Chapter 16: The Ex Hex part 2

Join us in this week's episode to discuss The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling. In this episode we talk about everything from our new podcast "Atlanta Traffic Bitching" to our sexy Halloween costumes! Please send us book recs and follow us on our socials @theRPHpodcast https://linktr.ee/raunchypowerhour

Episode Transcript

(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 2 of The X-Hex. This

(00:27):
podcast will contain spoilers throughout the entire book. 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.

(00:49):
I'm your spooky-ooky ghoul from the basement, Christina.
Now get ready to get raunchy!
Hello again, Christina.
Hey, thanks for having me back.
So glad you could be back. So Lauren is still in the basement, guys. I already told you.

(01:13):
Did you hear her knocking? Just ignore it.
Just ignore it. Just ignore that. She is still in the basement. She has to still be in timeout.
Anyway, Christina, I have a question for you.
What's that, Sydney?
Thinking about how Halloween costumes keep getting sexier and sexier with things that

(01:36):
aren't meant to be sexy.
If you were to go as something which you don't think is sexy, but make it sexy, what would
you be and why?
Oh my god, okay, I could think about this or could just go off of what my brain jumped
to.
My brain jumped to plumber.

(02:00):
Could that be like you're a traditional plumber with the crack? Or would you make it a couple's
costume? Someone is the plumber, someone's the plunger?
Or could it just be like Mario and Luigi?
There's already sexy Mario and Luigi.

(02:23):
I think it would be a pair of underwear. It's like a corseted, meant to look like a jumpsuit.
But the pants are really, really tight, but they hang obviously very low.
Like that 2000 style.
Yes, very 2000 style.

(02:44):
Channel like a Christina Aguilera kind of look maybe?
Very much.
And it's like, I don't know, it's something plumbing and it's...
Let me clean out your drains.
I don't know.
Let me plunge your drain.
Let me plunge your throne.

(03:09):
I hate it.
I hate it so much.
I'm looking up sexy plumber costume to see if it's already happened.
I wouldn't put it past the internet, but...
I wouldn't either, but I'm going to check.
Sexy plumber costume.
Sexy electrician.
That would be fun.
That spark in your romance.

(03:31):
Okay, it's all just like Mario.
I'm not seeing an actual plumber.
Oh wait, no, I found one.
Oh no.
It's from Fashion Dofa.
No.
Of course it is.
Of course it is.
Okay, okay.
What would you be?

(03:51):
If...
What would I be if I wanted to be a sexy something?
I'm trying to think of something funny.
I think a historical figure that's sexy would be really funny.

(04:14):
There's quite a few out there, I feel like.
There's a couple I feel like could be funny.
Rasputin?
No.
He was not sexy in his time.
He's got those eyes.
The love machine.
I'm not going to sing the song.
No one did monetize us.
Not that we're monetized.
No, we're not even monetizing the first place.
I'm trying to think of the most sexless historical figure.
Joan of Arc.

(04:44):
No, there's already so many sexy Joan of Arc's.
You know there's going to be so many with Chapel Rowan dressing up as her during MTV.
Oh, that's true.
I forgot.
Guys, I'm sometimes in the basement I forget about current events.
You forget about current events?
I'm going to suggest sexy Socrates.

(05:06):
Oh, hmm.
I'd say just like a bearded man and like a really short or toga being like, hey, let
me shake my ass and also share my philosophy with you.
Along with a sexy Julius Caesar who has like all of these knives in the back.
Yes.
I feel like there could be like a theme here.

(05:31):
She is certainly a dick tater.
I'm moving on.
That's so bad.
You have to move on.
That's so bad.
We have to move on.
It's so bad.
Anyway, guys, we're really into the XX.
Were we?
I think so.

(05:51):
We were supposed to at least.
I think so.
So this is from chapter 18 all the way to the end.
And we're obviously going to be talking about the rest of the book.
So in the you had the warning beforehand.
If you're here now and you haven't listened to the first part, don't know what you're
doing here.

(06:11):
Anyway, usually Christina Lauren does a quick like one minute rundown of like the first
half of the book, like super fast summarizes it.
Would you like to do that?
And try.
Your goal is always less than a minute, less than a minute.
OK, let me set my timer.

(06:33):
I'll get it for you.
I got you.
You got me.
I got you.
OK, I'm ready.
One minute is on the clock.
All right.
We're following Vivian Jones, Reese Penhollow, Gwyn Jones, a little bit of a Sir Percival
and Elaine Jones all in the town of Penhollow.

(06:54):
No.
Yes.
No.
No.
Graves.
Town.
Graves Glen.
We're all following the town of Graves Glen where Vivian and Gwyn accidentally curse Reese
when she's 19 years old.
Fast forward.
And now we're in the future and he's still cursed.

(07:15):
He's back to fix the ley lines.
But did he?
No, he accidentally cursed them.
He got rid of the curse on him, though.
That's the link.
30 seconds.
There's still more.
We got more.
There's a ghost.
There's more.
There's a ghost.
They're all witches.
There's a ghost.
There's a university.
Intense making out.
I'm not doing very well.

(07:35):
There's so much making out.
Intense making out in the library.
Intention.
Ruin by the ghost.
Oopsies.
Also, there were devil skulls that were plastic and ate some random strangers.
And that's it.
Random strangers.
I just went into the nightmare.

(07:58):
Magic's a little wonky.
Magic's weird.
All right.
Honestly, that was not a half.
Most of the book happens here in the second half.
Drew, this is like a lot of lore dump happens in the second half.
You are not incorrect there.
But with that, we will jump into the second half of our review of XX by Erin Sterling.

(08:26):
So Reese and Vivi are out for a cop-up because Reese is exhausted from the days he's had.
And he's like, I need coffee.
I am tired.
Well, tea, actually.
So they go to a little magic coffee shop and they are hanging out in there.

(08:46):
And Reese is like, well, isn't this coffee shop magic?
This is run by witches.
And Vivi's like, yeah.
And they're like, oh, shit.
Magic's going to go weird, isn't it?
And it does.
Because instantly, as they said that, a man suddenly topples over and appears to be...
He's not turned to stone.

(09:07):
He's just very rigid.
And it's because one of the baristas behind the counter has been selling people potions,
like magic potions.
And this man specifically asked for a hardening spell, but it wasn't meant to be around his

(09:29):
whole body.
It's meant to be in one certain area.
If you're picking up on it, I'm putting it down.
Anyway, so the barista talks to Vivi and Reese and it's like, it never does that.
It's only meant to go to, you know.
It's not meant to do a whole thing.

(09:49):
It's really weird.
But I don't think my spell is the thing that messed up.
I feel like magic is weird.
And Vivi and Reese are like, that's so weird.
She also specifically says it's a bespoke spell.
You wouldn't know it.
So Reese is like, hipster magic.
And I'm like, honestly, that's pretty good.
The young hipster witches are kind of like going off on their own and they're like, well...

