.
(57:10):
There's a long list of possible options.
You've obviously got the like, there's only one bed.
What an inconvenience.
I'd be pissed if I bought a hotel room that had two rooms and we had to share the one
room.
You just paid for two rooms.
You know what it would be for me personally?
It would be the guy who still is pursuing the girl even though she's said no multiple
(57:39):
times but it's for laughs and it's like, oh well, I just want to be friends and he's still
really persistent and it's just really creepy.
I would hate to experience that in real life.
Oh God, the Charlie Kellys of the world.
Yeah.
Yes.
Oh man, no, that would be so frustrating because then you'd be like, but no, really.
It's not funny.
(57:59):
It's not funny.
Please leave me alone.
Or the accent.
For some reason, this is what happens in multiple rom-coms.
Gets randomly pregnant with a stranger and then falls in love with said stranger.
That's actually a nightmare situation.
I also hate the whole like caught in the rain.
(58:20):
Oh no.
Like, no.
If I'm caught in the rain, I'm going to look like a wet dog and you ain't going to want
to be near me.
I'm going to start smelling weird.
Like my hair is going to look nasty.
I'm going to look like a rat that you pulled out of the sewer.
Like no one's seeing that.
Now don't get Cindy wrong.
The stranger part is not her fear of getting pregnant with a stranger.
It is pregnancy.
(58:41):
Yeah.
Just in general.
Just in general.
It could be any.
Anything in a bucket.
I'm scared.
A jump scare daily.
It is a jump scare.
Oh, it's when someone like when a pregnant person, I see one and I'm just like, sorry,
you scared me.
You see them from the back and you're like, okay.
(59:03):
And then they turn to the side.
And it's like jump scare.
Oh my God, baby.
Baby inside another human.
No.
This is so stupid.
Really stupid.
With that, we're going to wrap it up this evening for y'all.
(59:26):
Thank you for listening to part one of X Hex with Us by Erin Sterling.
Join in for us next time where you get to hear part two and the rest of our thoughts
about the book.
And if you like this episode, we've got quite a couple of other episodes for you to listen
to.
If you want this cute little rom-com thing going on, we've got a couple of those.
But if you want to listen to last year's Halloween episode where we read Jack's Head by Siggy
(59:51):
Shade and it is...
It was something.
It was something to say the least.
You can go listen to that.
And you can also go follow us on Instagram, TikTok, X, Twitch, Fable.
And also, I keep forgetting that we have this Goodreads.
(01:00:13):
Go follow us on Goodreads so you can see our reviews overall of these books.
And let us know if there's any books that you want us to read.
And let us know what you think.
Other than that, I'm gonna say goodnight to you, you wonderful witches.
Welcome to Raunchy Power Hour, a book club for discussing romance, from the erotic to
(00:05):
the erroneous.
As always, this is an explicit podcast and contains strong language, adult themes, and
sexual content.
If you are sensitive to these things, we urge you calmly but sincerely to turn off your
radio now!
This month we are reading The X-Hex by Erin Sterling.
This is part 1 of The X-Hex.
(00:27):
This podcast will contain spoilers through Chapter 17.
If you want to read along with us, stop listening now!
It's okay, we'll wait for you to come back.
This book contains no content warnings.
You have been warned.
I'm your producer Ashlyn.
I'm one of your hosts Sydney.
(00:50):
And I'm back up from the basement!
It's Christina.
Now get ready to get raunchy.
Well, hello Christina!
Hello Sydney!
Welcome up from the basement!
(01:11):
Welcome back!
I'm so glad to have you here!
Thanks, the sunlight is nice again.
I'm kind of like, you know, getting a little used to it up here.
It would be kind of nice to not be locked in the basement all the time.
Not all the time, but we'll see about that.
Well, before we get too far into it, before I ask you a question, just wanted to introduce
(01:32):
to the world that Christina is going to be my new co-host sometime!
She's been promoted from basement dweller to partial co-host sometimes.
We'll see.
We'll figure out the whole title later.
We haven't figured that out yet for the contract.
(01:54):
It'll be so official.
I'm no longer the unpaid intern.
I'm just unpaid?
Yeah, there we go.
We could do that.
Honestly, that is a really good title.
We might do that.
But for right now, because we do need to have one person in the basement at a time.
Lauren is down there currently in a timeout basement time.
(02:15):
But don't worry, we do feed her regularly and sometimes give her sunlight.
Christina, I have a question for you.
What's that, Sydney?
Out of all of the Halloween candy that is out in the world, which one do you think is
the sexiest?
(02:36):
What is the sexiest Halloween candy?
Okay, maybe this is just me personally, but three musketeers.
I mean, it's just new.
I mean, if you got three musketeers, that's better than like a Skittle.
(03:00):
Like what's a Skittle?
That would be so stupid.
But three musketeers, you can imagine that.
Yeah.
What are you imagining with a three musketeer that makes it sexy?
Use your imagination, everybody.
I feel like there could be three super sexy musketeers or there could be one weird hundred
grand.
(03:20):
Like, you know, like, pick one.
There we go.
There we go.
True.
Truly.
I was just thinking about this and I was like, what would be the sexiest?
I think we can both agree that the least sexy Halloween candy is like fresh fruit.
Like nerd alert.
Oh yeah, never.
Or raisins?
Absolutely not.
Oh God, we wouldn't get raisins.
(03:42):
I was going to say though, it's like those full king size Hershey bars.
Those are pretty sexy.
Okay.
Okay.
Well, okay.
You're like, mmm.
I don't know.
I still stick with my three musketeers answer, but now I'm thinking about the fresh fruit
because while an apple is not sexy, what if you were given an eggplant instead of fruit?
(04:04):
Simple.
Moving on.
Well, as you guys heard in the intro, this month we have been reading XX by Erin Sterling.
So it's time for that spooky season.
And this is our Halloween special.
(04:25):
So we have been rearing to read this book since last year.
