This really bums me because I was really looking forward to this ARC from @netgalley and HarperCollins. I get the concept - a witches in London twist on Sex and the City, but I just never got into it. I liked be audiobooks, so maybe that format would’ve made me like it better.

Themes:🧙‍♀️👻🏙️🪄

My thoughts: 🥱

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This was so fun! Cosy, sexy, funny, with quite a few (pretty out of the left field!) high-stakes moments. We follow Poppy, a 27 year old witch with seemingly sentient hair, who works at a little magic shop. Things take a turn when she accidentally sells heartthrob Axl Storm a cursed pendant…which doesn’t bode well for his west end opening night. Thus starts a pretty intense few days for the two of them!

The romance is equal parts sweet and sexy, and was a lot of fun to follow along with. It’s chaotic in the best way - I genuinely could not tell you where the plot was going to go next, but I more than happily went along with it, and had fun on the ride. The miscommunication between them can be frustrating, but it’s always quickly resolved, and honestly makes a lot of sense in the situations they’re put in.

There is also a very heartfelt plot line about family, and parenthood, which I thought was very lovingly done.

I definitely recommend it if you’re after a fun, witchy, romance! I also low-key wish I had magical hair now.

Thank you to the publishers, and net galley, for the copy to review.

Poppy accidentally sells a cursed pendant to Alex and must retrieve it from him. Once she does, Poppy and Alex are thrown into an adventure together. Can they fix the chaos they caused or will sparks fly?
Hex and the City is a novel by Kate Johnson that stars Poppy, who is a witch. She unintentionally sells a cursed pendant that ends up in the hands of Alex, who is an actor. I gave this book 2/5 stars because I personally did not like it. I found it hard to get fully invested in this book, which led me to not knowing what was happening. I didn’t care for the characters much and thought the plot was boring. I liked the witch aspect of the book and can understand why others would like it. I think that this book would be good for those who like modern witch adventures. I personally would not recommend this book to others. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

3.75 stars - Creative story but lacked in good world development. Would have loved more back story on the "coven." The books pacing felt disjointed to me. Sometimes it was action packed, and sometimes it slogged a bit. There was a particular scene with specific emotions and even exact thought processes that repeated itself more than once... that was really annoying. For the most part though, it was an entertaining read that could have benefited from some better editing. I liked the characters and the concepts, but I wanted less of the insecure feelings part and more about the witching. I did buy the related book Hex Appeal after reading this, so, I liked it enough to read more! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Publication: September 3, 2023

Rating: 2.5 stars (rounded to 3)

This is my second book by Johnson and I remember that the first one fell down the middle for me. Not bad but just “meh”.

This follow up book fell a little lower for me. Poppy was a hard character for me to click with and one of my least favorite romance tropes made an appearance: Insta-love (or in this case Insta-lust).

I loved the fall vibes and the magic but overall the book, story and characters felt lacking. I wanted more plot line, more fleshed out characters and more of a filled in story regarding the magic/romance.

I felt thrown into the story so it left me feeling “meh”. Not the best but not the worst. It was a nice light hearted fall read while on my vacation.

Perfect for fans:
Fall vibes
Dual POV
Third person narrative
Insta-love
Opposites attract
Magical pieces

I enjoyed this book. It was an interesting read . I found that I was able to read quickly and enjoyed the pacing and premise of the book. I would recommend to others.

This was such a charming story. I love a good tale of witchcraft, and the juxtaposition of magic versus stage magic was really fun to explore.

Poppy has my whole heart, her beautiful chaos, her journey of self discovery and self confidence, her love story, it was all an absolute pleasure to read.

Hex and the City is the second installment in the series.
Poppy Thistlefoot is a witch that designs jewelry and works at the Hubble Bubble Magic Shop. Chaos seems to follow Poppy everywhere! She accidentally sells a cursed pendant to Alex (Axl). Alex is a popular illusionist who is so swoon-worthy. Poppy and Alex must work together to reverse the curse. What could possibly go wrong? EVERYTHING!!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It was a super cute funny story. That I will definitely be rereading around halloween.

I have not read book one and I didn’t feel like I was missing anything, but will definitely be picking up book one.

This book has such a cute witchy vibe for the upcoming fall season. Poppy, the fmc, is adorably chaotic and incredibly likeable. It's a fast paced cozy read I would definitely recommend to all lovers of witch vibe romances.

Unfortunately I did not finish this. The story had shining moments for sure but ultimately I found it chaotic and not well put together.

The fat-phobic rhetoric around Alex was surprising and incredibly off putting. Honestly shocked it made it thru editing.

I recieved a free e-arc through NetGalley and this is my personal opinion about the book.

Surprisingly, fun read! The blurb gives this book little justice and gives little context to the actual plot which is chaotic fun. It's a dual pov between the FMC and the MMC. Poppy is funny and a joy to read and the MMC is a misunderstood "playboy." This is a very loosely adaptation of Rapunzel. The plot itself is very funny. The dialogue is great with the side characters. The romance is a little to instalove for me but despite that trope it was a delight to read and read in one day. It was a fun surprise to see what happens and be sucked into the chaos!

A magical romance between a witch and a magician unfolds with lots of action and a few mysteries along the way. Alex and Poppy’s relationship gets off to a rocky start with a cursed amulet being the main priority but it brings them together in their joint efforts to fix everything. They’re an interesting pair - a man of many one night stands and a woman haunted by never feeling good enough for her partners. It makes the sweetest kind of romance when Alex falls hard and fast and the sparks fly between these two. I liked the quirky coven side characters as well and would have loved to see more of Ivy in this book but all the same it was a cute, easy-to-read love story with lots of magic!

