Go Hex Yourself | ARC Review | Blog Tour

Thank you to Yazmine Hassan from Berkley for the review copy in exchange for an honest review. This does not change my opinion in anyway.

 Book: Go Hex Yourself by Jessica Clare
Release Date: April 19th 2022
Tags: Paranormal Romance | Magic | Cat Familiar | Family | Life Choices
Trigger/Content Warnings: Toxic Family Relationship | Sexual Content

When Reggie Johnson answers a job ad in the paper, she’s astonished to find that she’s not applying to work at her favorite card game, Spellcraft: The Magicking. Instead, she’s applying to be an actual familiar for an actual witch. As in, real magic.

The new job has a few perks – great room and board, excellent pay, and she’s apprenticing to a powerful witch. Sure, the witch is a bit eccentric. And sure, there was that issue with the black cat Reggie would prefer to forget about. The biggest problem, however, is warlock Ben Magnus, her employer’s nephew and the most arrogant, insufferable, maddening man to ever cast a spell.

Reggie absolutely hates him. He’s handsome, but he’s also bossy and irritating and orders her around. Ben’s butt might look great in a crystal ball vision, but that’s as far as it goes. But when someone with a vendetta targets the household, she finds herself working with Ben to break a deadly curse. Apparently, when they’re not fighting like cats and dogs, things get downright…bewitching.

Go Hex Yourself is a typical romance book with a splash of magic thrown in for the comedy effect. That it is typical doesn’t mean that it is a bad thing. It is a quick in between bite that we all need sometimes.

We meet Reggie as she starts the interview for the job add for a game. She is quite confused when this interview is in an elderly ladies home and doesn’t seem quite as gamey as the job add made it out to be. But she needs a job and so she takes on taking care of an elderly lady who believes magic is real. It pays quite a bit so who is she to complain if its a little odd to make potions… Until it turns out magic is actually real.

The thing about Go Hex Yourself is that it is all a big pill to swallow. Reggie who responds to that kind of a job add and then not believing it when magic is in her face. It takes a while to get over that hurdle and honestly I think it took too long. It took a bit of the speed out of the story and took away room from actual world building.

The synopsis will tell you this is a hate to love but it isn’t. I don’t think for a minute that Reggie hated Ben. He was obnoxious and a pain in the butt for sure but I don’t think there was any hate there as she tried to figure him out right from the start. I did quite like their relationship as Ben was actually quite the gentleman when it came to courting her. He might have been a brute in trying to push her away from the magical world (to protect his aunt) but once he drops that his true personality shines through. He keeps taking account that she is there for his aunt. That he doesn’t want to scare her and doesn’t want to lose her friendship at one point. He is big on consent which is something we need much more off in romances.

I think there should have been more room in the book for a bit of world building and depth of character (primary the aunt and side characters). That really could have enhanced this book to giving its reader warm and fuzzy feels. I just missed that.

But if you want a fun magical romance to take you away for an afternoon this book still will do it for you.