We were actually planning on reviewing this book last year, but we unfortunately never
got around to it.
And now we have Christina here to read and review.
So this is very exciting.
But before we jump too far into it, I am here to give you your usual general notes about
(04:46):
the book.
And to start off, this book was first published back in 2021 and the author is known as Erin
Sterling that is the author on the book.
Or that is a pseudonym for another author, which many of you may know, aka Rachel Hawkins,
(05:08):
who is a New York Times bestselling author and has written books such as The Reckless
Girls and The Wife Upstairs.
So I don't know.
I just thought it was really interesting to have an author who had a pseudonym and a pretty
famous one kind of, I don't know, just write the book.
I thought it was interesting.
It's not hidden.
(05:28):
She's open about her pseudonym.
Yeah, and honestly, I would love to ask her why she has like a pseudonym, you know?
Like I would love to ask her that question.
Why?
Because the pseudonym is saved for her romance books, primarily.
And Rachel Hawkins, this can't be for thrillers.
Maybe it is just sexier.
(05:50):
But she has written a lot of YA and Rachel Hawkins actually studied gender and sexuality
and Victorian literature at Auburn University, which fun fact is where we all met.
It's where all the RPH girlies met each other.
So that's kind of cool to have.
(06:11):
Weagle Weagle man.
And yeah, so she's a local from there and she's written a lot of books and it's just
cool to have that connection to her.
The book itself is about 308 pages in the paperback specifically and has the Goodreads
Choice Awards nominee for best romance in 2021.
(06:34):
So on Goodreads, our average rating is a 3.5 stars out of 156,403 reviews.
And on Storygraph, we have an average of a 3.54 with 29,402 reviews.
Is there anything else you want to mention, Christina, before jumping into characters?
(07:00):
All right.
Well, I will let her introduce our main players.
All right, we've got a whole slew of main players in this book, which was relatively
short but packed in a bunch of people.
We've got Gwen Jones, who is Vivi's best friend and cousin, who also has a super adorable
(07:22):
cat, Sir Percival.
Gwen lives with her mother, Elaine Jones, who is Vivi's aunt, and they're all witches,
all the above.
We have Simon Penhollow, who is Reese's father, and we've also got Wells Penhollow and Bowen
Penhollow, Reese's brothers.
(07:43):
We talk more about Lou Wellen, Wells, but Bowen definitely gets a mention.
He's got a beard.
Got important things.
That is important to know.
Bowen's got a beard.
That's kind of all we know about him.
And then other minor mentions would be Alwyn Jones, Piper McBride, Grifford Penhollow.
(08:05):
Alrighty.
Thank you, Christina, for introducing some characters for us.
Now, to get in to the book.
And just to remind everyone, we are not doing chapter by chapter summaries anymore.
We're just going to kind of go over main events and not mention like this is chapter one,
two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
And then we're going to go into two and blah, blah, blah, blah, because that took forever
(08:27):
and I don't want to do it anymore.
And now we begin.
Our book opens with Vivian Jones, who is currently heartbroken in the bathtub, drinking some,
I think a vodka cranberry.
And yeah, she's really sad because she just she is 19 years old, devastated because she
(08:51):
just broke up with Reese Penhollow.
And why, you may ask, they break up?
Well, it's because we find out that Reese is like a part of this old witch family who
were old.
He has a he's so old.
He has a betrothed and he didn't tell Viv about it and she was not happy.
(09:15):
So she broke up with him immediately.
As one does, I honestly know it was giving Mama Mia vibes.
It was giving Donna and that other guy breaking up at the beginning.
So Vivi, of course, being really sad and drunk is moping where her cousin comes in, who is
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Gwen and goes, hey, man, like we need to do something silly to make you like feel better.
And they just quote unquote curse him so they don't they are not intending to actually do
it.
So they put on like a bunch of different like little things like he won't his hair won't
do the thing, which we don't know what that is.
But imagine what your the thing is with hair and it's that and that he would never be able
(10:02):
to please another woman because he wouldn't be able to find the clitoris.
They really don't need for these.
They did.
They did.
I was like, damn, that that does suck.
But as they're doing it, Gwen Vivian gets out of the tub and is like sitting there doing
this.
And she sits there and says, I curse you, Reese Penhollow.
(10:26):
And suddenly like the flames go up and it's like a big thing.
They're like, whoa, isn't that crazy?
Isn't that crazy?
Didn't curse him, though.
No way.
There's no way you could curse him.
But of course, as they turn away, the candle relights and the smoke filters out into the
(10:47):
night and it's like, oh, I think they may have cursed him.
It's so dramatic, but I kind of love it.
Oh, it was honestly like it was so visual the way it was written to like you could totally
see this as a movie scene.
Oh, 100 percent.
Very hocus pocus.
It's so it's honestly the way I was describing this book is it is bewitched meets Gilmore
(11:15):
Girls with bits of Mamma Mia sprinkled in.
Yeah, the Gilmore Girls vibes were heavy, heavy, and I kind of loved it.
So nine years later, we get a little time skip and now we're back and Reese's POV and
(11:36):
he has just arrived home in Wales.
And I did write down here that I was really confused because I was like, I said, OK, but
is Reese Welsh or from Georgia?
And I just went definitely Welsh with a brother name.
And when I found out what his brother's name was.
But I don't know.
Sometimes in Georgia, you can be surprised.
(11:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
With how they they spell certain names anyway.
So Reese is back in his hometown in Wales where he doesn't really like to come and he's moping
because he has because he has to go speak to his dad.
And Wells, who owns a bar in the town, basically tells him to like, suck it up, go talk to
(12:20):
dad because dad's messing with the weather.
Because for context, the Penn Hollows are known to be like a very old like we kind of
said an old witch family, very powerful and both like the human world and the wizard witchy
world.
So yeah, now they are.
(12:42):
So Reese goes to the house and is like, hey, dad, and dad's like.