(10:13):
I don't know.
I'm trying something new.
Leave me alone, you old man.
Are you the magic police or something?
I think someone mentioned that.
I did love that.
Someone mentioned magic police.
I did.
That was the barista.
The barista was like, are you the magic police?
It's like, I love her.
I love her.
So the next day, Vivi is back at her office when she gets a knock on her door and she

(10:40):
introduces someone named Amanda.
And Amanda says that she is from the witchery side of the university and she's here to give
something to Vivi to use because she needs to capture the ghost of Piper McBride.
If you guys remember from last time, Piper McBride is a witchy ghost and she haunts the

(11:00):
library and her spirit had to be bound to it for reasons that we will discuss.
And so Amanda gives her an object to go catch Piper.
Anyway, she calls up Reese and she's like, hey, Reese, I need you to come with me to

(11:21):
do this thing.
And Reese doesn't know exactly, but he already agrees because he has the hots for Vivi.
So he's like, whatever.
He goes, I don't care what you do, hot lady, I will be there.
And they go to like this creepy cabin in the woods.
And it turns out that was Piper's old house.

(11:42):
And the reason they have to go there is because they have to find her altar to capture her
spirit and what is called a Eurydice candle.
Actually, I meant to look this up while I was reading.
Yeah, I wanted to look it up and see if a Eurydice candle is an actual thing.
Because Eurydice is the one that someone's trying to bring back from the dead, right?

(12:08):
Greek mythology.
Yes, that's the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice.
So Eurydice is, yup, Eurydice candle?
No, that is specific to the XX.
In fact, it is the second thing that pulls up when you look up Eurydice candle.
Okay, beautiful.
So yeah, apparently when you light it, it's super magical.

(12:29):
It's meant to pull in a spirit into the candle and then you can release it.
It's a catch and release.
It's kind of like- Perfect for the haunted house.
I know, exactly.
So they go into the haunted house and they're kind of like, kind of looking around.
And as they're looking in there, they start hearing voices outside and Vivi's like, oh

(12:54):
shit, I recognize that voice because it's the voice of one of her students.
And assuming his girlfriend or like his fuck buddy, who cares?
And she's like, we have to hide.
So Reece and Vivi go hide in a closet and they're like squished together.
So convenient.

(13:17):
I know, so convenient.
But this is the sex cabin guys.
This is the creepy sex cabin, which you know, every college.
Every college has them.
Every college has them.
And the fact that she didn't know about it though, is really funny to me.
So we all went to the same college and I'm horrified now.

(13:38):
What did I not know?
Oh my god.
Did I know about the creepy sex cabin?
That was haunted.
I know, but I know about the room in the library.
What's happening?
That's kind of it.
That's it.
There's always a room in the library.
The fact that they didn't find the spot in the library meant obviously at this college,

(13:59):
it's the haunted house.
It's obviously the haunted house.
That's where you go bang.
The floor is clean.
It's okay.
It's okay.
The floor is at least clean.
Also on top of this, forgot to mention this, the reason that magic will actually work in
this part of the cabin though, because as we mentioned, the magic in the town is wacky.

(14:24):
The cabin is outside of town boundaries, so magic is normal again out here.
Wait, now that I'm thinking about magic being normal outside.
So Reese was cursed, but it didn't technically hit until he hit the town.
So was his Atlanta driving just that bad?

(14:45):
I think his Atlanta driving was just that bad.
I don't think it was magically bad.
I think that's just Atlanta traffic.
That's so great.
Good job, Erin Sterling.
I love that.
Honestly, great job, because every time I drive through Atlanta traffic, I do feel like
I was cursed.
I'm like, if you want to chat about how bad Atlanta traffic is, hit us up.

(15:07):
Not on this podcast, but at another time.
Yeah, at another time.
Actually we changed our name to Atlanta traffic bitching instead of Raunchy Power Hour.
For real.
Oh my god.
And it's just horror stories of driving through Atlanta.
Oh my god.
I just love that you pointed that out.

(15:30):
That's so funny.
I didn't even think about that.
Yeah, I think it's just that bad, which like me too, Reese.
I too hate Atlanta.
I hate it so bad.
Anyway, they're in the closet and they're like really, really close.
Like so close and they're like touching and it's like, oh well there's no one else to

(15:52):
go.
Anyway, Vivian's student tries to get it on with his gal pal and Vivian's like, well we
have to get them out of here so we can continue looking for this altar.
So they basically do thaumaturgy from D&D and like create a sound for our way and that
spooks the students away.
And as that happens, Vivian is about to kiss Reese again because they're in close proximity.

(16:17):
When they do get too close to each other, they just start fucking.
Hey, they just start fucking.
When they're in close proximity, they start having sex because they're just like, I'm
just so hot for you.
Anyway.
They conveniently were in like a sex cave and then now they're in like a sex haunted
house.
A sexy haunted house.

(16:37):
And as they do that, she puts her hand on the wall and it stings her and she's like,
ow, that hurts.
That's Piper's altar.
So as Reese says, he says Piper was on his hit list because she cock blocked him.
And I was like, okay, that was funny.
That was really funny.
It was so silly.

(16:58):
I was like, damn, if I had beef with a literal ghost because they cock blocked me.
And the fact that ghosts are rare, so it's like the one time you're seeing a ghost.
It's so rare.
Yeah.
So they light the Eurydice candle and Piper appears and she again says like the cursed

(17:20):
pen hollow and Vivi's like, yeah, but I cursed him.
And then, but the ghost says no.
She goes, yes, you cursed him.
But that's not what I meant.
And they're like, what?
What do you mean?
But then she goes into the candle.

(17:40):
Yeah, well, she does.
She does drop.
She says what was wrong must be right.
What was taken must be relinquished.
Very dramatic.
And then she disappears, which is kind of wild.
At this point, I thought there was going to be something with that pendant.
I was like, that was stolen.

(18:02):
Yeah, no, it's just hot.
That's all.
It's just hot.
That's it.
That's hot.
It's okay.
Sometimes you just need a guy wearing a dark purple pendant that just turns you on, you
know?
Maybe that's all we all need in life anyway.

(18:23):
So the candle is lit and she's so she goes into the candle and Reese and Vivian then
go back to something wicked to drop off the candle, which is also where Vivi lives.
Vivi's apartment is above something wicked, but they specifically want to drop it off

(18:44):
in the supply closet because she doesn't want it like the candle in her home because it's
like really cold and like emitting this like purple light and she's like, yeah, no, don't
want that in my apartment.
Bad vibes, bad vibes all around.
So she puts it down and then immediately gets hot and heavy with Reese and guys, we get
our first intimacy scene.

(19:06):
That like isn't interrupted.
No, that is not interrupted by a ghost.
Yeah, he did get cocked twice.
No, three times by a ghost.
No, twice.
Too many times.
Two times in the house, too many times.
But yeah, we have our first sex scene and it was nice.

