Review #562
Always Practice Safe Hex was a 3.5/5 stars. This witchy (romcom) is a standalone within a series. It has two points of view. My favorite part was learning about the mysterious Grim powers.
My biggest complaint is sometimes it was confusing with how many side characters there were to keep track of. I remember that being an issue with a different book I read of Juliette Cross in this series
Here are my notes while reading (beware of spoilers):
The prologue was more sexual than I had expected. My initial vibe of the world building was positive with the cute magic/witchy themed curse words. Some of the prose felt weaker compared to other books in this genre but my sentence structure while writing isn’t the strongest so I shouldn’t be the one to judge. I appreciated the content warning before starting and did pause since I don’t prefer any SA or attempted SA in my reading.
Grims seemed too powerful – to change anyone’s willpower. And him being a telepath was also ridiculously strong.
I kept wondering why he needed to ask her anything if he can read her whole mind…? Seemed like any conversation was pointless.
Been wondering how nonconsensual telepathy was considered sexy? Also. Was the author purposefully see-sawing the invisible line of wanted vs unwanted flirting. Because in lines like: “The violent assault of his nearness buckled my knees” didn’t give me turn-on vibes.
Wait. But on page 83 it says Grims weren’t supposed to invade minds and that he’d only go into Lavinia’s if invited. But that’s false bye already went inside her mind.
Also it’s a bit stalkerish how he keeps following her to where she has evening plans. Unfortunately I’m not fully team Gareth yet.
Is it just me or is it a bit inappropriate that both fundraisers for the ORPHAN cause have been very sexually oriented? Doesn’t sit right.
I’m having a hard time with the conversations being so broken up by exposition. When someone responds I keep needing to go back to reread what was asked or said a few paragraphs earlier.
At the halfway mark I’m intrigued by what other powers he has since he seems stronger than an Enforcer but I thought that was impossible…
So how do people characterize the difference between sexual assault, attempted sexual assault and rape? There were trigger warnings at the beginning of the book, yet I’m still disappointed that the “attempted sexual assault” prementioned is the climatic highlighted moment of the story. It sits poorly for me and reminds me of Gild, the only book I’ve ever given a one star.