Ew, I hate you.
They do not like each other.
They hate each other.
There is a lot of animosity between the two.
And it's just because I mean, Reese doesn't live up to his expectations the same way that
(13:04):
his other two sons do and whatever.
Anyway, Reese's dad, Simon Pound in Hallow's like, hey, man, I need you to go back.
I need you to go to Graves Glen, Georgia and go recharge these lay lines.
And Reese is like.
Fuck, I don't want to do that.
It's like, I don't want to.
(13:28):
Yeah, very peak that.
And he's like, well, I can't bow under Wells do it.
And his dad's like, well, they're living their own lives and doesn't matter.
Anyway, Reese is set up to go back to Graves Glen and he's not excited about it because
(13:48):
he worries about how the way things ended with Vivian because he still thinks about her nine
years later.
Nine years later after their three month relationship also.
Hey, man, if it's good sex, good sex.
I'm going to think about it nine years later.
Nine years of it.
(14:10):
Nine years.
In Wales.
So Reese is like, OK, I guess I'll go back.
He goes and tells his brother what happened in Georgia and Wells is like.
Suck it up, buttercup.
Gotta go.
And Reese is on his way to Georgia.
Da da da da da.
(14:36):
I just need you guys to listen to this, too.
What I said.
I also wrote down Dad is dark academia is dark academia's wet dream.
Literally like Dracula's wet dream to like pair them all together.
Honestly, honestly.
(14:59):
So now we're going back to Gwen's not to Gwen.
I keep saying Gwen when I met Vivian.
That's so weird.
I kind of want to do that, too.
I don't know why.
Yeah.
All right, so now we are back with Vivian and Graves Glen is giving such hard Gilmore
(15:27):
Girls vibes like the whole town.
I'm like, dear God, I don't under I don't know what town in Georgia would be this fall
idyllic thing, but.
I love it.
100 percent stars hollow and there kind of is a town that's sort of like this town where
it's a witchy and got a college.
Tennessee.
The University of the South.
(15:51):
It definitely got that witchy vibe.
I think at one point they all wore robes, but.
Oh, fine.
Anyway, we have a reveal that Vivian is a professor at Penn Penhaven College.
She is a professor, though, not in witchy shit, but in just normal history.
She's just very interested in it.
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And this is kind of where we get some background into that Vivian wasn't really raised a witch
herself and that after the death of her parents, she came to Grave Glen to live with her aunt
and her cousin.
And that's where she learned she was a witch and had powers and so on and so forth.
Very Harry Potter.
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Very, very.
And what happens is that she's never really felt connected to her witchy side, which is
why she kind of teaches history on the more human side rather than going to the other
side of the school, which we find out is the witchy side.
So there's witches classes over there.
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I would love to major in potions.
Oh, come on.
Yeah, potions and like any like honestly, like a major in cursing would be fun.
Oh, OK.
So I have I have my major in hex curses and my minor is in potions.
The pretentious students.
(17:18):
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah, you have to.
So she so we get to that and she's running late for family dinner.
So she basically just like is running home real quick and arrives at the house and Gwen
is in the kitchen and Gwen is the one who tells Vivian that.
(17:41):
She thinks Reese's that Reese is coming.
And Vivian's like, well, we have to like double check.
And how do they do that?
They use witchy shit and tarot cards.
Obviously, obviously.
There's so much witchy shit and it's so cute.
But they pull like some tarot cards, which when is like painted and the fool falls out,
(18:07):
which is the one that.
Gwen painted to look like Reese.
So it's a true best friend.
Honestly, honestly, I love it.
And so it is confirmed that Reese is coming and they're like crap.
Well, the last time we kind of did this witchy stuff was back when, you know, we cursed,
(18:27):
we cursed him, wasn't that funny when we definitely didn't actually curse him.
So Vivian kind of denies that she's like feeling anything.
She's like, it's just that guy I broke up with after three months.
Like definitely shouldn't be thinking about him.
But she's also been thinking about him for the past nine years.
So they're both kind of in the same boat of the one that got away.
(18:50):
She even think about him and stalking him on the Internet.
She knows what he's up to.
Yeah, I mean, I get it.
I used to look up who my old crushes were and keep tabs on what they were doing.
See have they gotten any better in the last nine years?
Have they gotten downhill?
Where are they at?
They've gone downhill.
So I know I stepped up, so I'm fine.
(19:14):
I know I'm doing just great.
Anyway, so we're jumping back into Reese's POV and we get the most accurate description
of trying to drive through Atlanta traffic ever.
Oh, it's so good because it's so bad.
I hate driving through Atlanta.
It is my own personal hell.
(19:35):
It is my own personal hell.
I hate it so much.
But he is backstage side and he is just like having the worst luck.
Like he nearly missed his flight.
Now he's going through really bad traffic.
And then as he's driving up the mountain, suddenly his tire pops and he's like stranded
(19:56):
on the side of the road and he's like, what the fuck is going on?
Like this is so weird that this is happening.
And there's like rain and he's like regretting not asking his dad for help.
But he's also like, I would never ask my dad for help.
No, no, no, no, no.
I have daddy issues, so I'm not going to ask anyone for help, especially my dad.
So he's just going to stand on the side of the road.
(20:18):
Like we want to do obviously.
Well then he does try to do magic to fix the tire and the tire blows up.
And it's like, OK.
So as so he grabs his bags and he's trying to head up towards the house and who's coming
down the hill in her car?
None other than Vivian.
(20:39):
But as she's driving, she nearly hits and kills Reese, but he's able to jump out of
the way and he rolls into a ditch and she like hops out and she's like, oh my God, are
you OK?
She's like, oh my gosh, I didn't mean to like hit you.
I didn't see you.
And as soon as she sees it's him, she like goes.
Oh, I should have hit you.
It was on site.
(21:00):
Yeah, she was like, I'm going to I wish I had hit you.