(19:26):
I don't know what else to say about it.
Christina.
It was cute that it was, I would say it's cute, but also I was like, this is your place
of work.
Like your family's place of work.
And also her aunt's store.
He does call her Carrie Add.
Oh, yeah, you know, I will say that was really cute and I only know about it because of the

(19:49):
infernal devices.
But like that's a term in dear me here.
And also he like that used to be his pet name for her.
But when they were dating as well and it's like, OK, that's like things are getting and
also guys, the fact the fact that he goes down on her, it's like, oh, brother fresh

(20:12):
hair, a man who cares about a woman's pleasure.
And clearly the curse is gone.
Yeah, clearly.
Because let's just say Vivian has a great time.
And I think this is like the turning point of their relationship, right?
Like kind of after this, it's a little more casual.

(20:33):
Yeah, they start like.
Some of that tension has bled away just because of that fact of like the will they want that
because they will they will.
They will.
They have been and they're doing it in the store.
They will continue to.
Yeah.
So the next day, Vivian talks with her aunt and Gwen about like the candle.

(21:02):
And both of them are like kind of shocked that she just like was given this like very
powerful.
Witchy object, Amanda comes to pick it up and she takes it away.
And Vivian that goes to her classes and everything's fine until she gets called into the dean's
office again, because Amanda is in who she said she was, which is this is such a random

(21:26):
like B plot line.
I was like, OK, this is odd.
I was living for it because.
OK, you were living for it.
All the other witchy people had broomsticks up their butt, but she didn't.
And I was like, oh, this could be interesting.
And then it's like, actually, no, actually not.

(21:46):
Yeah, she's not involved.
Yeah.
So we find out that the broom witch butt up their butts, those witches typically are like
very uppity, like they're very classic.
Witch is the best term I can really say.
But Amanda traditional.
But Amanda was like the big thing is that Vivian notices that she wears jeans.

(22:10):
And that was like a big thing.
Is that she wasn't traditional.
She was wearing jeans and not like robes or a dress or something.
Anyway, turns out Amanda, not even a witch.
She is a reseller of witchy objects and her real name is Tamsen.
I wrote I don't know how to pronounce it, but it's T-A-M-T-A-T-A-M-Y-S-N.

(22:34):
Tamsen.
Tamsen.
Oh, I did say it right the first time.
I just wrote it down wrong.
My bad, guys.
Yeah.
So she buys and sells objects, witchy objects, and then resells them.
And the college had known that she was trying to poke around.
The one thing, the thing that bothered me was like, but then how did she know that Vivian

(22:59):
spoke to the dean and the dean told her to catch the ghost?
That was my one little plot whole thing.
I was like, how did she know that?
What more about her?
Because she knows so much about the witch world.
Yeah.
How did she fall in?
How did she learn about it?
How does she do all this stuff?
Yada yada.
Okay, fair enough.
Fair enough.

(23:19):
I would be interested to see what Tamsen does in the future.
I think she's an introduction.
Yeah.
So Vivian being really upset goes to Reese's house because she wants to vent about the
whole Amanda Tamsen thing and be like, yeah, and also tell Reese, be like, we can't do
that again.

(23:40):
We can't have sex again like that.
It felt really good, but we shouldn't.
And Reese is like, we shouldn't, definitely not.
And she went, yep.
And then guys, guess what?
They had sex again.
And it was again.

(24:01):
They lied.
They lied to everyone.
And I don't care that they lied because it was a very nice scene.
I really don't know what else to say about it.
I just called it the Gothic bedroom sex scene.
No, because the whole time they were describing the house and I kind of was thinking like
Simon Reese's dad, he's kind of giving Vlad from The Sims vibes.

(24:25):
100%.
And this was kind of house filled.
Yeah.
100%.
But yeah, they literally have sex in a canopy bed with satin black sheet.
No, the sheets were satin black, but the duvet was velvet red.

(24:46):
Goddamn.
And I love Vivian being like, she's like, you sleep, you slept in this?
You slept in this growing up?
And he goes, yep.
Such a good question to ask because that's insane.
It's insane.
It is so insane.
But hey, they have good sex.

(25:09):
So what more can I say?
Gotta stick with the aesthetic.
Gotta stick with the aesthetic.
And then we get a little scene of them afterwards.
Like they're in the claw tub bathtub.

(25:30):
And I love that Vivian's like, this is the only place that this actually makes sense
in this whole house.
Which like a claw tub bathtub?
Cool.
That's a cool feature in a house.
Love it.
That does make sense in that type of house.
But they're just really cute together in this scene.

(25:51):
Like their relationship is budding into something.
And they obviously have feelings for each other, but neither of them, but they're both
stupid idiots.
It's disgustingly cute.
Like I, like you're multiple times when I was reading this, I was like, no.
Make them stop being cute.
But then at the same time, you're like, yes!

(26:15):
You continue to call her Carrie Anne.
Do I?
Yeah, you keep doing it, babes.
You keep doing it.
You also keep giving her pleasure.
Keep doing it before she gives you yours.
Can you tell that I've read so many romance books in which that is not the case and it
hurts?
It's painful to read sometimes.

(26:36):
We love a female author.
We truly do.
Jump to a week where nothing productive has happened because the reason Fifi keep boning,
they keep having sex and they can't look stuff up.
Which I love.

(26:56):
I love it for them.
I'm like, you know what?
Have sex.
Do fun.
Um, my favorite thing is what she mentioned and she goes, oh, and the one memorable time
we did it on the stairs.
And I was like, what?
I want that scene.
Cause I'm, I just don't know how it would work.
The fact that it was only like a quick little mention was very interesting.

(27:17):
Yeah, I feel like, I feel like somewhere in the drafts, Aaron Sterling has that scene
and I'm like, give it to me.
Give it.
Give me.
I definitely think so.
Yeah, I'm about to say it got cut and it's somewhere in the void, but I want it.
Anyway, um, and they are now going to a little carnival and it's a little fall carnival.

(27:39):
Um, it's right before Halloween and, um, they're going because something wicked is,
you know, selling their wares, selling their things.
And before they go, of course we get another sex scene because Reese is like, damn, this
woman is fine.
I must pleasure her.
Um, so they end up being late to the carnival.
Gwen is like a little bit silly and like teasing them for being late.

(28:05):
Um, and they're just very cute again, because during this time Reese decides to bring Vivi
over these like little handheld apple caramel pies, which she like jokes are like the best
thing ever.
Um, and it definitely aren't magical and Reese jokes that he goes, yeah, I'm going to leave
you to go, um, go marry Mrs. whatever her name was who made the apple caramel pie things.

(28:30):
What I thought was so cute is the fact he said like, oh yeah, I'm going to have to leave
you to go like be with her instead.
But they hadn't like said like what they were yet.
And I was like, I don't know why.
That's kind of cute.
It was cute.
I love a good baked good as a gift.
And the fact it's like something she mentioned that she loved and he was like, yeah, let

(28:53):
me go get that for you.
Um, so as they're there, um, they're like having fun.
It's cute and fall and fun Gilmore girls, um, when suddenly which shit happens and his
dad appears.
Yay.
The ultimate bomber to the party.

