BOOK REVIEW: 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover by Linda Wisdom

Reviewed by Angela Richardson

When I picked up 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover I expected a fun, humorous read. Then I saw that the author Linda Wisdom has written over 70 romance books. This suddenly conjured up an image of the Little Britain character of an old woman dressed in pink, stuffing chocolates while dictating to a long suffering secretary working on one of those electric typewriters, which seem to have a life all of their own. My hopes for this book suddenly plummeted at the thought of an old fashioned flowery romance with a storyline masquerading as paranormal. An idea which was backed up the retro ‘Bewitched’ style cover, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The characters in this story are quirky and upbeat. Jasmine is a witch that was banished from the Witches’ Academy hundreds of years ago and has had to make her way in the human world without help ever since. Her friends are made up of a human lodger that creates websites for vampires, a chain-smoking ghost that haunts her sports car and Fluff and Puff, a pair of bunny slippers that wouldn’t hesitate to bite your hand off. Between her two jobs of curse eliminator and chauffeur she’s been doing okay. However, when her ex-boyfriend, Nick turns up things start to get complicated. Nick is a vampire and his friends have gone missing. They suspect a past enemy has found a way to come back from the dead, but how on earth can they beat a power like that?

There was nothing really to dislike about this book. The characters were likeable with lots of humorous traits and the story was upbeat with a good plot. However, I felt as though there was something missing. Whenever I picked up the book I enjoyed it, but once I put it down I never had a burning desire to return to it and I don’t really know why. It may have been that the one thing the characters did lack was a believable chemistry. I never really cared whether the on off couple Nick and Jasmine were going to get back together or not. There wasn’t enough detail on the enemy for me to feel as though he was a real threat, which was a shame because the action towards the last third of the book showed that the story could have really shone. However, I don’t feel as though I can criticise this book as all it’s individual parts were so good, it’s just when you put them all together I didn’t think they quite meshed.

It was a good read that I would recommend if you are into these types of book, but if you are unsure about this genre it’s most definitely not one to start with.

Like this? Try Girls' Guide to Witchcraft by Mindy Klasky

Rating: 4/5

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