And there was like a little bit of banter and the bushes and all of that.
But inevitably, she decides to leave Reese on the side of the road and drive back towards
her aunt's house.
And I'm like or her apartment.
Sorry.
(21:21):
And I'm like, fair the fuck enough.
So good.
Like I have so much respect for her, like immediately coming out of this book.
Like what?
She left him on the side of the road.
That's great.
That's fantastic.
Yeah.
Good job, Vivian.
We're so proud of you because, oh yeah, that's honestly how you should treat an ex-boyfriend
if you see him after nine years and he didn't tell you he was betrothed or anything.
(21:45):
Anyway, now we're coming to what's called Founders Day.
So this is like a big celebration in the town of Graves Glen because basically Reese's ancestor
named Griffith Penhollow.
We did have to look this up because we were all struggling to say this name.
(22:07):
It was so bad.
We were like, how the fuck do you say this name?
I've just said Griffith.
Griffith.
I just went Griffith instead of Griffith because I just like, my brain could not compute.
I was like Griffith it is.
But he is said to have found the town and he also created the ley lines in the town
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and basically gave it like a lot of, like just perfect for witches in a lot of ways.
And so they celebrate the day and that is why Reese is in town is to celebrate his great
great grandpappy and also charge the ley lines for the future because they have to be recharged
every 25 or so years.
(22:47):
Anyway, it's a really big day for Vivian and her family because they own a little witch
shop both for actual magical needs and for people who are non-magical and it's called
something wicked.
It's very cute.
It's a cute little shop.
It gets mentioned a lot.
But what I find interesting and I'd like to this aspect of the book is that other witches
(23:10):
didn't love the shop and it was because they use a lot of like witch imagery and other
stereotypes to like do merchandise.
And I was curious Christina what you thought about like this part of the book, like this
little like little bit of world building because I personally loved it.
(23:30):
I loved it too.
I think it made a lot of sense.
Like if I saw someone going around and like, you know, selling my stereotype and making
like a not a buttload of money off of it, but like, you know, like adding to the adding
to the name, I'd be like these fools again.
Like I personally would be upset.
But then also I'm like, but they're having a grand old time.
(23:52):
Like it's so fun to just lean into it and they are and it's cute and they have so many
random people walk in.
Yeah, it's like it's not like they're like making fun of it at all.
Really?
They're just like, we're in on the joke.
They're in on the joke.
Yeah.
And the town, the town of witches from the school are not in on the joke.
(24:16):
And you can tell.
No, no, because they're too uppity.
They have sticks up their butts.
Anyway, so it's been a big day.
Brooms up their butts.
I love it.
That was so good.
So yeah, it's Founders Day.
So Vivian is trying to help out the shop and like sell stuff.
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And in comes in the mayor.
So the mayor is she's looking at Reese because he's meant to give a big speech.
And the reason she's coming to something wicked specifically is because her and Gwen have
like have had a thing.
And Gwen's like, well, you know, Vivian and Reese used to be friends because Vivian had
(25:02):
just told Gwen about the whole thing from the night before.
And Gwen was like, well, I'm eating it up.
I need you to tell the story of how you nearly run Reese Penhall off the road at my funeral.
So obviously teasing her cousin and being like, what are you doing?
And Vivian's like, yeah, I guess I knew him.
(25:22):
I can go find him.
And the mayor is like, yes, please, because I'm freaking the fuck out.
She goes and gets Reese and she finds him at a coffee shop.
And I just wrote down, we get the pendant line.
Do you know what line I'm talking about with the pendant?
(25:43):
I think so.
Oh, my God.
I do have it marked.
Give me just a moment.
Let me find her.
I do have her.
Where is she?
I hope the rest of his outfit was equally great.
Gray trousers, a white button down unbuttoned just so.
(26:04):
A deep charcoal vest and around his neck, a silver pendant with a dark purple jewel.
Vivi had a sudden explicit memory of that same pendant dangling against her chest as
he moved above her.
And I was like, I was gagged.
I will say I was like, oh, that pendant is going to mean something.
(26:26):
It's going to mean something.
And I just love how she's like, she's like, she didn't even like jewelry on men before,
but it suited Reese.
And I was like, yeah, it did.
But it was just like the pendant line.
I'm like, I have to underline that.
(26:47):
I have to talk about that later.
It felt like, you know, like you're reading along and you're like, OK, then you read that
and you're like, oh, oh, pause for a second.
Yeah, you're like, I have to clutch my pearls.
Pearls?
Consider them clutched.
Consider them clutched.
(27:10):
And then we jump back into Reese's POV, which is a little bit of time has passed.
And it's after his speech because he nearly got killed by the statue of his great, great,
great, great grandfather in the middle of his speech because for no reason whatsoever,
(27:31):
the guy's head just fell off and nearly crushed Reese.
Which honestly, I kind of wish there was a version of this book where he did get hit
because that'd be kind of funny.
It would be.
But what I love is that he hasn't.
Well, he did.
He did kind of put two and two together.
He's like, something's weird.
That's a lot of bad luck.
(27:51):
It's a weird thing to fall on you.
It's not like, oh, like, you know, I got hit with like bird poop or maybe even like a squirrel
fell out of a tree.
Like, nah, this was a statue.
Yeah, like this is a statue that's been there for years and years.
Like how like that just doesn't happen.
So.
(28:11):
So Reese thinks he's been possibly cursed by Vivi and he's just like, I don't know.
So he decides that he needs to call his dad and call him up.
Oh, actually, wait before we go there, before this whole thing happened, Reese, before he
went up and did a speech, invited Vivi to the latelines to go charge them.
(28:37):
And this is like a big deal for Vivi because it's kind of like a sacred witchy thing to
not go to the latelines.
So the fact that Reese invited her to come with him to like charge them is kind of like
a big deal.
Wanted to bring that up before we continue too far down the road and I didn't get to
mention that.