(29:16):
Um, because earlier in the book, when Reese first found out he was cursed, he called up
his older brother Wells to tell him what was going on.
And Wells is like, you should call dad and, um, Reese being, um, Reese daddy issues Penn
Hollow decided not to do that.

(29:37):
Um, and Simon has shown up to, uh, basically talk to Reese about like the whole curse thing
and the ley lines and like kind of confront Vivi and her family.
So we jumped back to and Elaine's house and they're all in the cozy kitchen.
And Simon is being, he's just being a dick.

(30:01):
I mean, he's just an all around dick.
Um, it was so cold.
He didn't need to be that cold.
He didn't need to be that cold.
And um, like he was being protective, but in the way of like, I'm not protective of
my son.
I'm more protective of the name, you know, and the fact that these little witches cursed

(30:21):
him.
They're for the wrong reason.
Yeah, they're a hundred percent for the wrong reason.
Um, and my favorite moment in this whole little thing is Vivi, like, honestly, she had balls.
She went, we may be little like witches who own like a little witch shop who like do all
this stuff, but we're still the ones who cursed your son.
It's almost like Guffin Dan.

(30:43):
Which, I mean, he would say that curses couldn't happen to the family.
And Vivi's like, yeah, but I did that.
So shut the fuck up.
Honestly, I gotta say Vivi, not a terrible main character.
I was clapping for her a bunch.
She had some good moments.

(31:04):
I was too.
I was like, you go Vivi.
I appreciate you.
I appreciate you.
Um, anyway, so Simon is like, so I'm going to have to, I need to do more research on
how to lift this.
And basically he doesn't ask Reese.
He tells Reese to come home with him to Wales.
I got confused.
I thought Simon was meant home as in, you know, the estate that is right up the road,

(31:28):
but no, he meant home as in Wales.
And Reese is like, no, I want to see this through.
I want to figure this out.
And his dad's like, fine.
But the reason he want Reese assumes a one of them there was more because he wanted to
research it and not because he cared for her son.
And I was like, oh, twist the knife.

(31:50):
No wonder he's got daddy issues.
He's right for that.
Yeah, honestly.
So Vivian takes him, like walks him back to the manor and everything.
And then guess what?

(32:10):
They have sex again.
Guys, from this point on, they're banging.
Like every, like, we don't get a lot of like more sex scenes.
It's more like fade to black or like mentions that they did it, which honestly kind of liked
just because if we had added more sex scenes, I would have been like, this is too much for
my cute little.
The book's not that long.

(32:31):
No.
And for a cute little like lighthearted, fluffy witch book, I don't want that.
Like I want some spice, obviously, but not like I don't need the whole bottle, you know?
Yeah, I'm good with some fade to black.
I kept the story moving too.
Yeah I did.
But it's definitely like showing like, well, they're getting really close in a physical

(32:54):
way.
Wink, wink, wink, wink, guys.
I actually did want to ask you, Christina, this is your first time talking about some
muddy stuff on the internet.
Is it?
Is it?
I mean, I guess a question for you is like, how do you feel?

(33:16):
How are you feeling?
Fine.
It's fine.
It was more fluffy than smutty.
Okay.
Okay, good.
The first time that I tried to talk about this stuff, which was in the very first episode
with Ice Planet Barbarians, I was scared of saying the word like dick and penis on the
internet.
Now I have no fear.
I've said cunt multiple times.

(33:38):
Oh my gosh, look at you go.
I know.
This is character development.
This is what happens when you've been doing this for too long.
Anyway, next morning, Vivi wakes up and Reese has basically gotten them ready to go and
he's like, okay, hop in the car.

(33:58):
We're going someplace.
And she's like, okay.
And they do feel kind of bad that they wasted like a whole week just banging instead of
doing research.
So Reese has found the location of Tamsin and they are going to go basically get the
Urodice and Canto back from her.
And the way he found it is that he called his older brother who spilled to dad and he

(34:25):
liked it a tracking spell, yada, yada, yada.
And they find this B&B about an hour away in another little place in Georgia.
And when they get there, they're asking the front desk, they're talking to them.
And suddenly Tamsin kind of appears and she goes, oh, you're here.
Yeah, come in.
Which I thought was a little weird until we get the whole thing of the candle basically,

(34:49):
guys, is fucked.
It's admitting like this really-
It's a special ghost.
She's a strong special ghost.
But the ghost is like causing like purple light and like an obvious haunting and it's like
really cold.
And Tamsin's like, fuck this.
Get this out of here.

(35:10):
Like I don't want it.
Like this is like waste.
Like this is much more than I signed myself up for.
And Reese and Vivian are like, yeah, but you do this for a living.
She goes, yeah, but no one's gotten hurt.
And Reese is like, yet, like stop doing it.
And Tamsin's like, I don't know.
I might keep doing it.
She really gave a non-answer there.

(35:31):
Yeah.
She truly was like, I don't know if I've learned my lesson.
Which honestly though, the scene was a little odd because the whole scene was them to show
up at this inn, very Gilmore Girls.
And it was like, oh, it's cutesy, a new location.
But all they did was like go tell her and be like, don't do that again.
And she was like, no.
I'm like, that's it.
What did you think of that scene?

(35:52):
Did it have a purpose?
I mean, it had the purpose of getting the candle back.
I didn't love it though.
I thought it was a little strange too.
It was a little odd of a beat point.
I would have loved if like Tamsin actually reappeared at Vivian's office because she
obviously doesn't know where she lives or something and just like take it back.
Yeah.

(36:13):
If you're going to introduce a cute little inn, we need more of it.
Like, cause it was just that.
Yeah.
I think I would have liked that a little better.
But that's really my only gripe with this whole little section, honestly.
Yeah.
I just love this.

(36:36):
For the next chapter, I literally, guys, I just wrote down lore drop because a lot of
shit happens.
Guys, we go from zero to like 180 from this point.
We are still in our cutesy little Halloween witch book, but we get a lot of shit done
within these last couple of chapters.
It's not that many pages.

(36:57):
It's like maybe 30, 40 pages.
It truly is.
It truly, we are going from zero to 60.
It's time to go.
Buckle in, hold my hand, let's go.
Do not, do not put your hands or limbs outside of the cart at any time.
So they wait until nightfall.
Vivian's like, I think Anne-Elaine, honestly, we did it.

(37:19):
And I just read the aesthetic.
We said not because of the moon thing, like Elaine is saying.
I loved it.
I thought it was so funny.
She's so, she's such a good character.
Again, please, please bring her back.
We need her back.
Give her the prequel that she deserves.

(37:39):
Okay, they do like a assault circle to make sure that Piper doesn't leave.
And so they light the candle, Piper reappears.
And it turns out what Piper was doing that caused her to die was that she had done research

(38:05):
into the town of Penn Hollow and she discovered-
No, the town is Glen's.
Grave Glen?
Sorry, I did it too.
Look what you've done.
Look what you did.
I'm sorry.
I'm blaming you.
I'm blaming you.
You both want to say Stars Hollow so bad.

