Thank you to Kate Johnson, HarperCollins UK and Netgalley for an ARC of "Hex Appeal" in exchange for an honest review.

Josh is an American lawyer who breaks up with his ex, quits his job, and moves to Essex when he finds out his rich father has willed his English estate upon his passing. Josh begins to look into the other properties who owed his father rent when he stumbles upon Beldam House, an old property full of witchy inhabitants. One of the witches, Essie, feels a connection to Josh in more ways than one, and together they look to save the world from a monster of the past.

If you are looking for a witchy romance to put you in the mood for Halloween, this will certainly do the trick! It's not the most captivating read as I found the plot on the slow side until the last quarter of the book, It was also a bit tough to understand the progression of events along the storyline. There was quite a bit of chaos, which was confusing at times.

However, I found Josh and Essie's romance to be endearing and multidimensional throughout. Essie's character is brave, adventurous, and quick-thinking while Josh is definitely more timid, easy-going, and set in his ways. Opposites attract though! The characters differ from traditional stereotypes and made this story more refreshing.

If you want a story full of thrills, this might not be the one for you, but give it a shot if you are looking for a spooky romance and cozy October read.

I wanted to really enjoy this fun novel as a witchy romance for October; unfortunately, I didn’t. I felt that much of Josh and Essie’s relationship developed ‘off-screen’ and lacked the real substance to root for them. The pacing felt odd, so while I enjoyed some parts of their house matching their moods magically, or the quips between characters, I felt that the overarching story was confusing and missing a lot of elements. One moment we were with the couple in a bar, the next a full week had passed. While there were elements that I really enjoyed (the magic, the house, some of the world), there was too much. Time travel, unexplained magical stuff and lack of overall relationship development between characters really impacted my feelings toward this book. Overall, while it was fun, I felt it a little lackluster. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this title.

Spooky season is here, and this is a great book to kick it off!

Hex Appeal is told in 3rd person with dual POV of Essie and Josh. Josh is a lawyer from Seattle who inherits a property in England and moves in. Essie is a witch who lives in a house that is protected by spells and charms so people forget it exists (also forgetting she exists) but he remembers her.

It isn’t very spicy but is steamy and sweet with 1-2 chapters of on-page “activities”.

I know I shouldn’t but I actually liked her mom Lilith! Not so much her actions, but she was feisty!!!

I would definitely recommend this one if you like sweet witchy reads! CW/TW - There is the mention of SA in the book, happening to one of the MCs but it isn’t on-page, it happened in the past. Overall, it was a great palette cleanser read for me!

This book was cute and funny! I loved all the random stuff that would happen and the love interest. At times I felt it was a little slow but overall a cute read!!

If you are looking for a quick witchy book for the fall season, this is perfect. It has plenty of spooky vibes, witches, spells, and even a little romance.

I thoroughly enjoyed the English village setting, there was a lot of fall time ambience in this book that was very descriptive and I could imagine being there. The house itself was described in detail and I really enjoyed that it was its own character, in fact it was my favorite character. The characters themselves were all interesting and added to the story.

However, the plot of this book had so much going on that it all seemed smashed in together and was not very flushed out. While I liked the hero and heroine characters, I felt nothing for them together. Their romance seemed unbelievable and rushed. I did laugh at parts of this book, the writing was witty, but overall I just could not really get into this book.

2 1/2 ⭐️

This was really fun and cute! It's described as Encanto meets Hocus Pocus. While that's accurate, I would say it reminded me a lot of Discovery of Witches, with a magical house, time traveling and working to banish an evil person/creature that will doom you if you don't!

There was a LOT of characters and elements in this one, though, and it was almost hard to keep track of everything. The house was really fun but also too much sometimes — it (and the plot) could be overwhelming at points.

The witchy/autumn vibes were there though and wonderful. While the relationship between Josh and Essie took some time to develop, I did actually enjoy them together.

Thank you to Netgalley, One More Chapter, and Kate Johnson for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This book was all over the place and hard to follow. There were so many characters and their place and purpose in the story was hard to justify. There were occurrences that happened that made no sense (like the three ex-boyfriends), and I finally had to DNF at about 49% into the book.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. It just wasn't for me.

This book was so cute. If you want a wintery witchy read this one is for you. This book took me on some really good twists and turns. I thoroughly enjoyed it and loved the characters so much. Essie was an amazing character to follow and Josh gave it that extra twist when you got his pov's.

