Last year, The Ex Hex was one of my favorite reads of the spooky season. The Kiss Curse will likely be the same.

I thought it was charming and a lot of fun to read. It’s fast-paced, light and perfect for the witchy season. I loved being back in Graves Glen with the Jones and Penhallow gang. I really enjoyed Wells Penhallow—there was something about him that gave me the tingles right from the start. 😅

Read if you like:
🐈‍⬛ Witches
🐈‍⬛ Talking cats
🐈‍⬛ Enemies to lovers
🐈‍⬛ The Good Witch (with spice)
🐈‍⬛ Stars Hollow vibes

I love this season!! Bring on all the witchy books!!

Dust off your brooms, because the witches of Graves Glen are back. I really liked the first book in this series and was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed Gwyn’s story! Erin Sterling knows exactly what we want when we are searching for a book with fall-vibes.

A fun, light, super easy read that is perfect for fall. If you liked the Ex Hex, you’ll enjoy this one. I was excited for Gwyn’s story as I enjoyed her character in the Ex Hex but The Kiss Curse kind of felt like a repeat of the former. The book is definitely all about the vibes - the characters are fun but very light plot and not much happens. Great book to set the tone for fall.

I loved my second trip to Graves Glen just as much as the first. This series is fun, with just enough romance, magic, and mystery to keep it fresh and fun. Following up on last year's The Ex Hex, the Kiss Curse moves on to give Gwyn some romance with a Pennhallow of her own.

Thanks for the opportunity to review!

Link to 9/21/2022 Instagram post:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cix_T2xPG05/

📖Gwyn loves her life in Penhallow. She runs a successful shop and mentors “baby” witches. When Wells moves into town and opens a rival store across the street, they both get more than they bargained for.

💭I love these books. They’re the perfect fall escape for romance lovers. I love the small town setting, the magic and witchy vibes, and of course the romance. What’s not to love?! If you loved The Ex Hex, then definitely pick this one up. It’s perfect to kick off your fall reading!

✍️How I rated other books by this author:
The Ex Hex- 5⭐️

The Kiss Curse by Erin Sterling 4.5 stars

I did not think I could like The Kiss Curse more than The Ex Hex, but I did! The characters were even more well done, their relationship more realistic and their magic flawless. Again, I am not typically a fan of witchy/magic books, but this series is amazing. Perfect to read during this time of year... making me very excited for the Halloween season!

Gwyn is running Something Wicked and mentoring some young witches in town. Until Wells Penhallow shows up and opens a similar type of store across the street. When their competition turns personal, they try their best to avoid one another. That is until a new coven of wtiches come to town and Gwyn's powers start to fade. Will they figure out how to restore Gwyn's magic and determine what these new witches want?

Thank you Netgalley for my advanced reader copy.

"Graves Glen was a collection of lights glimmering in the darkness, homey and warm but far away, shadowy hills rising all around it."

Due to Graves Glen having a change in the flow of power, many new witches have gathered in the town. Encountering these weird energies and emanating magic is cause for lookout into the safety of the town's magic. Gwyn is running Something Wicked on her own when it just so happens, Wells, Rhys' older brother, and Gwyn's long-time enemy opens a shop across the street rivaling her store. With cause for competition, these two start to have more one-on-one run-ins creating the all too good banter and magnetism to the other. When an old university acquaintance moves to Graves Glen and invites them both to a housewarming witches-only party that radiates evil magic, the two team up to figure out just why she moved back. This book is all about the funny (“Baby Witches” anyone?) —and the budding enemies/rivals to lovers romance between Gwyn and Wells, whose bantering and hijinks also provide a lot of humor. The chemistry between Gwyn and Wells is again well done. Another superb Sterling book!

I enjoyed this follow up to The Ex Hex and was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it. The Kiss Curse was a fun read, but this one was even better, and that's not always an easy task with a second book. I'd love to keep reading about the town of Graves Glen, so I hope this isn't the last we see of it! Take Gilmore Girls and Jasmine Guillory's The Wedding Date series and mix in a little witchery magic and spells, and you get this! Fun and fast and exactly what a reading is looking for in a magical rom com!

I finished both of the ex hex and kiss curse, such magical tales this weekend - because it’s fall and spooky season officially! The weather was chilly and I grabbed a blanket and dove right in.

The Kiss Curse is about Vivi’s cousin, Gwyn, and Rhys’ brother, Wells. The two definitely do not get along when he opens a competing store across the street from Gwyn’s, but when strange things happen to her magic, they work together to investigate.

