Customer Reviews

Hex Appeal

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Reviewed for queuemyreview.com

Shoes that bill and coo, and Monty Python's rabid bunny slippers come to life! "Hex Appeal" by Linda Wisdom is a laugh out loud paranormal romance. With zany secondary characters and a Starbucks addicted witch in love with a smoldering, sexy vampire, this series has something for everyone. In "50 Ways to Hex Your Lover", Jazz and Nick reunited to finally defeat a returned enemy. Now in "Hex Appeal" they'll need to trust each other more than ever before to best whatever force is trying to either break them up or kill them.

Jazz is a 700-something (real women never tell) witch with a wicked sweet tooth and a weakness for her vampire lover. Never willing to take the easy route, Jazz is currently working as a curse remover while waiting out her banishment from witch school. When she begins having bad dreams, she figures it's just something she ate. When she beings having nightmares, she thinks it must be some curse or hex. But when one nightmare causes her to lose her magic...well, that's war.

Nick still can't believe how well he and Jazz are getting along. A vampire and a witch...who'd a thunk it? Even being unable to drink Jazz's blood can't damage his love for her. When Jazz begins having bad dreams, he's worried. When he begins having bad dreams, he's pissed. But it's becoming all too clear that their enemy or enemies are highly placed in the supernatural community and very powerful.

Jazz is someone I'd want to hang with...while drinking wine, eating chocolate, and trashing men. She's funny and has so many quirks, I can't begin to list them all. She also has rubber ducks that swim in her bathtub, a hunk for a boyfriend, shoes that flirt, and shoes that can kill...literally. Now that's my kind of woman! Nick is still a bit mysterious, but more pieces of his past come to light in this book. These two are the George and Gracie (or Jennifer and Brad for you younger ones) of the paranormal world.

Wisdom's contemporary California is the perfect setting for Jazz's crazy world and the wacky and weird characters who inhabit it. While there's enough steamy romance to satisfy the paranormal romance label, this second book is more about the creatures who live in Jazz's world...weres, vampires, witches, wizards, ghosts, elves, pixies, and creatures not yet identified. The slowing unfolding mystery reveals itself at a perfect pace, and still leaves room for more books in the series. If you're looking for a humorous change of pace, pick up Linda Wisdom's "Hex Appeal" and laugh yourself silly.

After battling Clive Reeves in 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover, Jazz, a 700 year old witch, thought all of her troubles were behind her. But someone or something isn't done with Jazz and they're striking with a vengeance. Jazz realizes that someone is using magic to haunt her dreams after she continually suffers from nightmares. But with such a long life, it's hard to figure out whom that someone might be.

It all starts with Jazz's favorite magical slippers Fluff and Puff being accused of eating Willie, a were weasel, from the boardwalk. When they cough up a button, their fates are sealed and it's off to bunny prison for them until the mystery can be solved. Jazz knows her slippers wouldn't murder someone no matter how tasty they might be, but with Willie nowhere to be found Fluff and Puff are looking guiltier every day.

Everything is going great for Jazz in her relationship with vampire cop Nick Gregory. But when she starts to have nightmares of him attacking her that feel all too real, it causes problems between them. Nick is suffering from nightmares himself but he hasn't told Jazz about them. It's almost as if someone is purposely trying to cause problems between Nick and Jazz.

While trying to uncover the nightmare fiasco, Jazz works as a chauffeur for the supernatural and as a curse eliminator. But when Jazz suddenly ends up cursed herself, she starts to wonder if her work has backfired on her somehow. Will Jazz and Nick figure out who is out to get them before it's too late? Will Fluff and Puff be destroyed for eating Willie? Will Jazz be a good little witch and not have more years added to her banishment?

Hex Appeal is the second book in Linda Wisdom's new paranormal romance series following the lives of a witch and her vampire boyfriend while they solve mysteries together. The writing flows very well with vividly drawn characters that the reader could easily picture in their head. The characters range from vampires, humans, witches, ghosts, goblins, and were weasels.

