I loved The Ex Hex, a fun cute story not too heavy not historical fiction something light but engaging.
I venture to say, I loved this one even more.
Gwyn🤩
Wells😍
Baby Witches 🤗
Another enjoyable read.

The second book in Erin Sterling's The Ex Hex Series, The Kiss Curse, is a fun and witchy tale filled with romance, and magic that will leave you lusting for fall. It's set in Graves Glen where Gwyn Jones runs a witchcraft shop appealing to tourists unaware of the real magical powers that run through the small town. Soon enough a snobby witch from a well-known family lineage moves into town and to Gwyn's ire, opens up shop across the street from her. The banter between the protagonist Gwyn, and her love interest, Wells, kept the enemies to lovers trope feeling fresh. I found myself laughing out loud throughout the book as the two went head-to-head. Sterling does an excellent job creating a lighthearted world of charm and sorcery, similar to the comforting vibe of Hocus Pocus and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. I hope she writes another for this series!

Wow! When I say y’all are not ready for this book I absolutely mean it. Takes all the best parts of The Ex Hex and adds in some new things that I absolutely loved. A bit slow at the beginning and I missed Rhys terribly but he is in it a bit and I still love him. The welsh parts are so fun, beg pardon is my favorite thing. I can’t wait to have a physical copy of this so I can annotate it because I highlighted so much on the ebook! If you’re a fan of enemies to lovers, “oh I am so fxcked” and competition tropes then you are in for a treat with this book! Can not recommend it more! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

5 STARS!!!
"Graves Glen was a collection of lights glimmering in the darkness, homey and warm but far away, shadowy hills rising all around it.

The Kiss Curse follows Gwyn, the beloved, quirky, and snappy sister of Vivi from the predecessor book, The Ex Hex. We are given a cute, cozy, and a lil' steamy—enemies to lovers romance, admiring teenage witches, and an unknown mysterious energy to uncover.

Due to Graves Glen having a change in the flow of power, many new witches have gathered in the town. Encountering these weird energies and emanating magic is cause for lookout into the safety of the town's magic.

Gwyn is running Something Wicked on her own when it just so happens, Wells, Rhys' older brother, and Gwyn's long-time enemy opens a shop across the street rivaling her store. With cause for competition, these two start to have more one-on-one run-ins creating the all too good banter and magnetism to the other. When an old university acquaintance moves to Graves Glen and invites them both to a housewarming witches-only party that radiates evil magic, the two team up to figure out just why she moved back.

We are given mouthwatering tension, skin-warming fluff, and abs-inducing humor along with an intriguing and fun plot that has the reader on their toes.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - I am so happy I got to read the ARC for part 2 in The Ex Hex series because it was so good! I think I might have liked this one even better than the first (both 5 star reads for me) and I’ll definitely be buying it when it comes out in September! I didn’t think I’d like the characters as much as I liked Rhys from the first book but his brother, Wells, may have taken the top spot ❤️ This one was also really funny - like Gwyn making fun of Wells - A lot, and pretty much any scene with Sir Purrcival the cat. 😂 Plus, seeing their love/hate relationship evolve was great. I also loved the small town atmosphere and the way it was written - swipe to the last slide for a quote from the book that really summed up the vibes of the book for me. Can’t wait to buy this so I can have it on my bookshelf and will Definitley read again.

This is Erin Sterling’s follow-up to The Ex Hex, the second in a charming paranormal romcom series.

Witches live (hidden) among us in this contemporary romcom set in a world similar to ours where magic is real.

The small town of Graves Glen, GA was founded by the Penhallows of Wales. But currently, the town’s magic is powered by Gwyn’s family, which infuriates the head of the Penhallow family. When the eldest son, Wells, offers to go to Graves Glen, he gets his father’s blessing and encouragement to do the family name proud.

Gwyn, our free-spirit, bisexual, witch store owner is infuriated when the stuffy and oh-so-proper Wells moves to town and opens a competing witch store.

