This was such a cute little witchy book, I loved it! Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this ARC, definitely makes me want to look for more witchy books.

Love Kate Johnson and I love this series. I normally do not read romance, so it speaks lot that I actually enjoy reading these books. The writing is great and it is definitely Italy a comfort read series for me.

2⭐️ 2🌶

Big thanks to Harper Collins UK, Kate Johnson, and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.

This is usually a genre I LOVE - rom-coms with a witchy side... but unfortunately this one majorly let me down. It started out strong for me because I loved the idea of a magician and a real witch coming together for a rom-com. Then about 25% of the way through it started getting off-the-wall crazy. There were so many times I legit had NO IDEA what was going on. It was just too much going on at once between the romance, Poppy's witchy side, the disasters, and then Alex's whole identity thing.

Add in quotes like: "Impatient, she grabbed his hand and shoved it inside her knickers, and he found exactly what he wanted." This added a cringy vibe that was just not it. First off this man already has like an eating disorder and put WAY too much into his appearance and Poppy's over here completely objectifying him like a man would. There was ultimately too much talk about how big he was in one scene. The spicy scenes to me always had an element that made my face look like David from Schitt's Creek looking just confused and off-put. Don't even get me started on the fact Poppy's mother was out here banging her bf, everyone around her and hit on HER.

Overall, this was a 2-star read for me. It does have potential if HALF of all the chaos that went on happened and was focused more on the magician/real witch romance. But ultimately it fell apart for me when all the action was added in. I wanted a cute, easy and witchy romance.

Hex and the City

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Witches galore in this one! If you’re looking for an easy read during the fall timeframe, check out this witchy romcom!

Poppy causes chaos everywhere she goes, unintentionally of course. But she falls into a hot actor who ends up getting a cursed necklace from her. As they work to get it back, strange things start happening all over London!

This was an easy one to pick up. I didn’t love the two main characters but parts of it were cute! Witchy London vibes all the way through!

Thanks to @netgalley for this ARC!

— 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 —

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: Hex & The City
𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: N/A
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫(𝐬): Kate Johnson
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Fantasy Romance
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝: 3rd September 2023
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝: 5th August 2023
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ★★★★

Although Hex & The City is based in the same world as Johnson’s previous book, Hex Appeal, and even has guest appearances from the same characters we meet in Hex Appeal, Hex & The City is based in the frenzied City of London, which is a wonderful place to be for the main character, Poppy, and her chaos magic.

I loved so much about this book. I loved Poppy’s chaos and her sentient hair. I loved Alex, the sexy illusionist who has heart eyes for Poppy, even if as one of the other characters stated, he is out of her league. This book is charming, full of humour and chemistry, and ridiculously easy to pass the time with.

Whilst this was contrived in parts, I was having way too much fun reading it to really care what felt congruent to the setting and characters, and what felt like frivolous storylines. There was simply too much to enjoy. I also loved the bisexual and gender fluidity representation which definitely felt congruent rather than contrived.

I think that if a break from heavy reading is needed, this quirky paranormal romantasy is the perfect lighthearted read to pick up instead.

—Kayleigh🤍

Hex and the City is the second book in Kate Johnson's Hexed series and is full of fun witchy goodness. The book is a quick, lighthearted read with LOTS of antics as witch Poppy and celebrity magician Axl are brought together to retrieve an amulet that Poppy accidentally cursed and sold to Axl. Kate Johnson's work is laugh out loud funny and the perfect read if you are in a witchy mood.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for allowing me to read an ARC of Hex and the City.

I am a sucker for a fun witchy romance, and this definitely fit the bill!

Poppy is our heroine, a witch with magical hair and a reputation for causing or experiencing a stream of magical and nonmagical chaos. When the famous stage magician Axl Storm comes into her magical shop one day and winds up with an amulet she mayyyy have accidentally cursed while drunk, angry, and heartbroken, Poppy's world of chaos explodes. With chaos magic, family secrets, and firey chemistry, what could go wrong?

I will admit, there was more magic than I actually expected. This may seem surprising given it's a witchy book, but sometimes with witchy romances, the romance takes center stage, and while that was in some ways the case here, there was a lot more plot with the magic than I expected which I did enjoy! My biggest critique is that sometimes when those big magical scenes began to happen, they happened really quickly and really chaotically and I found myself having to go back to figure out what exactly got us from point A to point B. I think knowing that Poppy and Axl's relationship is very much instant love, especially on his end, may be helpful for some. I don't mind an instant love book (honestly sometimes I appreciate the lack of tension every once in a while), but I have seen some reviews discussing this, so I feel like it's important to note before people jump in.

All and all if you want something to get you in the witchy season with romance, this is a fun read!

This book is so fantastically adorable. From the romance and me laughing so hard in certian scenes. I fell in love with these characters and can't wait to read more from this author.

It’s almost spooky time and this is the perfect read for the fall. I love a witchy rom-com and this did not disappoint

Unfortunately, Hex and the City was a pass for me. As a person who enjoys reading witch books, I was disappointed that I couldn’t get into this one. For some reason, I just wasn’t interested in the story. I did like Poppy and the idea of there being a cursed amulet. Perhaps I will give this story another shot in the future. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for the arc.