I enjoy reading paranormal romance and when it combines humor and mystery, it has all the elements of a fantastic book! Linda Wisdom has definitely cast a spell with Hex Appeal and I enjoyed every magical moment. Overall, Hex Appeal is a really fun book and I am so glad to have discovered this wonderful series!! Look out for the third book in the series Wicked by Any Other Name due out March 1, 2009.

While this book was just a fun as the previous book, 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover, I was let down by how little anything really developed in this book. I expected more back story regarding Jazz and her Boyfriend/Vampire Nick. There was also the issue of the climax, well, not really being much of a climax. The whole book seemed to build to an ending that never quite got there. I enjoyed the mystery aspect of the novel and hoped that the unraveling of everything wouldn't just be something as simple as Jazz saying "that's it!" Other than these problems, I felt that the book was a great, light read that anyone would enjoy reading when they went to take their mind off other things and just not think for a while.

This is the sequel to 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover, a delightfully fun and funny light paranormal. I enjoyed many aspects of both books and was disapointed in others.

In general, I felt that the characters were somewhat under-developed. Jazz in particular struck me as a bit immature for someone over 700 years old--I loved her sass and energy, but questioned the logic of it. The fact that Jazz and Nick have apparently known each other for centuries should add depth to their relationship, but it really doesn't. And the villains seem to just be evil because...they're evil, that's it, no explanation. On a positive, both books have a great deal on humor and whimsy. From a chatty ghost to playful rubber duckies, to a pair of living crocodile stilettos. The shear imagination of it all was enough to keep me entertained.

The plot of this book was a bit confused. Jazz and her friends are being plagued with bad dreams that stem from magical origins. Added to this, Jazz's beloved bunny slipper's Fluff and Puff have been accused of murder. Where the previous book was slow but coherent, this one seems to have lots of plot points written with hapless abandon and crazy glued together. I was very suprised that it mostly came together at the end, although some elements still didn't fit. And the ending itself was rather anti-climactic, lacking the satisfactory final struggle or reckoning typical of most books.

The best I can say about this book is to read it for a laugh, not take it seriously, and not expect to much. It is neither the best nor the worst paranormal out there--really just average.

Jazz Tremaine and Nick Gregor have recently revived their long and tumultuous love affair, but there is already trouble in paradise. Sure, witches and vampires aren't supposed to get along, but they've moved past all that.

This new trouble comes from the strange dreams plaguing both of them - dreams that are all too real and have each of them doubting their relationship.

Soon it becomes apparent that those dreams are courtesy of an unknown enemy, the result of a powerful spell that Jazz can't seem to break.

Not only that, but her favorite pair of slippers, Fluff and Puff, have been framed for murder. They'll be destroyed if she can't prove their innocence. Sure, they eat like garbage disposals, but they'd never touch a nasty-tasting were-creature.

Before long, the question of whether or not their relationship will survive is overshadowed by whether they will even live through the new threats against them.

The only good thing about finding Linda Wisdom's HEX series late is that I enjoyed the ability of reading the first two books in this fun saga back to back. And `enjoy' is certainly the operative word here.

HEX APPEAL picks up where 50 WAYS TO HEX YOUR LOVER left off, with Jazz and Nick reveling in their recent reunion and still recovering a bit from their showdown with the evil Clive Reeves, where they each nearly lost their lives.

But there is no rest for the weary, and our intrepid couple soon find themselves fending off a new threat while handling their individual case loads - Nick as a private investigator and Jazz as a curse-banisher. Both occupations are bound to earn them some foes, and so the question of who in their long-lived history might be attacking them this go-around is wide open.

As fans of the first book in this series would expect, HEX APPEAL has a comfortable balance of humor along with the dark in the storyline. The wit Linda Wisdom keeps flowing throughout the tale keeps it from being too heavy, allowing the reader the ability to keep laughing until the story's end.

If you like your romance full of fun and magic, then you will not want to miss the second books in Linda Wisdom's HEX series. Aptly named, HEX APPEAL is sure to attract a legion of new fans for this talented author!

