Customer Reviews

Wild & Hexy (The Hex Series, Book 2)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Annie is dreading coming home for her sister's wedding. Six months ago, she divorced her self-absorbed, high-school-sweetheart husband, and put on thirty pounds. When her sister and soon-to-be brother-in-law moved up the date of the wedding, Annie is now in 'seriously need to lose weight' mode. Knowing she has to wear a peach monstrosity for a matron-of-honor gown isn't helping her mood any. With her low self-esteem, Annie returns to Big Knob only to see that, for a small town that doesn't change, changes have indeed happened in Big Knob.

Jeremy is ecstatic! He can't wait to see Annie again, still lusting after since high school. Shy and nerdy, he never had the courage to approach her, let alone talk to her, and Annie had been many a vision for his wet dreams growing up. But Jeremy hasn't changed all that much; he's still shy and sweet, and he desperately needs help to burst out of his shyness.

In come Dorcas and Ambrose. They know soul mates when they see them, and they're determined to get the two together. With a small spell, Jeremy seems to burst out of his shell, and much to Annie's surprise, he's much cuter than she remembers, and finds him very sweet and thoughtful. Plus, he knows a few magic tricks, which capture his attention.

And while dealing with wedding plans for her sister and his best friend, Annie and Jeremy find they can't keep their hands off each other, and it becomes anytime, anywhere; from a deserted beach after dusk, his apartment in the middle of the day, in the backseat of her car during the bachelorette party, to that same deserted beach before dusk, to the hammock in the middle of the night.

Meanwhile, Dorcas and Ambrose are still trying to help George earn his gold scales. Dee-Dee, a new monster member of Big Knob, has been there for close to two hundred years. While sightings of her had always been dismissed, the reporter in Annie is determined to get to the bottom of it, whether real or a teenage prank.

And just to add to the excitement, Isadora Mather, the woman captured in bronze in the town square, the widow of the founder of Big Knob, has returned after receiving reports that Dee-Dee was misbehaving. Going by the alias Isabel Moore, had been there, two hundred years ago, when Dee-Dee came to the village. She'd been hiding since them. Isadora's return couldn't have been at a worse/better time, depending on how you look at it, and she in no way resembles the statue of herself, except maybe her face. Isadora is outrageous and entirely focused on sex. Definitely not what the town needs right at that moment.

I swear I enjoyed this book more than the first! Annie was just like some women I know who had married over-bearing and self-absorbed men who treated them like crap and, once their self-esteem was buried deep, left them for someone else. Annie is a character that rang very true with me. Jeremy, on the other hand, could have used a little more work. Jeremy had sought help from Dorcas and Ambrose, help to unleash his inner wild self, to finally get the girl. Knowing that he's now outgoing and knows magic tricks that happen out of thin air, I found he was too quick to dismiss purported monsters in the lake, quick to dismiss what Annie saw, and immediately thought Dorcas and Ambrose were behind it all as a scam to make money. It made no sense how fast he drew to that conclusion and held fast to it.

Otherwise, I thought the story quicky, sassy, sexy, funny, and an overall excellent read!

Dorcas and Ambrose are, by far, the highlight of this book. They're New Age-style witches, but with quite the real powers, and hundreds of years old to boot. They're quirky and entertaining, from Ambrose with his scooter addiction to Dorcas with her sympathy for lonely lake monsters. And just to give them a license to meddle, it's Dorcas's life work to unite people with their soulmates.

Annie is also an interesting heroine, struggling with her weight and her self-image issues after her grinding divorce from her controlling husband. Jeremy is a great hero, at least for the first 2/3 or 3/4 of the book. He's a nerd, but he's grown up, and isn't the total geek he was in high school---he just can never quite remember that when Annie's around. My reservations with him are that he becomes too distant too quickly when he becomes skeptical over something strange she saw, and the question of how much the witchy 'boost' altered his personality is never satisfactorily addressed.

Basically, the personality trait that annoyed me with each character was the one that got exaggerated a bit too much in the need to keep the characters apart until the climax of the romance. The use of exaggerated personality traits also led to an ending that felt a bit too quick, pat, and clean---it was difficult to believe that the characters so easily resolved their differences after so much tension.

The vivid personalities, wacky situations and sparkling humor are definitely Vicky Lewis Thompson's strong points in Wild & Hexy. If her endings were stronger I'd find her books to be perfect pick-me-up reading.

[Usual adult material warning: explicit, enthusiastic, non-kinky sex.]

Oh, my! Some really great creative fun scenes here. Plot line is a little out there, but hey, it's a VLT witchcraft book. Loved it!

This is the second book in the Hex Series. A must read even if you didn't read the first!

Jeremy Dunstan is considered the town's nerd, mostly as he is also the local computer whiz. But while Jeremy doesn't do anything to dissuade this, he has held a secret since high school. He has always wanted Annie Winston. Now she is back in town for her sister's wedding and he isn't going to let this second chance go by. But it seems that Annie can still turn this successful man into a babbling teenager.

The matchmakers Dorcas and Ambrose may be in town to help fix their reputation and write a wrong, but they can't help doing a little matchmaking on the side. Will they end up helping Jeremy and Annie or will their hands be full with Dee Dee, the lake monster and George the card shark dragon?

