Fantasy Book Review: Hex Appeal by Linda Wisdom

Hex Appeal by Linda WisdomMeet Jazz Tremaine, a gutsy fashion conscious witch who removes evil spells and curses for a living and works as a limo driver (for supernatural clients) in her spare time. Jazz, although over 700 years old, doesn’t look a day over 30 thanks to some pretty powerful anti-aging witch genes she was born with! Hex Appeal is the second book in the Jazz Tremaine series.

The Story:

Jazz clearly has a penchant for attracting trouble. The story opens with her defending the honor of her magical bunny slippers. It seems the slippers, Fluff and Puff, have a voracious appetite that includes creatures that walk on two feet. When a Were carnival worker goes missing and the slippers are found near the scene of the crime, they become the prime suspects in the apparent homicide. It doesn’t help that the slippers spit out a button belonging to the alleged victim while Jazz is declaring their innocence.

Fortunately, Jazz is able to avert the threat of a full-blown hearing that would inevitably put the slippers on trial, thereby giving herself time to conduct an investigation of her own.

Meanwhile, Jazz and her hunky vampire boyfriend individually begin having violent nightmares which appear to be magically induced. Even Jazz, a top notch curse remover, is unable to ward against the dreams. Things reach a critical stage when she starts having dreams about being human (the horror) because she knows magically triggered dreams can actually come true. She soon realizes that someone or something very powerful is deliberately causing the dreams and goes on a mission to determine their identity.

The ensemble cast in the book includes:

-Nick, Jazz’s handsome vampire boyfriend with former ties to a group called The Protectorate, a well organized (and manipulative) group that govern and enforce rules of conduct for the vampire community.

-Krebs, Jazz’s human housemate who’s still learning about the supernatural way of life. He runs websites for a living and in this installment meets the woman of his dreams. Who cares that she doesn’t have a pulse?

-Irma, Jazz’s own personal ghost who’s stuck with a 1950’s Donna Reed look. Irma accompanies Jazz on many of her excursions and serves as the wise-cracking sidekick.

-”Dog”, a ghostly canine that doesn’t have a name during most of the book. “Dog” likes to scare cats and slobbers invisible gooey ectoplasm.

-Croc and Delilah, Jazz’s new flirty stilettos that coo and like to wear makeup.

-And of course, Fluff and Puff, the mischievous (but potentially dangerous) bunny slippers that love nachos and bean dip.

At the very start of the story the two main characters, Jazz and Nick, have a fight which leads to a break-up, but fortunately, the author doesn’t belabor this matter for very long. They soon reunite and focus their efforts on finding out what happened to the missing Were and tracking down the person(s) responsible for their nightmares. Along the way we learn more about their world and the work they do to protect humans from supernatural (and human) predators and evildoers. Because I’ve not read the first book in the series these scenes provided insight into the personalities of the characters and helped explain their motivations.

Linda Wisdom has created a main character that’s smart enough to be believable and wacky enough to be enjoyable without crossing into the annoying dumb blonde territory. The book can definitely stand alone as a single work of fiction; reading 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover, the first book in the series, will likely provide additional backstory but then again, I didn’t feel as if there were any gaps in this book’s storyline.

Overall, Hex Appeal is a light, humorous (and at times steamy!) read that paranormal romance fans will likely enjoy.

Filed Under Comedy-Drama Fantasy Books, Fantasy Romance Books |

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