Anyway, back to Reese finally thinking, I should maybe call my dad.
(29:03):
So he calls up his dad and he's like, hey, dad, so I think I'm cursed and Simon.
Simon's like.
Simon sounds like the guy who's like, we haven't had a female born in this family in like the
past five generations.
We literally produce men.
Like you know, you know what I mean?
Like that's the energy it was giving off.
Oh, exactly.
And I think what he calls him on a mirror.
(29:25):
So that's dramatic.
Oh, the scene mirror.
Yeah, because Simon, if you guys are not picking up on we're putting down, is very old.
Old, which does not like modern technology or old or things like that.
He's like, he will stick in his ways.
But Simon's like a guy who would look sorry.
He's the kind of guy who would die in the hole that he was born in.
(29:46):
You know, 100% but he he's just like, no, no one can curse a pen hollow.
No one's cursed a pen hollow and like hundreds of years and like if they did like, it's giving
very alpha male and Reese is like, okay, bye.
But Reese was like, legitimately concerned because he was like, well, I don't want to
(30:09):
like he was trying to bring up concern because he didn't want to like charge a late lines
if he was cursed and his dad didn't listen.
So anyway.
Yeah, so he basically tells Dries to just go do his job and get the shit over with.
And now we are with Vivi and Reese driving up to the Leyline cave.
(30:34):
And this is our first of a couple Harry Potter references and my favorite is the full going
full Potter.
And I thought that was kind of funny.
Full Potter, which is when someone is raised not being a witch and then they find out later
they are a witch.
And Vivian not realizing certain things about being a witch because she just didn't grow
(30:59):
up that way.
So that was kind of cute.
I did like that reference.
I was like, I wonder if they're going to mention it and they did.
And it was pretty well done.
So they drive up to the cave and as they're going there, Vivian like explains that her
mom didn't really like magic.
She was a witch, but she never did it.
(31:21):
She kind of thought it was dangerous and there was like a whole memory with Vivian doing
some magic and there was flower petals and her mom being like, it's really dangerous.
Don't do that.
Anyway, they reach the Leyline cave and they go in.
(31:42):
And there's a funny side effect.
They go into the cave, they get lost a bit and then Vivian like helps Reese find the
way and they go into the little cave where the Leylines are.
And the side effect, warning, if you decide to take Leylines, you may get inexplicably
horny for your nine year old from your ex from nine years ago.
They just suddenly get really horny.
(32:05):
Are we explained why they get horny?
No.
No, it's never mentioned.
I'm so confused.
But I thought it was really funny that they were just like, oh my God, I'm just so hot
and turned on right now.
I'm so horny at the Leyline.
They walk in and they're like, it's time to get witchy.
And then they're like, actually.
(32:26):
Not actually.
And he doesn't really know, like Reese doesn't a hundred percent know what to do.
And then they basically stop out of it because Vivian's like, did you bring me here to have
sex with me in the Leyline cave?
And Reese is like, no, I'm not that much of a creep.
(32:48):
And Vivian's like, fine, let's get this over with so you can go home and get out of my
life.
And Reese is like, fine.
So he goes in and tries to charge the Leylines when things don't go quite how they were meant
(33:08):
to.
And basically spirals out of control because Reese has put his hands on the Leylines and
they turn like this.
It's the evil purple color that you see in Disney all the time.
That's like honestly what I imagined was the evil purple from Disney you see whenever it's
evil witch magic.
It was a hundred percent evil witch, like Ursula, black and purple magic.
(33:33):
So they rush out of the cave.
They realize things are really going wrong and they see the magic, the purple magic flowing
down into Graves Glen, which is spooky because they don't know what happened.
And Vivian realizes that she did in fact curse Reese all those years ago.
(33:56):
And the next little bit opens with them literally like racing back trying to get back to town.
And Reese is like so mad that she cursed him.
He's like, you cursed me.
Why would you do that?
And she goes, I don't know.
I was 19 and drunk and I was heartbroken.
I was mad at you.
He's like, so you so you curse people?
And she's like, no, you were just a dick.
(34:20):
I don't curse people, but I did curse you.
I did curse you because you were a dick.
And they run, they get back and they are, they get into something wicked where things
are occurring and some plastic skulls have somehow become possessed and they're trying
(34:43):
to attack some customers in the store as well as Gwen.
So both Reese and Vivian trying to do some magic and it becomes like much stronger than
they were actually intending to do.
Anyway, Aunt Elaine, who I just imagined as, oh, what's her name?
(35:03):
Stevie Nicks.
I just imagined Stevie Nicks all the time for Aunt Elaine.
Well, that makes sense.
Like she did talk about how she has like a moment where I kind of want the Aunt Elaine
lore because she talks about her time with Led Zeppelin.
I know.
I know.
I wrote that down.
I was like, bring up what happened with Led Zeppelin.
(35:25):
Well, I need the lore behind her because like Stevie Nicks vibes is true there.
Yeah.
Hey, um, Erin Sterling, aka Rachel Hawkins, we love you so much.
Can you please give us an Aunt Elaine prequel with Led Zeppelin so we know what happens?
Please.
Please.
We're begging you.
(35:45):
We're begging.
So Aunt Elaine, the badass she is, comes in, saves the day, but the spell is more powerful
than she anticipated.
So she like, to Reese and Vivian is like, what the fuck have you done?
What did you do?
So it all comes out that Gwen and Vivi did curse Reese.
(36:09):
And they're like, okay, but like it doesn't make sense because his hair is still doing
the thing.
They bring up the hair thing a lot.
And he's like, what do you mean?
You cursed his hair?
They're like, yeah, we did.
Shut up.
And then and something about clitorises.
And he goes, what about clitorises?
And I love that Gwen was like, I feel like this is more of a punishment for other women
who dated him.
(36:30):
So we'll take that one back.
Which is honestly a good point because what does it do to him?
Like nothing.
Yeah.