I found Wild & Hexy to be a fun read from Ms. Thompson, as usual. I always love her stories as the geek wins in the end, and this one is no different. I laughed out loud at the lake monster and at the card-playing dragon, sigh, if only they were all real. Ms. Thompson does bring the overall story together well and it is hard to tell in the end if Annie really needed the matchmaking or not, maybe it was just destiny. Additionally, there were some spicy scenes between Jeremy and Annie that I found fun. Wild & Hexy is a fun summer read and a nice addition to the series.

Tanya
reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

I really enjoyed this book. This is the 2nd in the Hexy series and it just gets better. There are many things going on so no down time. The secondary characters are just as good as main storyline people. You can't go wrong with either of the Hexy books. Enjoy!!!!

Although they prefer not to go to the backwoods of Indiana, witch Dorcas Lowell and her wizard husband Ambrose know they have no choice as the wizard council sent them to Big Knob. Their assignment is to force George the dragon to finally accept his responsibility as a guardian of the woods. George prefers play to work even though his poker playing stinks as he consistently loses to cheating card shark raccoons.

They cannot leave until George moves on so to ease the boredom and to not cheat their target out of his money by playing poker with the moron, Dorcas and Ambrose open up a matchmaking firm. They decide who their clients will be and choose reticent Internet café owner Jeremy Dunstan and Chicago reporter Annie Winston as a perfect pairing even if she is here for a short time to attend her sister's wedding. Jeremy has always loved Annie while she has just gotten a divorce. They also agree to find DeeDee the lake monster a loving albeit water loving mate and teach those dishonest raccoons a lesson on integrity. With all that to pass time they must remain focused on George, their only priority.

This time the geek who knew his soulmate when he was fourteen was too shy then and now to act on his love; thus he needs hex help in this charming romantic fantasy as Vicky Lewis Thompson returns to OVER-HEXED Big Nob, the capital of eerie happenings. The lighthearted story line is fun to follow as Dorcas works her loving magic with amusing side consequences. Fans will enjoy her efforts as a WILD & HEXY matchmaker with Ambrose trying to keep her from going too far.

Harriet Klausner

Though they are stuck in the wilds of hick country, Dorcas and Ambrose do their best to make it an endurable posting. The wizardly pair can't leave until they convince George the dragon to take up his duties. All he really seems to want to do is play poker and not necessarily honestly. To pass the time, Dorcas and Ambrose start a match making service for magical beings. While one of their targets is rather unusual, finding a mate for the lake monster Dee Dee, the other is quite normal, for Big Knob. Annie Winston has come home to bury her mother, giving geeky Jeremy Dunstan a shot to pursue the love he dreamed of from afar. The big problem is, Annie does not want to stay and he does not want to go. Both situations will prove challenging, of course, so much so that handling George has to take a back "burner", even if he is their primary goal.

*** This is a fun, somewhat sexy, though not overly explicit read. I absolutely adore the eclectic mythological characters, especially George. You just have to love a cardsharp dragon. The human element is interesting too, so treat yourself to laughs. ***

Amanda Killgore

Plot Summary: Former small-town beauty queen Annie Winston was left by her husband, she gained twenty pounds, and now her sister bumped up her wedding date just to spite Annie. IMHO, twenty pounds does not transform a Barbie doll into a slob, but Annie is quite insistent that she's gross. Anyhow, shy computer nerd Jeremy Dunstan has lusted for Annie since high school, and his internet cafe becomes Annie's temporary workplace where she writes her newspaper articles and posts them to the paper (because really, what journalist carries a laptop nowadays; oh, I forgot, they ALL do). Luckily for Jeremy, some magical matchmakers are in town, and they perform a spell that changes Jeremy from wimpy nerd to alpha man.

I pushed myself to page 103 and I'm just too bored to continue any further. It's rare for me to abandon a book mid-read, but after the first couple of chapters I turned on an afternoon talk show. I never do that, so I must've been pretty desperate for a distraction, since "Oprah" cannot compete with a good romance. I came back to this book a few hours later, and gave it another try, but it's a no go.

So what's the problem? Unfortunately, there are several. The made-up town of Big Knob, Indiana and all the cutesy references to "Big Knobians," the "Hob Knob Diner," the "Big Knobian Bar," "Knob Lobbers," and "Knob Bobbin" were nauseating after a while. The name of the town is used so often, it's even used as an adjective; someone was described as "un-Big Knobian." (I was curious, so I looked on Mapquest, and there are Big Knobs in KY, MD, and NC. Go figure.)

Neither the hero or heroine were endearing, and I hate the idea of someone tapping a wand on the hero to make him something he's not. Magic is a wonderful element in a romance, but the magic of self-change should come from within. It just happens to be a plot device that goes against my personal preferences. The witch and wizard, Dorcas and Ambrose, were interesting characters, but they can't save the book since the romance is centered on the boring mortals.

I didn't find anything to smile about, much less laugh out loud funny, so the back-cover blurbs hinting at a humorous read were misleading at best. Maybe it's because the writing style felt dated, like when Jeremy felt like "a cartoon character with spring-loaded eyes. Boing." Those kinds of references had me picturing 1940s cartoons, and distanced me from the material. It all felt cutesy, safe, and old-fashioned, when I was expecting hip, sexy and modern from "Wild & Hexy."