(38:29):
So badly.
It's so hard.
Anyway, it's hard.
Guys, it's so hard doing this podcast.
It's so hard when we want to be aesthetic and say things from Gilmore Girls.
Anyway, she was doing research into the town of Graves Glen and as she was doing research,

(38:51):
she- or there was like, there was talk about it, but there wasn't a ton in research.
But there was talk that Griffid Penn Hollow, Reese's great, great, great, great, great
granddaddy, the one whose statue had nearly killed him, was not the only person who laid
the ley lines down and that he needed help from another witch.

(39:18):
And that witch is none other than Alwyn.
Sorry, that's how we say it.
We looked it up before this.
So Alwyn is the ancestor of the Jones family, which we've been talking about this whole
time, which is Elaine, Gwen, and Vivian.

(39:39):
And they've brought her up a couple of times, but they just mentioned that she was like
a witch, but she wasn't super powerful, but she just died of like the flu or pox or whatever.
She died of something that would have killed many people in the old times.
But Piper says that she didn't- that the reason she died was because Griffid, that guy, he

(40:09):
drained Alwyn's magic and life force into the ley lines, which caused her to die of
influenza.
Because she just like wasn't powerful and like wasn't able to fight it off.
I don't think she died of influenza, I think he blamed it on influenza.
I think- oh yeah, you're right, you're right, he blamed it on influenza, sorry.

(40:31):
He covered up.
It was a cover up.
It was a cover up.
And then he like, he basically like hid that she even existed and like that she was a powerful
witch and so on and so forth.
And he took all the credit, you know, as men do for women's accomplishments.
Whoops.
Did I let that slip out?

(40:51):
Didn't mean to.
Sorry.
Anyway.
So the curse that Piper was alluding to was actually a curse placed by Alwyn on Griffid.
Basically saying that one of his ancestors who like would go there would die for recharging

(41:19):
the ley lines.
And yep, and that's Reese, since Reese was sent.
I wanted to ask you this, Christina, because I kind of got confused.
I was curious to think, do you think what they were saying is that every time the ley

(41:41):
lines got charged, a penhollow fucking died?
I was definitely confused here too, because honestly, it had been very light on the lore.
And then all of a sudden she's dumping it in one chapter, like most of it in one chapter.
And it's really tough because then it's like, she has her power, but also doesn't.

(42:09):
You still have to talk to her.
And also kind of what I got confused by is like, oh, okay.
So but if the penhollows know this was going to happen, did Simon send Reese because he
wanted him to die for his two other sons?
Oh shoot.
Because he did.

(42:30):
Okay.
He, he kind of, there was like a little hint there that he might've known what was happening
because I think earlier in the book, when she mentioned like her family or something,
Simon's eyes widened or like his eyebrows raised in a way where it sounded like maybe
he kind of what was up.
I don't know if he was purposely trying to kill Reese, but it's, I didn't think about

(42:53):
that, but now I'm like, he might've known because it sounded like he might've known.
Erin, we have questions.
I'd love to talk to you and ask you these questions.
I truly would.
Erin, Erin, I'd love to ask you these questions.
Or because what I assumed by the end of the book and by this point is like, well, maybe

(43:17):
it's like the double curse is like what is going to kill Reese.
Anyway, so it's revealed that if the curse is not lifted off of Reese by midnight of
Halloween, which is tomorrow, because of course it is, he will die.
It's so traumatic.
It's so traumatic.
I'm like, whoa.

(43:37):
Like I said, zero to 60 guys, zero to 60.
Um, but yeah, I got a little confused by that point.
So I was like, I don't know if they, cause it does say every 25 years.
So like, it would make sense.
Like just not tell people.
Maybe that's why he had three sons.
So he knew he could kill them off of a spare.

(44:01):
Kill the spare.
No, I'm looking through right now and it is mentioned that, um, it was a blood curse.
And so it was strengthened and it's like, you called her forth with your curse and she
gave you power because you're her blood.
Um, that is what Piper is saying to Vivi and Alina's blood curse.

(44:23):
I didn't even think of that.
Gwen asked, is that bad?
Um, and they're asking, how do we lift it?
And they're like, you can't.
Um, so it's kind of like, I think it's like a doubling up on the curse situation where
she, like, the power was amplified through Vivi.
Oh, and maybe the reason they don't stay there is because of like, because of that curse,

(44:50):
like maybe their magic isn't as good.
I don't know.
Anyway, again, Erin, I would really love to ask you these questions.
Did Simon know he was sending his son to his death because if he did, daddy issues increased
by like 20.
We got to know because I was thinking this whole book, I was like, oh, everything's pretty
surface level.
And then you get to the end and I was like, wait, maybe it wasn't.

(45:13):
Maybe it wasn't.
Um, but yeah, so after we realized like everything that's going to happen, um, Alwin is the only
one who can lift the curse.
Because the night that that Glenn and Vivian cursed Reese, specifically Vivian, Alwin basically

(45:36):
gave Vivian some of her power.
How?
I'm not 100% sure.
I think it was just because like they were in the area, blood curse, blah.
So yeah, we got a lot.
We got a lot of lore in that one little chapter and, um, and it reaches a story like quite

(46:00):
a bit and like changes things from a cute little rom-com about witches and hexes to
like a life or death situation.
Um, which wasn't expecting.
Don't hate it though.
I'll be real.
Don't hate like the little, the little tone shift.
Um,
It felt very like, it felt like Disney channel shift where it's like, oh, the movie was fun.

(46:23):
And then all of a sudden it's like, oh, we're serious now.
Someone might die.
Yeah.
But you know, honestly, I don't hate it because usually like, I did need like a little bit
more, um, cause at this point I did want a little more tension or like something to like

(46:46):
be more of a reason for things to be going wrong, you know?
Cause everything felt a little too perfect at this point and things going a little too
well, you know?
There were cutesy problems they were dealing with.
This was a real problem now.
Yeah.
So I liked that we got a little more serious, just like a tiny bit more.
It truly was just like a little sprinkling.
Um, because of course guys, as you know, this happens with every romance book because it

(47:10):
follows the pattern.
This causes what, what we like to call on the, on the raunchy power hour, the third
act breakup.
Um, I love that I say we call it that, but it's a very common thing that is called.
It's not even really a breakup.
It's more like space that they decide to put in between each other.
Um, cause Vivi is upset, um, that, you know, Reese could die, um, because she placed an

(47:36):
additional curse on him and all of that.
And Reese is acting like Reese.
He is making jokes about it.
He is, um, trying to like lighten the mood and Vivi's like, dude, you're going to die.
And he's like, Oh, Oh well.
And Vivi doesn't recognize that that is his defense mechanism.

(47:58):
Um, and Reese doesn't recognize that her being concerned for him dying, isn't her saying
that she doesn't believe in him, which again leads back to daddy issues.
So Vivi walks him home and then she decides to go back to the house by herself.