But yeah, oh, and then this is when they bring up the Aunt Elaine thing.
And she was like, we've all done stupid things as teenagers.
And I'm like, what did you do with Led Zeppelin?
Tell me.
(36:50):
So they come up with a small plan and to try and figure out what to do with the ley lines
and basically lift this curse off of Reese and Reese is told to go talk to his dad.
The next morning Reese has come to breakfast and Vivi's like, oh God, he's still hot.
(37:11):
Even in my aunt's kitchen.
And that's really confusing for me.
Anyway, it is confirmed that Reese took that the curse that was on Reese was placed upon
the ley lines.
Not a hundred percent sure.
They aren't a hundred percent sure about what that means, but they think it just makes the
magic weird and do stuff it's not intended to do.
(37:37):
But what's good is that majority of the curse that they placed is most likely on the ley
lines and not on Reese anymore.
So it means he might be able to perform magic and not have it go completely haywire.
Anyway, but maybe we'll see.
And so Reese is like, well, I'm going to go to Penn Haven College to go do research at
(38:02):
the library.
And Vivi's like, well, I'm heading there for work.
So come with me.
And kind of throughout this whole conversation, it's revealed that there's a lot of research
on how curses can be laid.
Not a lot on how you get those back, how you take that away and how you strip it.
So that's a problem.
(38:23):
So that's why they decide to go to the library.
So they head to the library and they get him in to get him a little key card thing and
he gets to go study up on some literature.
And he's sitting there, he's studying, he's looking up all these things, he's transferring
(38:46):
things from Latin and so on and so forth.
A lot of not helpful knowledge is learned about curses.
Anyway, Vivi comes back from her classes and she's like, did you find anything?
And he goes, no, I didn't.
She goes, yeah, that sucks.
(39:08):
And I don't know how it happened, but the tension has been growing slowly throughout
this whole part since they've seen each other again.
It's palpable.
And it was something about the fact that I think Vivi said something like the summer
didn't mean anything to her, like trying to be tough.
(39:28):
And he calls her bluff.
Yeah, he calls her bluff.
And he goes, so if I kiss you right now, it won't mean anything.
She goes, no.
So hey guys, guess what?
They make out in the library and it's really fucking hot.
Yeah, like it gets really, really hot and heavy really fast.
Oh, I got steamy.
And I was like, hello, welcome to a new fantasy of mine, I guess.
(39:51):
And like, also, what kind of room are they in?
Because if it's anything like the library that I have been in that had like study rooms,
like you can see in those study rooms.
I assume it's like an old, I'm imagining like an old study room, like I guess with no windows.
No windows.
Someone knocks maybe.
(40:11):
Maybe a small window.
How about that?
Small, small windows so like they know where not to be.
Yeah, not to be.
Yeah, they get they're making out hot and heavy in the in the library when their little
smoochy smooch gets interrupted by screams, which is not what you want to hear when you're
(40:34):
in the middle of a makeout session.
It's in a library that's supposed to be quiet.
It is supposed to be quiet guys, no screaming.
What the hell?
And that's weird.
So they decide that they need to go investigate.
And Christina, you all know what they find?
Hmm.
(40:55):
They see a motherfucking ghost.
I was like, it's about time for a ghost in this town.
I was about to say, where is the ghost, which is funny because they mentioned that ghosts,
the lot of witches haven't seen ghosts.
So I'm like, oh, interesting.
I don't know, it's just a little bit of lore.
It's just a little bit of interesting lore.
Anyway, this ghost is like, kind of agitated.
(41:20):
She's like looking at like through the books trying to like find stuff.
And she doesn't look like she's been dead for very long, like the describers like having
like converse and like jeans and like a, I think a Nirvana t shirt.
I'll be real the way they were describing it.
I thought it was like someone from the early like 2010s, not the nineties, which we eventually
(41:42):
find out is the ghost died.
But it's just because like, yeah, that's not came back really popular when I was in high
school.
So I was like, whoops.
No, that's fair.
I, when they were describing her, I was like, oh, she's going to be another love interest.
Oh, you thought she was going to be a love interest.
Interesting.
(42:03):
I thought she was going to be a love interest.
I was like Nirvana shirt?
How will he stay away?
Oh my God.
But yeah, ghost is like looking around and then as soon as she locks eyes on Reese, she's
like the cursed Ben Harlow.
And we're like, yeah, he is cursed.
(42:24):
That's weird.
And she's like, it does a banshee scream at him.
And it's a really bad situation because the library is used by non-witches and witches.
So you know, non-witches seeing a ghost, not a good thing at hiding magic.
So Piper the ghost, that's, we found out her name's Piper.
(42:48):
She's screaming and flying around and then she just like disappears.
So Reese and Vivi get back to her office and he's like, okay, that's really weird.
Why would that happen?
And then they get summoned basically to the dean's office, to the principal's office.
And the dean is the dean of the witchcraft side of the college.
(43:09):
And it's revealed that the ghost was none other than Piper McBride.
And she was a witch back in the nineties when she died and her soul had to be bound to the
library because she was trying to do some things with like dark magic and like try to
resurrect someone.
(43:31):
And instead of fixing it themselves, because Reese and Vivi, they don't know about the
curse yet.
They just know that Vivi and Reese caused the problem.
And they're like, instead of having like the college fixing it themselves, they're like
Vivi and Reese, go fix it.
Go fix the problem.
(43:51):
Which is honestly good for them.
True honestly.
So and Vivi and Reese are like, yes ma'am, gotta go fix that problem now.
Bye.
Especially because the way that the dean is so like on their butts, like she does have
(44:14):
a broomstick up her butt.
I would be scared too.
I would be freaked.
I mean, getting called to the principal's office is not fun for anyone of any age, honestly.
Especially not an adult.
Like he doesn't even go there.
No, no, the university is named after him though.
So not a great image.
(44:36):
Yeah.