I think this book will appeal to a lot of readers, but I disagree with their marketing, I think it's misleading. The comparisons to Erin Sterling and Lana Harper did not ring true at all to me. Sure, they're all books about witches but the tone, characters, and general vibe of this book is really different than those. This one is far stranger than either of those books, in my opinion. That being said, I think people looking for a genuinely very quirky witch book will really like this.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with an arc for review!

I’m sure some may find this a super easy-to-read witchy romcom/contemporary with those Hocus Pocus vibes, but the writing style in this I found incredibly hard to follow & ultimately, I don’t think this book was for me.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5002444405

I picked this up because of the funny title and the story didn't match the greatness of it. It's a story about a witch who freezes people and a man who just inherited half of a town in England. It was really slow in the beginning and took too much time to try to flesh out all the different characters, and there were many. I think that the connection between the two MC's was actually believable but it took so long to get there and by then we were downing in characters and timelines. Still, a fun time jumping witchy novel.

I'm absolutely loving the boom of witchy romcoms right now, and Hex Appeal fits right in. This book is cute and fun, if extremely chaotic and hectic, and even if it wasn't my favorite of the slate, it's still a good time.

Hex Appeal takes the classic "she's a witch, he knows nothing about magic" trope and runs with it, adding in all sorts of spells and nonsense to make Josh's journey extra wild. There's some time travel and some monsters, plenty of pets and plants, and a whole host of entertaining and unique witches to back up main character Essie. All in all, the story is as fun and vibrant as Bedlam House, constantly shifting and leaving you never quite sure what's going to crop up next.

But that chaos is sort of a double edged sword. While it definitely kept things fun and interesting, I also often found this book to be *too* hectic. There's a lot happening all the time and that made it hard for me to get a handle on the plot and the love story. I think things could have been scaled back just a little bit to make those central elements shine, and Hex Appeal would have been better for it.

Still, this book does what it sets out to do, which is tell a fun story about witches and romance. It's perfect for spooky season, and that's really what matters the most.

3.25/5

Essie has come to terms with being single and living with her coven of interesting fellow witches. That is until Josh moves to town after inheriting a house and quite a bit of the land in town.

I enjoyed Essie and Josh's story as well as the entire quirky cast of characters. There were some really funny moments which I love in romance. Super fun read!

Loved the setting of this book! I dream of visiting a quirky village in England. The characters were funny, light hearted, and easy to like. I thought this was an original story and felt that it was different than some of the other witchy romances that I have read.

There’s not a lot of fun Halloween/Witchy reads to choose from so I am always so excited when I see one. I think this book was witty and fun! AND it got extra good the second half.

This was a lovely fun and cosy read with witchcraft set in a typical English village. Not my normal genre but I enjoyed the scene setting and the characters including the lovely house which certainly made its feelings known. Perhaps a tad predictable which I find these books usually are but overall I came away with a smile on my face. A lovely book for the autumn season. Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

Hex Appeal
by Kate Johnson
4.5 stars

I enjoyed the outline of this book a witch that lives in a house that doesn't stop changing and knows what you need, with two other witches. Essie just wants to be normal and you get to see how vulnerable she can be, she's worried about her powers and what might happen if she gets close to another guy. As we follow Essie's story she meets a guy that she doesn't want to leave but she knows it won't work. Then it just gets more twisty and in several different directions doing a ritual to make winter come, also a time door to bring you to the past. It's a very good story just a little too much at times. I will be checking out a few by Kate.
Thank you, Net Galley and HarperCollins for the eARC for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Hex Appeal's summary was true to form for this particular book. It truly was a mix of Hocus Pocus and Enchanto. Overall, this is a really cute Halloween read, but not necessarily romance heavy. There is quite a bit of action and I enjoyed the character of Essie as she navigated through hurdles. If you are looking for a book that has a little bit of romance, gives off Halloween vibes, but isn't overwhelming this is an excellent choice.

Love me a good book that has witches and this was perfect. The cover is what drew my attention to this book but the writing is what kept me coming back. Loved it.

Third person POV is not something I enjoy. At all.
Cute storyline, feel good, and fun, but kind of flat and dragged on in some areas. Not my favorite, but not terrible either.