(48:20):
Um, and she is just like scared for him and she and Gwen have a little moment where, um,
they talk about like her feelings towards Reese and this is the first time Vivi and

(48:42):
like basically says like in her own mind that she loves Reese and she doesn't want him to
die cause she's fallen in love with him again.
Um, and I'm like, Oh, I know what's going to happen here.
It's my favorite of all the tropes.
I'm rolling my eyes at that guys.
Um, so
I can hear your eyes rolling.

(49:04):
You should, you can probably also see them.
Um, I hate this trope so much, but it's, it comes with the genre.
So Gwen is also sad because apparently her and the mayor broke up or something.
I don't know.
I didn't really pay attention to that.
I was like, Oh, okay.
Everyone's just sad and heartbroken.
There's an odd side plot.
But I will say with that, I was confused.

(49:27):
I have this marked here.
Um, Gwen's go to comfort drink is kind of insane.
Um, apparently it's a hot gross hot tea that Gwen had always loved a mix of truly obscene
amounts of sugar, black tea, a bunch of spices and orange flavored Kool-Aid.
Yeah.

(49:47):
That's kind of crazy.
I have questions.
I have so many questions.
It's a heartbreak drink apparently.
I'm all for a really sugary tea, but like adding Kool-Aid in on top of that.
Oh, that's a lot.
She's going through it.

(50:08):
Yeah.
Um, so next morning, Reese wakes up and he's like, Oh, she doesn't believe in me.
She doesn't believe that we can break this curse.
But I love her.
And anyway, he gets a random phone call from his, uh, you know, fuck off brother who's
been in the middle of nowhere with his goats and a beard, uh, Bowen.
He was like, Hey, beard.

(50:32):
Uh, and he's like, Wells told me that you got in some trouble and that a coven cursed
you and like, uh, what's going on.
And Reese tells him everything, including Vivian, like leaving and crying.
And Bowen's like, dude, get your head out of your ass.
Just go tell the girl you love her.
And Reese is like, yeah, you will do that.
So he marches on down to Anne Lane's and, um, and Elaine greets him with Sir Percival,

(50:55):
who's learned a couple more words now, including dickhead.
Um, it's so good that he calls him dick bag because it's like, that's the first thing
he hears when he opens the door.
Yeah, just dick bag.
I've also tried to imagine what Sir Percival sounds like.
And for some reason, I just think it would be really funny.
It was like just a deep voice just going, treats.

(51:20):
That's what I was thinking too.
He totally has a deep voice in my mind.
Yeah.
Dick bag.
Anyway, um, and Elaine is holding the cat and he's like, I need to talk to Vivian.
And she's like, because you want to tell her that you love her.
And he goes, yeah.
And aunt Elaine is such a cock block because aunt Elaine is like, she's preparing for the

(51:44):
spell tonight, Reese.
You can't like mess up that concentration.
And I'm like, fuck off.
I can't believe she did that because like, Vivian was like literally stressed out.
Why would she do that?
Like, I feel like this might've helped the situation actually.
Cause Vivian's stressed out about that.
Like specifically.
Yeah.

(52:04):
About that as well.
I don't know.
It was a little odd, but I was like, okay, whatever.
We're just not going to say I love you until afterwards.
Cause that's, that's just what happens.
This would happen in one last stop as well.
So I'm like, you know what, whatever.
Anyway, now we go to Vivian and she's taking another bath, but it's not like the one at

(52:28):
the beginning of the book.
She's just soaking and reminiscing.
And then she decides to put on her bad ass polka dot dress.
Cause it makes her feel confident and good.
And she's like, now I'm going to go summon my ancestor.
And I'm going to go tell Reese later that I love him.

(52:50):
So they get to the cemetery where Alwyn is buried and they all meet there.
They're all in like cloaks.
They're in classic witch shit guys.
And they begin the ritual and Vivian goes to put, she has to like cut her palm and then
put it on the ground to help someone Alwyn.
And then Alwyn possesses our girl Vivian.

(53:15):
And takes over her body.
And the reason they're able to do this is because of course Hallow's Eve Halloween is,
you know, the night and magic is most powerful because of course it is.
Classic spooky Halloween shit.

(53:35):
And Alwyn is like, you're a pen hallow.
You look just like your great, great, great, great, great grandpappy.
And I bet your ass like shallow and all of this.
And he goes, no, like I don't want this like town to be destroyed by this curse.
Like people really care about it.
And she's like, why should I help you?
And he goes, because I love your great, great, great, great, great granddaughter.

(53:59):
And she's like, I can feel her heartbeat for you as well.
I will help you.
But then it turns out Alwyn can't do anything because the curse is too strong.
And she then fades back into the ground and unpossesses Vivian's body.
Which honestly, this whole situation kind of insane.

(54:21):
Kind of crazy.
Kind of crazy.
Like you spent all that time.
And then she's like, I do believe you love her, but he he I can't help.
Bye.
I can't do anything.
Bye bye.
Bye bye now.
Like, what?
Kind of crazy.
There she goes.
So Vivian wakes up and she's like, did it work?

(54:43):
And they're all like, you did such good magic, sweetheart.
You did a great.
She's like, it didn't fucking work.
They're like, it didn't fucking work.
So Reese is still going to die.
And Vivian's like, oh, God, what are we going to do?
What are we going to do?
Like, how do we get the curse out of the ley lines and out of the town?
And as soon as she said, like, oh, how are we going to get it out of the ley lines in
the town?

(55:04):
I knew exactly what was going to happen and exactly what happened.
And what they did is Vivian comes up with a plan and she goes, well, we need to overcharge
the ley lines.
And the only way to do that is like to do a pen hollow.
But wait, the Joneses also powered the ley lines when they were created with Alwyn.

(55:26):
And she goes, come on, Aunt Elaine and Gwen, we're all going to go to the ley lines.
And so they get up there, they get into the horny cave, which doesn't make any this time,
guys.
They don't get horny for each other.
It's not that type of southern romance book.
And I kind of not going to lie, I kind of thought this situation was going to get all
like very.

(55:46):
I don't know, like in Akita, this kind of happens.
Yeah, no, I wasn't hoping, but I was thinking I was like, oh, in Akita, like to strengthen
the magic, we have sex.
And I was like, oh, it's totally going to happen here.
And it didn't.
The cave wasn't horny.
It didn't.
The cave wasn't horny this time, guys.
But they do form a circle and with, you know, the power of love and family magic, they surge

(56:12):
the ley lines and it's powerful and they clean it and then Reese isn't going to die anymore.
Yay, everything's all right in this cute, beautiful little spooky witchy town.
Yeah, so everything's fine now, guys.
So Reese is like relieved that he's not going to die, because you know.

(56:33):
And that would be really, that would be relief, I think, for anybody.
So as they're driving down the mountain, Vivian and like has some stop on the side of the
road, which is near the field where they met for the first time.
It was like a summer festival where they met all those years ago.
And what does Vivian do?