**4.5 Bookmarks, Courtesy of Wild on Books**

Series Order:
50 Ways to Hex Your Lover
Hex Appeal

HEX APPEAL
LINDA WISDOM
Paranormal Romance
Sourcebooks Casablanca
Sensuality Level: Sexy
ISBN# 978-1-4022-1400-4
360 Pages
$6.99
Paperback--Available October 1st, 2008

Rating: 4.5 Enchantments

Sassy witch Jazz Tremaine returns in this entertaining sequel to '50 Ways To Hex Your Lover'. Dealing with having Fluff and Puff accused of murdering a Wereweasel is tough enough, but now something--or someone--is stalking her through her dreams, can Jazz figure out whose behind it all before its too late?

Ms. Wisdom kicks off HEX APPEAL with a sexy opening and doesn't disappoint from there. Thinking her vamp boyfriend Nick was biting her neck in her sleep, Jazz takes off, only to be confronted by Rex, who informs her that Fluff and Puff killed one of his carnies, Willie, a Wereweasel. It's tough to convince him otherwise when one of the bunny slippers indiscreetly coughs up a button that looks identical to the one on the worker's shirts. It's up to Jazz to prove their innocence and protect them from Rex and the Ruling Council.

HEX APPEAL is a great second book in the series. All the favorites from the first book are back: Nick; Krebs; Irma and her new ghost dog, even Dweezil shows up. Also making an appearance are some of the other witches who will be featured in future books. Adding to the fun are the new shoes, Croc and Delilah, a pair of Stilettos that seem to take the place of Fluff and Puff temporarily while the bunny duo find themselves caged for their own protection. I loved the fall-out from one of Jazz's nightmares when her whole life seems turned upside down and the chances are high she may not be the same old `lovable' Jazz again. When things go direly wrong because of it, two of her fellow witch friends show up to help take care of her and try to restore Jazz to her old self, which might be easier said than done. I have to say I love how everything seemed to connect to each other by the end of the book, even if the events didn't seem that way as I went along.

Filled with unexpected twists and turns, fans of fun, sexy paranormal won't go wrong picking up HEX APPEAL.

[...]

Jazz is back, and she's even funnier and sassier in this book than in the first. She's also a heck of a lot more human and real, and therefore easier to relate to. I mentioned in my review of 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover how much I liked Nick, but he's even hotter in Hex Appeal. He's so sexy, so strong, and so supportive of Jazz and her quirks. There are quite a few more love scenes in this book than in the first as well, and they're smokin' hot. The romance is also more present and more believable in this book, and the ending is quite a bit closer to a true HEA than the "Happy For Now" ending in the first book.

Linda writes great characters. The entire cast of characters in this book is amazing, from ghostly Irma and the shoes that are actually living creatures, to Jazz's witchy friends and the sexy geek roommate Krebs.

The villain in this book is scary awesome, and way cooler and more involved in the story than the villain in the first book. The dream sequences are really creepy and good, and Jazz goes through some pretty terrible but funny things while she hunts for the creep polluting her dreams. The secondary plot that has Fluff and Puff accused of murder is cute too, and I wish it had been developed a little more. I love the werecreatures that were introduced into the Fluff and Puff storyline. I hope Coby the werewolf spends more time on the scene in the third book. He's dark and sexy and I'd really love to learn more about him.

As much as I enjoyed this book, I still had a couple more problems with it than with the first. I felt really lost a lot of the time during the book. I kept having the feeling that I was missing something really important, even though I had just finished the first book in the series a few days earlier. It was easier to forgive this aspect in the first book because I thought it might be cleared up in the second, but it wasn't. In fact, there were even more loose threads and more characters with unexplained backgrounds in Hex Appeal than there were in 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover. The characters in this series are so fun and so interesting that I couldn't help but want to get to know them. Jazz and Nick have some really fascinating friends. Even the bad guys are cool in these stories. I really felt like I was missing out by not knowing more about their history.