And they go back to Vivi's office and he finds out that she actually majored in like Welsh
history and folklore.
And she's like, I definitely didn't like learn about it because of you because you know you're
Welsh.
And he goes, uh-huh, sure.
And as readers we're all like, uh-huh, sure.
(44:59):
She knows someone else who's Welsh.
Of course she does.
And then moving on to our last chapter before we are at our little halfway point.
We are back at Something Wicked with Vivi and Gwen and they have a little chit chat,
a little talk about how Vivi kissed Reese and Gwen's like, well, why did you kiss him?
(45:24):
And Vivi's like, I don't know.
I just like doing it, I guess.
And Gwen's like, well, you're allowed to like it and you don't have to put strings on it
with him.
Like you're not 19.
And Vivi's like, yeah, I guess.
I guess you're right.
Maybe I could do that.
And Reese then takes that moment, of course, to walk into Something Wicked and ask Vivi
(45:50):
to go for a cup of tea.
Ooh, a cuppa.
A cuppa.
Guys, it's literally written as he asks Vivi if she wants to go for a cuppa.
It's so good.
It's so silly.
I kind of love it.
I loved how some of that stuff was written out like cuppa, but I do wish there were more
(46:14):
southern things.
For being in Georgia, I was hoping there'd be someone who said fixin'.
Someone.
I'm fixin' for a biscuit.
Honestly, yeah, now that I'm thinking about it, I wish Vivi, because Vivi grew up in Atlanta,
which yeah.
I mean, you could argue that it is southern, but it's a big city and it's a little bit
(46:38):
different than other southern places.
But yeah, or maybe Anne-Laine being like, yeah, I'm fixin' some biscuits or muffins
or something.
We were robbed of her being a super southern grandma.
I do think we were robbed of that.
We were kind of robbed.
(46:59):
It's okay.
There's still another chance with the prequel, right?
Yeah, of course.
Please.
Please, Aaron.
We beg you.
But with that, that's our halfway point.
That's where we were gonna leave off and you guys get to tune in another time to listen
(47:22):
to the rest.
But before we go, Ashlyn, do you have some questions for us?
I always have questions for you, baby.
You know how it is.
Ooh, please.
Get my mic set up.
Okay.
So first and foremost, the very beginning of the book, Vivian curses Reese with vodka
(47:46):
and a Bath and Body Works candle.
What questionable household items would you use for your cursing toolkit?
Bonus points if you can tell me what scent of candle you would use.
Ooh, I feel like a good scented candle.
I'll jump to the end of the question would be like kind of like a Merlot cherry or cranberry
(48:12):
scent.
I don't know.
That's giving curse vibes.
Here's what I would use.
I actually have my candle right here that I would use.
We've got a prop.
We do have a prop.
I would use Macal's Candles Mule Apple Cider to curse someone because it smells exactly
(48:33):
like hot apple cider.
It smells the fucking best.
So if I feel like I'm like really wanting to curse someone, this bad boy, she's hefty
too.
I feel like she's got good curse and energy.
Yeah, that's like a pretty like witchy looking candle too.
It's got what a handle on the top?
That's wild.
Got a little handle and like I swear to God, I haven't even lit this thing yet.
(48:55):
If I just open the lid, it smells like hot apple cider.
Ooh, that would be the smell of cursing.
I love it.
Yeah, it is the smell of cursing.
And I think if I were to like a drink, if I was not, if I wanted to curse someone and
I want to be drinking something while it happens, pumpkin spice latte.
(49:20):
Ooh, pumpkin spice latte.
That would be a good curse.
I feel like you just saw a really great curse.
Do you want to curse me?
I feel like I did too.
Ooh.
I curse you, Christina.
Do I have to drink the drink if I'm cursing or can I just pour it into something?
Because I feel like a Bloody Mary would be pretty funny.
(49:42):
That would be pretty funny.
But boy do I hate tomatoes.
Like that would be awful.
So I'm like, you just pour it or if it's, if you can't drink it, maybe like, I don't
know, I kind of want to involve a Tide pod because it's like you want to eat it.
I want to involve a Tide pod.
No.
(50:03):
We're not doing this again.
You know what?
I did say questionable.
I will argue too for my pumpkin spice latte.
It does specifically have to be in a sparkly, like one of those like really obnoxious Starbucks
mugs.
And it's like plastic and everything, but it's like a hot drink inside the straw drink.
(50:28):
So then you know, I'm getting all my microplastics for the day, my daily dose of microplastics
and it makes the curse stronger.
Exactly.
Reese returns to Graves Glen and everything starts going wrong, like car trouble and magic
malfunctions.
If you were to curse an ex, what would be the first ridiculous thing that you would
(50:50):
curse them with?
And if they were to curse you, what would they curse you with?
That's such a great question.
OK, I think I know what I would curse them with, and I've kind of done this in the past.
Oops.
Spam calls.
Sign them up for everything.
But magical spam calls, you'd get those day and night.
(51:11):
Like I would make sure those are coming in at 2 a.m.
They're coming in like whenever your phone's on, do not disturb that magical spam call
is getting through though.
Oh, that's really good.
I know this is tough.
I'm like, how could you curse me?
I feel like sometimes I'm already cursed.
Sidney, I know how I would curse you.
(51:32):
OK, we could do that.
How about we curse each other?
How about if we were to curse each other?
Yeah, yeah.
OK, I'm trying to think of you.
Actually, I know exactly how I would curse you.
Christina, I would curse you so that every time you go to a pizza place, they don't have
(51:54):
white sauce.
And there's no cheesy bread and they're out of cheesy bread.
They don't even have a cheesy bread.
Do they have just regular breadsticks?
I don't know.
This is a hate crime.
I know it is a hate crime.
But here's the thing, guys.
(52:15):
This is a fun fact about Christina.
Christina basically lives only on carbs.
I love carbs.
Carbs are only what you have to eat.