I received a free copy of this book. All views are my own.

This book is so charming and so much fun - I was already charmed 20% in and I had no idea what was to come! So much action and adventure - honestly one of the most fun witch stories I’ve read.

There were things I liked about this book (Iris mostly).

Unfortunately, there were things I didn’t love. Poppy for one. She wasn’t a character I could click with, I found her jealousy of her cousin to be rather off putting, her seduction of Axel when he was in shock questionable at best, Poppy’s dating history sounded a little cliched and improbable. So everyone screwed her over and she was never even partially at fault? I felt she didn’t take enough responsibility for her own life and then just blamed everything on circumstances instead of actually taking the reins. She was constantly whining about her life but honestly, she never had anything that bad happen to her?

Axel didn’t really interest me and was used more as a plot device than a full fledged character. Besides his looks (which he was not so interestingly very self conscious about) and his disastrous diet, he really had nothing else, he didn’t seem like a fully drawn character. And their nonexistent chemistry was also a bit of an issue for me. We can read that Poppy fancies Axel though while also not liking him but I don’t think we really feel it. I wasn’t convinced. Then their instalove (instalust?) relationship progressed into the physical but it bored me really. Plus their first argument (was there even an argument) felt forced and the second was ridiculous, just unnecessary drama. I was no fan of Alex but I wanted to shake Poppy to get her to snap out of it because it was super obvious what was going on.

The magic in this story also fell short, I feel it wasn’t explained in a convincing or captivating way. I was tempted to ‘DNF’ this book but kept convincing myself to finish it since it is rather short. It still took me a relatively long time to read (kept putting it down).

So all in all, I was rather disappointed with this book and though I had really wanted to like it, unfortunately, it didn’t work for me. However, I am glad that I kept reading because I did like the epilogue, I that it was fun and it was actually a great way to end the book. 2/5 stars.

Hex and the City is a cute witchy romance. I thought it was pretty quick read but I enjoyed the storyline. It’s about a young witch falling in love and discovering her powers, while trying to stop the chaos around her. It was more of a cozy romance read than fast paced, so it was a little slow at certain parts of the book.

Hex and the City is full of chaos, magic, and adventure. This book made me laugh out loud and cry. I really enjoyed Poppy and Axl Storm's adventure and their character development. It was a quick read that had me wanting more of the characters after I finished! The steaminess was great and the two had magically chemistry from their first interaction. I loved the appearance of characters from Hex Appeal! 3.5 stars rounded up to 4

Thank you Kate Johnson, NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter for this magical eARC in exchange for my honest review!

This is the perfect book to read if you like Cosy Romance, cosy fantasy and everything a bit witchy. Also perfect for fans of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches.

Meet Poppy, clumsy, chaotic, with hair that do pretty much what it wants - quite literally, it once threw scissors across the room. Her love life is a series of pain, disappointment and evenings getting drunk trying to forget about it.
And her powers? We don’t talk about her powers. Trust me, that’s better.
One evening, after getting very drunk because of her ex, Poppy ends up cursing a pendant. And it shouldn’t be a problem, if Alex Raine - also known as Axl Storm, the sexy Nordic illusionist - didn’t buy it the morning after.
Poppy goes after him and the pendant, to stop the chaos of her cursed pendant, while trying not to fall for this man, who as adorable as he is, has a womaniser reputation to his name.

I loooved this book. I somehow feel like I read it at the perfect time, after an heavy read and before what feels like a complicated one. Hex in the city is fresh, well written and dynamic. The characters are super lovable (give me a clumsy, optimistic, adorable main character and I will immediately get attached). The relationship is top tier, with a quick start -no slow burn on this one- a great development and a climax I found really well balanced in the story.

If you are looking for something quick to read, fun and extremely cosy, you should definitely check this one out !

I was really intrigued by this premise, sounded like a cozy witchy romance.We’re tossed right into the story, it feels a little jarring, like I needed a little bit more context and world building. I suppose that might be because it’s the second in the series, but more information about the world would have allowed for more immersion.

We’re introduced to the characters and start out feeling pretty indifferent to them. However as the story progresses I start to actively dislike them. Alex is not a nice guy, stringing along the women who work with him - vomit. I’m struggling to connect with Poppy and her chaotic life seems a little too ‘not like other girls’ - seriously…mismatched shoes? But there are some interesting points - Alex’s confidence issues (quite novel), Poppy’s sentient hair (super cute) - were little tidbits that created some interest. But you didn’t get enough of these things. As far as side characters, her group of friends/landlady’s friends seem intriguing, but we’re not given enough detail to really understand the dynamics or their backstories. Also Poppy started to feel a bit mean by the end, her personality felt so inconsistent.

Really the biggest stumbling block in the book was the plot. It was completely chaotic. Very much trying to fit 10lbs into a 5lb bag. There were so many things going on, but nothing was delved into enough before we were on to the next ‘startling event’. And when we finally get to the root of all the problems - it’s 100% out of nowhere. No foreshadowing, world building was so weak I didn’t even know this was possible, it felt incredibly crowbarred into the story.

Overall this story had so much potential, but we just weren’t given the information to really fall in love with the characters and understand their actions. And the plot is complete chaos (not in a fun way).
Read and reviewed this Advanced Reader Copy from NetGalley.

I loved this 2nd book in the series!!! I will probably reread both around Halloween because I love spooky romance stories in October! Thank you for the copy to provide my opinion! It was everything I hoped it would be!