(56:55):
She has goodbye sex with Reese.
Because for some.
OK, I'll be honest.
I'll be honest.
I'm completely real.
Hey, Aaron, this got me mad.
You made me mad at this point in the book, because I thought you were going to leave
us with a clean hanger.
I thought you were going to be like they have sex and then they part ways.
Too bad.

(57:16):
I was so mad.
I hate it.
I hate it.
I hate it.
I hate it.
I hate it.
It's too close to the end of the book.
It's a terrible time to do it.
Like it's so terrible.
Anyway, they both think they're both not interested in each other and that what they had was a
fling and that it was just sex.

(57:37):
And they're like, OK.
Time for you to go.
That's it.
Time to wrap up.
Say goodbye.
Yeah.
And I was like so mad.
I was so mad.
I was like, don't do this to me.
It was really good up to this point.
But if this ending may ruin it, it didn't.

(57:58):
It was a little time skip.
It's a couple of months later.
It's now winter time.
Vivi is coming back to work for the first time after holiday breaks.
And she actually got a very sweet gift from Reese.
And it was like a whole book in Welsh about Welsh history written by a witch.

(58:20):
And she's like, oh, this is so sweet.
At least he's thinking about me.
But like, it's not that big of a deal or anything, you know.
And turns out because of this whole ordeal, she's decided that she wanted to teach some
witchy classes and some history on the town and all of that.
So she's now a professor on the witch side as well as the normal side.
And as she's walking down the hallway towards her class, she stops because she sees an unfamiliar

(58:45):
name on one of the on the doors of the professor doors.
R. Penn Hollow.
And she's like, it can't be.
It can be because it is Reese.
Reese has decided to come live in Georgia and make a commitment to Vivian and because

(59:07):
he was miserable without her.
And you know, having a college named after your family does have its benefits.
So he is now a professor.
And this is where we get a cute little confession of him saying, I love you.
I want to be here with you.
I want to try this.
I don't want to like this.
This isn't just a fling for me.

(59:28):
And it's the same thing for Vivian.
Vivian feels the same.
She tells him that she loves him.
And then our book ends on a cute little note with the final line being,
And that Vivian had to admit as Bruce leaned in to kiss her might be the most magical thing
of all.

(59:49):
It was cute.
Cute because he didn't like whales anyways that much.
Like, you know, he wants to go back and visit, but like, he didn't like it that much.
No, but he could do a job from wherever.
By the way, we never explained it.

(01:00:11):
Reese is a travel agent, by the way, guys.
He has his own travel business.
We never said that, but he does.
Out of all the things, like that's such like a bachelor or like bachelorette.
Like someone on the show would be like, I'm a travel agent.
I'm like, yeah, I believe that.
And like Reese is this.
Yeah.
And he's like, well, I can do it anywhere.

(01:00:32):
I want to be, I want to be serious, which means I get a professor job at a university
to be with you.
We love a work from home, work remote king.
Honestly.
But yeah, that is the end of Hex Hex by Erin Sterling.

(01:00:52):
That's it.
Ashlyn, do you have questions for us?
He asked me that every time.
My answer has only been no once.
Yeah.
But because of that, no, I got scared.
And now I have to ask every time.
I understand.
We should work on our communication.
That would help.
Please.

(01:01:12):
I'm so anxious.
I want to know, I want to have questions at the end of every episode.
I'll work on it.
I'll work on it.
Thank you, baby.
Do you think that Reese and Vivian will stay together after the end of this book?
I hope so.
Think so.
I think so.

(01:01:33):
He moved.
He moved all the way to Georgia.
Whenever he has to fly internationally, he has to go to Georgia.
That is a commit.
He has to fly out of Atlanta.
That is a commitment.
He has committed to do that.
And the fact that he's teaching, he has a job there.

(01:01:54):
Yeah.
Also, they have fantastic chemistry between the two of them, physically and emotionally.
I would love to see them grow more as characters and he learns how she's like, no, I do believe

(01:02:15):
in you.
It's not that I don't believe in you.
It's just I'm concerned for you.
And him opening up more and not making a joke of things as much, you know?
I do think they had nine years between it.
And so he obviously grew up and you had only what, three months with him before.
And then you've got this one month of October and then a little bit of the winter.

(01:02:38):
So I'm like, maybe a little more time, maybe a little more time.
I would love to see a little, I would love to see more growth and see how they develop
more as a couple, but I do think they would stay together.
So neither of you have read any of the, have read The Kiss Curse, which is the next book

(01:03:02):
in the series.
And as we're recording this, we are still anxiously awaiting The Wedding Witch, which
is the third book in this series.
What do you think happens in the second and third books?
Oh God.
Well, you did hint at us that the second book does not follow Vivian, but Gwen.

(01:03:27):
And Christina and I have also guessed that either Gwen ends up with Bowen or Wells.
It's gotta be a brother.
It's gotta be.
Yeah, it's gotta be a brother.
They truly are keeping it in the family both ways.
It only makes sense.
And for all the characters that we met, I think there's a reason we met them all.

(01:03:51):
And I think it's to like flesh out this world later in different books.
Like, you know, like we got these like odd one-off characters and I think it's because
maybe like it's kind of one of those things where it's like, oh, I remember them from
a book previously and we didn't get that much information, but here's your book on them
now.
Yeah.
I feel like it's something between Gwen and Bowen because we barely learned anything about

(01:04:20):
Bowen.
So I feel like he's set up as our next male love interest because he's like at this air
of mystery.
Well, Wells is well.
We don't know much about Wells, but I don't know how much older...
Except he runs an inn.
Yeah, exactly.
That's all we got.
He ran an inn and he's stern.
And maybe he falls in love with the lady who has the inn that...

(01:04:41):
That was barely visited inn.
Yeah, maybe he does that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It has to be something with the Joneses.
Maybe Wells is just really into older women and he dates an Antelaine.
Honestly, I would love that.
I need an Antelaine book.

(01:05:03):
I know we keep saying this, but I'm going to say it again.
We need an Antelaine book.
I'm going to assume more magic hijinks ensue when Bowen has come to visit Reese at Graves,
Glenn, and he and Gwen start...

(01:05:25):
They're mutually attracted to each other.
And then obviously by the kiss curse, some kind of curse occurs.
Don't know what kind, but something.
An accidental one.
Because what's he doing on the mountains?
What's he doing out there?
He can go to Georgia and have goats and a beard.

(01:05:46):
And then the wedding, which I assume is a double wedding.
I think it's a wedding between Bowen and Gwen and Reese and Bivvy.
A double wedding?
You think they would do a double wedding?
I think they would.
Bros with their hoes.

(01:06:11):
That's it.
That's the theme.
Yeah, there it is.
I don't think there's a double wedding.
I definitely think Vivvy and Reese are getting married.
There's no way.
Okay.
You think?
Yeah, because they've been together the longest.
They would be the longest to have a wedding.

(01:06:32):
Unless Gwen's pretty wild.
Yeah, but here's the thing.
As we've now established, we all met at Auburn University.
We all know how fast relationships can go and how fast someone can get married.
Go from dating to married.
Oh my god, is Bowen in the witch military?