But they’re forced to team up when a magical wrongness threatens the town, just as the fall festival season starts and Graves Glen is full of unknowing human tourists.

This series is so fun to read - full of autumn vibes, sweet and sexy, fun and frothy.

If you’re a fan of enemies to lovers, opposites attract, sunshine and grump, you’ll love Gwyn and Wells. His restraint and properness perfectly contrast Gywn’s sensual, free-spiritedness. Watching them struggle against their attraction and then give in is sweet heat perfection.

The dark magic problem comes second to all of the fun banter between Gwyn and her cousin Vivi from The Ex Hex; Gwyn and Wells, and Wells and his brothers. I giggled out loud more than once reading this.

You get:

Small southern town
Dual POV
Magical traditions
Witchy families
Magical college
Witty banter including pop culture references
Humor
Animal sidekick- Sir Purrcival, a talking cat!
Autumn vibes with festivals
Baby witches
LGBTQIA+ rep
Bi FMC
Opposites attract, sunshine and grump
Enemies to lovers

This is a perfect pumpkin spice of a read - sweet, spicy, frothy, delicious, and perfect on a fall day. You can’t help but cheer for Wells and Gwyn.

I thoroughly enjoyed Sterling's first book in this series and thought it was cute and enjoyable, and I was excited to see a second book in this series and was curious about the character pairing for it.

Pros:
The storyline was enjoyable and unlike other paranormal romances that tend to get a little heavier and darker, Sterling keeps things light the entire time through humorous situations, even when the overall conflict isn't funny itself.
Sir Purrcival was hilarious. That cat is hands-down the best character.
I liked that Gwyn solved her problems on her own and was supported by Wells instead of being saved him, which is a common aspect to paranormal romances especially.
I appreciated the casual diversity of character's sexualities. It was refreshing to not have there be an over-emphasis on labeling the characters and having that be a main plot point as it frequently is in other books.
I liked how things turned out with Wells' relationship with his father. It was nice that there was no forced reconciliation.

Cons:
The overall story and book were light reads, however, because of that there were several points where it felt like the relationship between the characters lost some substance. By the end of the book, I still felt like I was missing some of the things that connected these characters and made their relationship more than just a casual fling.
I thought Gwyn's mentoring of the "baby witches" was a cute touch, but at times these characters were written as though they weren't college-aged people, and were in middle school. It often made it a little confusing and made me question whether I was misremembering that the university in town was in fact, a university and not a middle or high school.

Overall, I recommend this book and think it's a cute, light read, especially for Halloween season. I took off one star because while it was thoroughly enjoyable, there were some aspects that I thought might have taken away from how good the book was.

Gywnn Jones does not like Wells Penhallow. Or at least that’s what she’s telling herself. With the transfer of magic still new in Graves Glen, Gwynn is the sole Jones witch in town to watch over it when Wells arrives, having volunteered to watch over the Jones witches. But Wells is competition and Gwynn isn’t falling for him…is she?

In the sequel to The Ex Hex, it’s Gwynn’s turn for romance and curses. In a fun witchy romance, the chemistry between Wells and Gwynn is decently, though their back story was a little weak. Who doesn’t love a good enemies to lovers trope though? The characters were singularly well written and I enjoyed that the side plots made sense to the storyline. The author does a good job of touching on the events of book one throughout, but I read The Ex Hex fairly recently and there was a few continuity errors between the novels.

This was a fun return to Graves Glen, but I really found despite loving the concept and banter, the plot lacked. There wasn’t much of one and heavily relied on the romance to carry it. Which is fine, but not a favorite of mine. Plus the cousin’s brother in law romance was a little bit weird for me, personally.

I rated it 3 stars, due to lacking a plot past the romance, the continuity issues and the kissing cousins. Fun and witty, but I was hoping for more.

Really enjoyed this sequel. Am hoping there will be one more! Love seeing how the characters worked together.