My other quibble is more of a personal preference than something I feel like I can deduct review points for, but I never really felt like the ruling bodies and the leading witches were on Jazz's side, and I never understood that. I can't see how anything she's done should cause her to lose the support of her own teachers and leaders. Anyway, like I said, a personal thing. I'm a geeky psychological person that wants to get into everyone's head, and it always bugs me when I don't "get" a person. That's a very minor gripe, and it probably won't even register with most other readers.

Other than these two little issues, this is a great book. I had a hard time finding any actual flaws in the writing or in the world building (other than loose ends), which is unusual for me. Ms. Wisdom is clearly a very talented and experienced writer, and it shows in her work.

I may have a few more quibbles with this book than with the first book, but it's still a lot of fun and the positives far outweigh the negatives. Hex Appeal is a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed getting to know Jazz and the gang. I haven't read many witch romances, and these books make me want to hunt for a few more.

I definitely recommend this book to fans of urban fantasy and paranormal chick lit with light romance. This book is a blast. But don't forget to read 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover first. Hex Appeal will make a lot more sense that way.

"Hex Appeal", the second book in Linda Wisdom's series, has lots of fun, quirky and appealing components. Jazz is a sarcastic, hot headed, loyal witch. Her human roomate Krebs is a bland kind of guy who provides the dry humor. Jazz dates Nick, the "good guy" vampire, who can't drink from Jazz because witch blood is poisonous to vampires. Then there are Jazz's quirky sidekicks: Fluff and Puff, Jazz's maybe homicidal bunny slippers, Croc and Delilah, her crocodile (really) stilettos and Irma, Jazz's resident ghost. Jazz's witch friends seem to have no purpose other than using their inclusion as an introduction to further books in the series. The plot of "Hex Appeal" revolves around Jazz and her friends having nightmares...sometimes leading to bad things. Fluff & Puff get accused of eating a carnie from the Boardwalk. Cute, if thin, plotline. This series has all the elements to make me think I'd like this series. But the fact is, two books in, I don't care for it. The majority of readers like this book. I have a friend who enjoys similar books...we share many favorites. She loves Jazz and counts these books amoung her favorites. So why don't I find these as enjoyable? It's hard to put my finger on. I thought the plot here was very weak. We find out what happened to the carnie, but we never have a good explanation why. We learn that Mindy wants to run Dweezil out of business...nothing really happens with that plotline. Then Mindy mysteriously gives Jazz a cryptic clue as to who is controlling her nightmares. But again we never find out why or how Mindy knew. The showdown at the end was laughable. It was far too easy. I kept expecting another twist or turn but there wasnt' anything. A plus..I do think these covers are positively adorable. There just isnt' enough of a compelling and well thought out plotline to keep me entertained. These books may not be for me, but again many people enjoy them, so if they sound interesting to you, give them a try.

After reading 50 Ways to Hex your Lover and thoroughly enjoying it, I had to read the next book Hex Appeal,and it didn't let me down. Fluff and Puff are in Bunny Jail by Jas because they have been accused of killing Willie, a were-weasel. All of this is being played out while Jazz is having nightmares of being a normal human being, and losing all her powers, and at one point even losing her powers. Won't go into any more detail, but I will tell you it's exciting and very fun. We are also introduced to some fun and new hilarious characters especially her Stilletos called Croc and Delilah who love wearing make-up, and have a crush on Krebs her human friend, also Fluff and Puff keep somehow escaping from they're cell and stesling food, Irma, our Ghost is back as well as others. Can't forget our HOT Guy Nick, and Jazz,our witch. This book to me is even better than her last because Linda is letting us enjoy this crazy world with her, and were're learing more about The Witch's Concil and how it works. Can't wait for third book coming out next year. Please read this series, you will really enjoy it, also a great Halloween read as well.

I got the first book for free a while back and after finishing it went straight to get book #2. I finished it in no time. Jazz loses her powers for a while, and becomes the most hilarious invalid I have ever seen. Her friends come in and help her so we get some more "girl witch time." Her friends are banished witches just like Jazz. This is a great beach read, or plane ride. When you don't want the heavy stuff, this will amuse you for a few hours, and you will enjoy it!