(01:06:53):
He's like, I gotta get married before I get deployed to fight whatever other thing is.
Because then I could maybe believe it.
Maybe.
Are the Welsh getting deployed?
What's happening?
But it'd be specifically witches.
Like, maybe there's a witch war we don't know about.

(01:07:17):
Yeah.
The lore drops.
It all drops in the second book in one chapter, you get all the lore of the witch war and
how they're being drafted.
Yeah.
I think that's...
Ooh, actually second book.
Reese and Gwen are about to get engaged.
Bowen, Wells, and their father all come to Graves.

(01:07:39):
No, Simon doesn't show up, but Wells and Bowen show up.
And they're there to support their brother, obviously.
And then...
Yeah.
Curs and Soos.
Doodoo Kiss, I assume.
Maybe.
Maybe.
We'll see.
We'll have to read it.

(01:08:06):
And now I would love to hear your final thoughts and your rating out of five.
Alrighty.
Alrighty.
Christina, would you like me to go first?
You can go first.
Yeah.
Okay.
I will go first.
So here are my overall notes and thoughts about this book.

(01:08:27):
I think Reese and Vivian are very cute and have a very good dynamic between the two of
obvious slash old affections and the witty banter between them.
I thought was really nice.
I will say also the smut is really not that bad.
It is pretty good.
It is pretty, pretty good.

(01:08:50):
It does what it was set up to do.
But I liked the amount that it wasn't too much.
It was literally just the right amount.
I will say the book throughout most of it felt like there weren't a ton of stakes.

(01:09:10):
But I know some people would say that like that is a fault of this book.
But here's my argument for it.
This is kind of meant to be like a cute little fall, which you romcom romance book.
I don't think all of like a ton of like heavy stakes or like a ton of like different plot
things or like heaviness would have made sense in this world.

(01:09:33):
So therefore I'm looking past it and I'm not seeing it as a fault because I thought it
was a cute little book and I needed it at this time.
So there because it was very easy to read and I liked it.
So there you go haters.
I will say a lot of the characters were cute.
I just wish there weren't as many at times because I got a little lost of who was who.

(01:09:59):
But honestly, like that's just like it's such like a nitpick, like that's such a nitpick
because the world itself and like the magic system, Graves Glen as a whole and everything,
it just felt overall super cozy, very comforting.
And it was just it was a good little book and I'm glad we read it.

(01:10:21):
And I'm interested to read stuff by Erin Sterling slash Rachel Hawkins in the future.
So with that, I am rating it a four out of five stars.
Four out of five stars.
OK, I'm with you on the vibes of the book.
We're good.

(01:10:42):
Like this is a kind of book that if you're painting the scene, like you're sitting on
a really, really comfy couch, maybe it's velvet.
Maybe it's not.
Maybe it's red velvet.
Maybe it's not.
And if you have a hot apple cider candle going next to you and you have your little pumpkin
pumpkin spice latte and your Starbucks cup with all the microplastics.
Yeah, it's ready.

(01:11:03):
It's perfect.
It's ready.
Get you and your microplastics comfy on the couch with like maybe a roaring fire.
You've got cozy socks on.
You've got like a really, really soft blanket.
You can hear the crackling of the fire.
Maybe the candles you have going are wood wicks.
I feel like that would really set the tone.
Yeah, this is this book has good vibes like I could picture myself if I had a fireplace

(01:11:28):
it would be on even when it's kind of warm here.
But I would have the fireplace on.
It's a fireplace book.
It's cute.
It's cozy.
You read it pretty quickly, which is not terrible.
Like if you're looking for something cute and sweet, this is it.
I will say that I did read it on the bus and while it wasn't that spicy, I did feel like

(01:11:51):
I had to like turn it.
You know, I don't want someone sitting next to me and like looking down.
So it's not super crazy, but it was enough to like give me pause.
I see those people on the bus a lot.
They would totally read over my shoulder and I don't want that.
It's a medium.
Don't don't look over my shoulder, but it's kind of okay.

(01:12:11):
I don't know.
No, it's on the bus.
Come on.
Come on, guys.
Yeah, I love a good southern fantasy.
I feel like it's really tough to find those, which I do wish you had a little more like
southerny words in there.
But like a cute southern like witchy grandma.
I'll take it.
I love like the Appalachian vibes like it is witchy.
The mountains are witchy.

(01:12:32):
I love that.
So it was self aware.
It knew its genre.
It knew its place.
It wasn't supposed to be super dark.
Like Sydney was saying, like it's supposed to be cute.
It's supposed to be fluffy.
You're going to like it.
It's nothing terrible going on.
Nothing crazy happening.
No, it's not like we it's not groundbreaking.
It's not something that's going to like shatter your worldview and how you view books, but

(01:12:54):
it's something that you could fondly look back on and be like, yeah, that was a good
book that made me happy.
Totally.
You could totally pick it up every October and be fine with that.
Like it's definitely like repeatable.
I would recommend it to people, which is pretty big.
Sometimes I read things and I'm like, I don't know if I would recommend that to someone.

(01:13:15):
I recommend this, especially if they want vibes.
I am a romance hater.
Yeah, you are.
You are.
So we've completed our trend in which we have brought on another person who also hates romance.
And I'm a begrudging romance reader now because I actually enjoy the genre.
And romance is a tough genre too, because a lot of times it's not taken seriously.

(01:13:38):
I'm really glad that like romance is getting more of a platform.
And I'm not mad that the platform brought us to the x-hex.
And I despite being like begrudgingly reading this because I was like, ah, cutesy.
I don't know.
I would give it three and a half and I would round up on Goodreads to a four.
I would round up.

(01:14:00):
There we go.
Instead of rounding down, that's good.
See that's I was going to say what differentiates a three and a four for me is three.
I was like, yeah, I read it, but I wouldn't recommend it to someone else.
Four I would recommend it to other people.
But then what separates between a four and a five is would I read it again?
Like is this a repeatable book for me?

(01:14:22):
Four I would definitely recommend this book, guys.
Like this is something cute and I would recommend you go out and read it.
And with that, I'm going to wrap up this review.
Christina, thank you so much for coming back and not being horrified.
What I have tried to drag you into.
Thanks for letting me out of the basement.

(01:14:45):
Of course.
Unfortunately, we'll see if you get to come up again sometime soon.
Maybe Lauren gets to come up again and we can do like a little party thing.
For now, I guess you can stay out of the basement.
Whatever.
I don't know.
I love the pumpkin spice scent.
Thank you.
But hey, if you liked our review of X Hex by Erin Sterling, then guess what?

(01:15:10):
You are in luck.
We have so many other reviews of good books, bad books and the in between.
So go check those out and also go follow us on Instagram, Twitter.
YouTube, Twitch, Fable and of course, Goodreads so you can go see what we thought of the books

(01:15:30):
and keep up with what we're reading.
Please tell us what you like about the podcast and if you have any recommendations, we would
love to hear them.
Thank you guys so much for listening and I will say good night to you, my little pumpkin
pals.