Hex and Candy

Well...that happened.

This is partially a case of this not being the book I expected it to be and partially this book being too darn short for everything the author tries to do.

The romance itself is sweet, if somewhat shallow - with one major caveat: Cole lies by omission about a pretty big thing. He never tells Leo how to break the curse. Cole knows how after studying it for half an hour. He tells Leo that he knows how to break the curse, but that he can't break it. But he never tells Leo HOW to break the curse. (Which, honestly, gives Cole an advantage once they have sex - something he admits to, but still never says ‘hey, this is how your curse broke.' Though...suddenly at the end, Leo seems to know because he's making jokes about true love's kiss. Don't know how that happened.)

Also, Cole says he is going to try to weaken the cure. Wiggle it a bit. The curse does weaken...but not through anything he did. Because he doesn't do anything. It takes literal weeks after Leo shows up needing help for Cole to decide that ‘hey, I should make a protection amulet for this guy. In fact, I should have done that weeks ago.' For a book about magic, there is surprisingly little magic in it - just talk about herbal candies and one scene where Cole basically makes his own mountain ash protective barrier. (Oh, and like three scenes where Cole harvests herbs.)

There is two scenes where if you have specialized knowledge, I can only imagine you'd understand a lot more than I did. One deals with tarot card readings (and all I know is that reversed means the opposite) and the other the meaning of flowers (and I know nothing at all about that).

Finally, there is no atmosphere. So, this book takes place in September and October. In Canada. In a small town. ... It really could be any time and any place. There's a pie festival that our boys go to. ... Minimal description. Pretty sure they never actually got pie while they were there. (Though Cole, apparently, got a caramel apple he's still running around with.)

There was no investigating around Leo's curse, no talk about breaking it. Nothing. Which, as it turns out, was good, because the ‘reveal' was a major copout. Ugh.

I was expecting a cozy magical mystery, autumn romance. Instead I got...I book that I'm not even sure deserves two stars. ... Actually, I'm pretty sure it doesn't.