Yeah, I'll say they don't have they don't have cheesy bread or white or pizza with white
(52:36):
sauce.
Oh, my God.
I think I would go insane.
That would that would make me a little crazy.
Oh, actually, it's all the places that you really, really like.
But like there's other places that have it, but it's just not as good.
Oh, wait, you still have it.
Just not as good.
How do you make it worse?
It's like just out of touch.
(52:56):
Like, I'm like, oh, but maybe maybe maybe this place is good.
And then but I should know if it's on the menu, it's not going to be good.
It's not going to be the same.
It's not the same.
No, OK.
I know how I curse Sydney.
Oh, no.
How do you curse me?
Every single design thing that you work on, it will be always slightly to the right.
(53:20):
You can never fix it.
Oh, I hate that.
That's evil.
That's so evil.
Wait, I'm going to I'm going to add on to that.
So your curse is like Ashlyn and I are teaming up on your curse.
Oh, no.
Try like Vivi and Gwen.
We're teaming up on this and so I'm tossing some extra things in there.
(53:41):
And so I'm like, OK, everything will be off center and everything will be slightly off.
But also your record will always skip.
And also your cats can speak, but they only speak 50 shades of gray.
This is my literal nightmare.
I give you a mild inconvenience.
(54:05):
It's my nightmare.
No, true.
Fair enough.
OK, if I were to X, if I were to X and X, what would I do?
I would curse them with.
(54:30):
Trying to think of all like I don't really have any X's.
Me neither.
These are all hypothetical X's, but I have some people with that.
Say enemy.
I have lots of enemies.
OK, a hypothetical.
If I had a hypothetical X and I would hex them, I would hex them with.
(54:55):
I love how you're starting ascendance and thinking that you're going to get there.
And then I don't get there because I cannot think of anything.
I honestly love the spam calls thing.
I think that's honestly the greatest idea.
I would hex them with every time their doctor's office calls them.
(55:19):
They just barely miss them.
Them picking up so that they have to call them back.
Oh my God.
Wait, what if it was like every important call they miss every time?
Not every important call.
I want it to be like, you know, like with those doctor's appointment things where they'll
(55:40):
call you and then you don't pick up.
You have to go through the whole list and it takes you forever to actually get to someone.
I'm living that hell right now.
My doctor's office keeps calling me and I don't know why and I keep missing it.
And then when you call back, they're like, sorry, we can't tell you who called.
So you'll just have to wait.
(56:01):
Oh my gosh, Ashley, you've been cursed by Sydney.
I'm sorry.
I didn't mean to.
I had to check and see if it could work.
Sydney, I thought you loved me.
I do love you.
I didn't mean to.
I was drinking a pumpkin spice latte out of one of those microplastic clubs and I was
lighting my little apple cider candle.
(56:23):
I didn't know.
Oh my God.
I'm sorry.
I can't believe we're living in our own little rom-com.
Oh no.
Oh, welcome.
Welcome to the rom-com.
Ashlyn, do you have anything else for us?
I have just one more.
(56:46):
Reese and Vivian keep running into each other despite all of the chaos going on in their
own lives.
Is the universe messing with them or is this the rom-com equivalent of we're stuck in this
elevator together?
Which rom-com trope would you hate to experience in real life?
Oh, okay.
(57:10):
There's a long list of possible options.
You've obviously got the like, there's only one bed.
What an inconvenience.
I'd be pissed if I bought a hotel room that had two rooms and we had to share the one
room.
You just paid for two rooms.
You know what it would be for me personally?
It would be the guy who still is pursuing the girl even though she's said no multiple
(57:39):
times but it's for laughs and it's like, oh well, I just want to be friends and he's still
really persistent and it's just really creepy.
I would hate to experience that in real life.
Oh God, the Charlie Kellys of the world.
Yeah.
Yes.
Oh man, no, that would be so frustrating because then you'd be like, but no, really.
It's not funny.
(57:59):
It's not funny.
Please leave me alone.
Or the accent.
For some reason, this is what happens in multiple rom-coms.
Gets randomly pregnant with a stranger and then falls in love with said stranger.
That's actually a nightmare situation.
I also hate the whole like caught in the rain.
(58:20):
Oh no.
Like, no.
If I'm caught in the rain, I'm going to look like a wet dog and you ain't going to want
to be near me.
I'm going to start smelling weird.
Like my hair is going to look nasty.
I'm going to look like a rat that you pulled out of the sewer.
Like no one's seeing that.
Now don't get Cindy wrong.
The stranger part is not her fear of getting pregnant with a stranger.
It is pregnancy.
(58:41):
Yeah.
Just in general.
Just in general.
It could be any.
Anything in a bucket.
I'm scared.
A jump scare daily.
It is a jump scare.
Oh, it's when someone like when a pregnant person, I see one and I'm just like, sorry,
you scared me.
You see them from the back and you're like, okay.
(59:03):
And then they turn to the side.
And it's like jump scare.
Oh my God, baby.
Baby inside another human.
No.
This is so stupid.
Really stupid.
With that, we're going to wrap it up this evening for y'all.
(59:26):
Thank you for listening to part one of X Hex with Us by Erin Sterling.
Join in for us next time where you get to hear part two and the rest of our thoughts
about the book.
And if you like this episode, we've got quite a couple of other episodes for you to listen
to.
If you want this cute little rom-com thing going on, we've got a couple of those.
But if you want to listen to last year's Halloween episode where we read Jack's Head by Siggy
(59:51):
Shade and it is...
It was something.
It was something to say the least.
You can go listen to that.
And you can also go follow us on Instagram, TikTok, X, Twitch, Fable.
And also, I keep forgetting that we have this Goodreads.
(01:00:13):
Go follow us on Goodreads so you can see our reviews overall of these books.
And let us know if there's any books that you want us to read.
And let us know what you think.
Other than that, I'm gonna say goodnight to you, you wonderful witches.
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