This one takes a day or two and is perfect for the fall season. Very Halloweentown meets Sabrina and Bewitched with some spice! While these books have mysteries, ghosts, and spells gone wrong - they still manage to be light and fun. I’m a sucker for the grumpy/sunshine and the plot of this one compared to the first was more tangible for me.

📚Read if you like:
- Enemies to lovers and grumpy/sunshine
- Sabrina the teenage witch, Bewitched
- Light Halloween-time reads


My rating as a duology:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶🌶

I really enjoyed The Ex Hex and The Kiss Curse was no different. I actually think I like The Kiss Curse a little more!

What I loved about this book:
- All the spooky Sabrina/Hocus Pocus/Halloweentown vibes
- The chemistry and banter between Wells and Gwyn was perfectly written.
- Sir Percival was giving main character energy.

A perfect Halloween season read!

The Kiss Curse is the second in the series, following The Ex Hex. I recommend starting with The Ex Hex, but I do think you’d be fine overall reading it as a standalone. I felt there was enough backstory woven in so you wouldn’t be hugely confused without reading the first one.

The Kiss Curse

-enemies to lovers
-small town with Salem/Halloweentown vibes set in rural Georgia where it always seems to be fall and Halloween year round
-low stakes
-open door romance
-grumpy x sunshine between the rigid eldest brother and the free spirit, laissez faire type cousin from the main characters of the first book
-main love interests over 30
-bisexual rep with Gwyn


The Kiss Curse is an excellent option to kick off the cozy fall vibes and make you wish you could go to Graves Glen for a visit. I didn’t have much issues with this one as long as you go into it not expecting anything incredibly dramatic; it’s got calm and cozy romantic mystery vibes.

I thought the enemies to lovers trope wasn’t necessary, and the author could have carried the romance on the grumpy x sunshine trope alone. I know it’s silly to talk about realism in a book series about witchcraft, but I found it highly unlikely that Gwyn, now in her 30s, would be so hung up over a single, extremely minor, incident that happened her first year of college basically that she would consider Wells her enemy. I mean she just thinks he’s an asshole, so the trope is very mild, even when their stores are briefly “feuding”.

Overall, 3.5-4 stars. Looking forward to Bowen’s book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon/Harper Voyager for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

he Kiss Curse was one of my biggest anticipations this year because it It the sequel to last year’s Ex Hex. This time around we follow Gwyn Jones and Llewellyn “Wells” Penhallow. Wells comes back to re-establish his family’s magic in the town after the Jones ladies grounded the town’s magic to their family’s. While in town, Wells opens up a magic shop that rivals Gwynn’s. A bad shipment causes the two to kiss, so the two decide to stay away from each other. As Gwyn’s magic fades, and a new coven threatening the town, they have to work together to keep everything as it is.

This was such a cute read! Sir Purrcival the cat is still slaying and everything I want in a cat sidekick.

Thank you to NETGALLEY and Avon & Harper Voyager for the digital arc.

This sequel to The Ex Hex was even better than the first! I just love how lighthearted yet interesting the author makes these stories! I really hope there's a third!

This was a funny, swoony, perfectly witchy, small town, dual POV, opposites attract paranormal romance!! I absolutely LOVED the Ex hex last year and this second book in the Graves Glen series exceeded all my expectations (and it was my MOST anticipated #SpookySeason read for 2022!).

Full of humor, heart and such an adorable cinnamon roll hero. I LOVED Wells and his big loyal heart who fell hard for Gwen in college, not realizing who she was years later. The banter, the chemistry, the magic - it all worked wonderfully for me in this book. And the last scene was utter perfection.

AMAZING on audio narrated by Shannon McManus who does an excellent job with accents - this set the bar high for my paranormal #tbr ! Recommended for fans of the Stay a spell or Fix-it witches series. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review! This one is definitely worth a listen and my favorite #SpookySeason romance of the year so far!

Tis the season for witchy romances! I love seasonal reading but I love romance books, so when I discovered the world of witchy/paranormal romances last year, I was sold. Now that spooky season is back, I’m ready for more magic in my romance reading! The Kiss Curse was my first spooky season read. I adored reading the Ex Hex last year and was very excited to see a new installment in the series, and it did not disappoint!

This book takes us back to Graves Glen, where Gwyn is running a successful witchcraft shop, has formed a powerful coven with her mom and cousin, and is mentoring a group of young witches. When Wells Penhallow comes back to town to try to re-establish his family’s connection to the town they founded, he opens a shop of his own and creates a rivalry with Gwyn. But when a possible love spell (or was it?) leads to a kiss, things get complicated. And when they have to work together against a new band of witches, things get even more complicated.