Unfortunately, Hex and the City was a pass for me. As a person who enjoys reading witch books, I was disappointed that I couldn’t get into this one. For some reason, I just wasn’t interested in the story. I did like Poppy and the idea of there being a cursed amulet. Perhaps I will give this story another shot in the future. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for the arc.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. While the premise was interesting I didn’t connect with the characters or the story in a meaningful manner. Some books just aren’t for us, and that’s alright.

Unfortunately, this book was a bit of a miss for me. It was fun and had a lot of potential, but the writing felt sophomoric, the romance itself felt rushed, and the dual POV didn't flow very well and felt somewhat clunky and jarring. After reading this and Hex Appeal I'm thinking that Kate Johnson's witchy romances might just not be for me.

A witchy-rom com that's sexy and fun.
Poppy is a witch who brings chaos wherever she goes. Alex is an illusionist whose life is, well, an illusion. If you love nicknames and immediate sparks, you'll enjoy Hex and the City.
There were plenty of twists and turns, and the adventure you think is the main plot turns out to be a smaller piece of the ultimate puzzle.
While it was a little overwhelming having so many things going on throughout the book, the author wrapped up everything perfectly at the end. If you're looking for a fall escape and a witchy adventure, this book will check all the boxes.

Hex and the City releases on 9/3/2023 🎉

Thank you Netgalley and HarperCollins UK for my eArc in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for this eBook

Hex and The City had it all, it's the perfect ROM com read.
It's magical and flirty and the characters all brought this novel to life.
It was a really fun read and one that I really enjoyed.

A fun, quirky magical adventure that starts after a drunken curse on a pendant, which is then sold to a gorgeous stage magician. Chaos ensues and secrets are spilled as Poppy and Axel navigate all sorts of pandemonium.

I just loved this little book. It was a short novel about two people that fall in love. They are, on the surface, very different. One is a sexy magician stage act and the other is a witch that is more than a little quirky.

Poppy seems to be terminally out of control. The novel opens on her waking up hungover with no recollection of what happened the night before. We are quickly introduced to her housemates and they are just lovely and lively!

As soon as Poppy realizes she has a problem, she attempts to fix it. This is how she meets Axl Storm. She is thwarted often and they are thrown together. Eventually, they sort it out and of course they’ve fallen in love in the interim.

I have not read anything else by this author, so I’m unsure if this falls in the same universe as any of her other series.

I really enjoyed this charming story. It was full of adventure and a surprising little twist to the story that gave it a bit more meat than I was expecting. It seemed to go on a bit long, but I think the author did a masterful job of turning that into plot.

I’d definitely recommend this to anyone that likes romance, adventure, chaos and quirky characters. A little bit of everything is in here.

3.5⭐️

Hex and the City is a fun witchy romance, with lots of lovely and charismatic characters, especially the fmc Poppy: a witch with magical hair kinda like Rapunzel (as you can see on the gorgeous cover).
I would have preferred a first person narrator to be able to connect with the main characters on a deeper level, but overall I’ve enjoyed reading this book!

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC of this book.

Poppy is the FMC, who is a witch with chaotic magic. She gets drunk after seeing her girlfriend kiss someone else and curses a necklace in the shop she works in. The necklace accidentally gets sold to Axl, the MMC, a stage magician. They are then thrust together due to the consequences of the cursed necklace.

I liked the premise of this book, however, the pacing and humor just didn't work for me. Three stars.

Extremely light-hearted and pretty spicy, this is great for anyone who loved "the ex-hex" last year. It was fun but I just didn't really care about the characters or the plot. The celebrity/witch relationship was a fun element and the magic was simple enough. The hair thing was a little strange to me though.

I was a big fan of Hex Appeal so I was excited to once again enter this world. I was a little disappointed there wasn't more crossover with the characters from the first novel, but it was fun to get to meet some of these other witches. I liked both Poppy and Alex as characters. They each had pasts they were in one way or another trying to escape (or forget) and it was so nice to see how they just accepted one another. Some of my favorite parts in the book were when they were dealing with the chaos curse. Partly because during those parts we got to see a more confident and powerful Poppy. The constant reminders of Alex's perfect physique got old really fast - ironically given that part of the book addresses how much pressure he was under to stay that fit. It also made it seem like that was all there was to him as a person. I was a little disappointed with Poppy when she turned her back on Alex at the first sign of trouble - she wouldn't even stay long enough to allow him to defend himself against what was being said about him. I had hoped she would have believed in him and them a little more. I really enjoyed the showdown at the end - it was so great to see Poppy really come into her own as a witch. Poppy's parents were also a nice bit of comic relief there at the end, and it was so great to see how much they loved her. My only disappointment with the book was that there was a lot about gender and sexuality but in the end it was a heterosexual relationship (a sweet hetero relationship, but still). It just seemed like a missed opportunity.