If you are looking for a fun rom com for this time of year, look no further. This book has drama, action, magic, romance and a talking cat! The banter in this one is top notch and I loved the grumpy/sunshine witch pairing. I loved the side characters - getting glimpses of Vivi and Rhys was fun and the addition of the baby witches was fantastic. This was a great book to get me in the mood for all things Halloween.

Thanks to Avon Books for the advance copy.

Liewellyn "Wells" Penhallow, loyal and dependable and eldest son of Simon Penhallow has promised to uphold the magic founded by their ancestors in Graves Glen. Wells returns to Graves Glen and opens The Penhallows Magical Goods in direct competition against his cousin by marriage Gwynevere Jones magical shop, Something Wicked.

The fun and sneaky competition leads to an unexpected kiss that Wells and Jones decide to ignore. Unfortunately, they can't forget the kiss. While they try to stay away from each other something dark, and evil is slithering into Grave Glen and Gwen is slowly losing her magic. Jones& Penhallow are on the case as they try to find out who's behind the evil deed and bring back Gwen's magic and balance to the town before it's too late.

I loved The Ex Hex (Vivi and Rhys’s book) and its witchy vibes last year when I read it for Halloween so I was super excited to get this ARC through Netgalley of the second book in the series. The Kiss Curse has the same witchy vibes and a great enemies-to-lovers storyline following Gwyn (Vivi’s cousin) and Wells (Rhys’s older brother) back in Graves Glen, Georgia. This book was 4.5 stars and a great start to spooky season!
 
Gwyn has hated Wells ever since their very first interaction when Gwyn was in college and has persisted until now when Wells never showed up for Vivi and Rhys’s wedding. Wells is team traditional magic and Gwyn is team modern magic- a big source of their competition. When Wells shows up in town and accidentally crashes a bachelorette party Gwyn is helping with, their animosity towards each other flares up again. Now that Wells is in Graves Glen for good, watching the two of them compete via their respective shops and get closer as the story goes on and they try to figure out why Gwyn’s magic is disappearing made me so happy (and laugh a lot). I do love my enemies-to-lovers stories so I was hooked immediately and stayed invested the whole way through.
 
This book was such a cute and spooky read and can’t wait to re-read both The Ex Hex and The Kiss Curse closer to Halloween!

***BOOK REVIEW***
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: The Kiss Curse
Author: Erin Sterling


The Kiss Curse is the sequel to The Ex Hex. You don’t really need to know what happened in the first to enjoy The Kiss Curse. It read as a standalone!

I loved it. The Kiss Curse has a little bit of everything; romance, humor, and even suspense. It’s the perfect book to get you in the mood for Halloween and all things spooky!

Thanks to Netgalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for a copy of The Kiss Curse in exchange of an honest review.

I adored The Ex Hex last year and I’ve been looking forward to the follow-up ever since I finished it. I’m happy to say that The Kiss Curse is exactly what I wanted for this return to Graves Glen and I’m really hoping we get another book in the series! Bowen needs a book, right?!

I absolutely loved Gwyn, her baby witches, the shops, her dynamic with Wells, just everything! There was the perfect amount of tension and humor and steam. There was one little moment/revelation that kept getting teased between them that I didn’t ever feel was resolved in a satisfying way – I kept waiting and waiting for it and it never happened! I did read an ARC so maybe it will be in the finished copy? Other than that though I loved them, and I also really enjoyed getting to see how Rhys and Vivi were getting along.

As with the Ex Hex, this book was more focused on the romance than the witchy drama that was going on and the conflict was resolved pretty easily. I was kind of expecting this though and honestly, I was totally okay with it. But it’s worth noting that these are definitely very lightly spooky books – no nightmares here!

For me, the Kiss Curse has immaculate small-town witchy fall vibes. The stakes are low, the atmosphere is cozy, and the banter is plentiful. Curl up with a hot drink of choice and enjoy!

(Also, A++ for the “we’re about to get caught somewhere we shouldn’t be so we MUST make out to provide an excuse” trope.)

Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I was so excited to finally get my hands on Gwyn and Wells' story! Although you wouldn't necessarily need to read The Ex Hex first, I'd highly recommend reading it so that you have an idea of their world.

Wells is Rhys' brother who decides to move to Graves Glen and open a shop.. right across the street from Gwyn's family's shop. She immediately views him as the enemy and shenanigans ensue. I think Gwyn is hilarious and who doesn't love a bad*$s witch? They are both extremely stubborn, yet can't help slowly falling for each other, even if they can't admit it to themselves.

The Kiss Curse is a perfect fall read! Very fun, cute, easy read.

Thank you to Erin Sterling, Avon and Harper Voyager, and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange of my honest review.