The Kiss Curse had me wishing for cool fall days with all of the fun of October. I can’t wait to reread it along with The Ex Hex this fall.

This book was so cute! It is exactly what I am looking for when I pick up rom-com. It had sweet characters, good plot, laughs and twists that weren’t over the top. I liked it even more than the first in the series (The Ex Hex) but both are just delightful, fun, easy reads. My only wish is that we would’ve gotten a little more development in some of the plot and it felt like it ended a bit abruptly. Avoiding spoilers, all I can say is I wish, specifically, the Morgan plot line and ending had more development. I read this in less than 24 hours and if you liked the first one, you’ll like this one.

I loved this book! It was so much fun venturing back into Graves Glen to follow the story of one of my favorite characters from The Ex Hex, Gwyn! This book is the perfect romance novel for the spooky season (and really any season). Thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books for the ARC!

Really enjoyed this book - great characters with a solid story full of dark humor, romance, and lots of snark. This was exactly what it purported to be, an entertaining witchy tale full of magic and witty repartee, it hit the spot.

I absolutely adored The Ex Hex and The Kiss Curse was such a good follow-up that I cannot wait for my friends to be able to read it too! I will be buying this to reread during the fall with a nice cup of tea and a cozy blanket. I loved the chemistry between Gwyn and Wells, it was just perfect!!
Thank you to Netgalley, Avon books and Erin Sterling for this arc ebook in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley & Avon/Harper Voyager for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. “The Kiss Curse” is the follow up to “The Ex Hex” which I completely LOVED. I did not expect to love this one even more! Gwyn and Wells go so well together and their cheeky back and forth retorts/jokes had me laughing throughout the entire book. I also really loved the bisexual and non-binary rep as well. If you loved “The Ex Hex”, you HAVE to pick this one up!

I absolutely ADORED this book oh my god it was everything that I wanted from a halloween witchy romance and more.

It felt like one big warm hug and I seriously loved it so much it. It had the perfect cozy setting, magic, banter, witches, great plot, great characters, a perfect romance, I could really go on and on. This book is corny and over the top and giving hallmark witchy Halloween vibes but I mean this in the best way possible. This book was the perfect fluffy romcom that I needed and wanted. I loved how upbeat it was, the vibes were just immaculate. I was hooting, hollering, kicking my feet, and screaming. Also this book is FUNNY, I was sitting here literally laughing out loud staring at my phone.

Gwyn and Wells have such perfect chemistry together but I also love them separately, they’re just really well done characters and I love them so much. Gwyn is fun, bold, daring, strong, and so caring and kind but ALSO she’s not about to take shit from anyone!!! She doesn’t need anyone to save the day, she’s always taking charge and doing what needs to be done and I love that so much. Wells is more reserved and a “by the books” kind of guy, but not when he’s with ✨her✨ which I love. I think the dual POVs really worked well here because I liked knowing what was going on and where they both stood at all times and it also just made me love them both.

I also loved how the subplots were PERFECT. They didn’t over shadow the romance but they were there and entertaining and added to the story in a meaningful way. Gwyns’ mentee witches?? I would die for them!!

With a romance, I'm always a little bit nervous to see how a third act break up will be handled because there's almost always a third act break up. I LOVE the way it was done here. It wasn't so much of a breakup, instead it was moreso just a conflict that they had to work through and I love the way they both handled the situation. Sometimes a third act breakup can feel forced or easily avoidable but here it made sense and felt very natural.

Anyway, I stan this book so hard and have so much serotonin right now.

Thank you SO much to NetGalley, Avon, and Harper Voyager for providing me with this eARC!

Rachel Hawkins aka Erin Sterling is an auto read for me. Anything she writes, I'm happy to read and this book was no exception. Hilarious, tons of fun and hot. I love a good rivals to lovers and loved getting to know Gwyn and Wells separately and together.

I had such a good time reading this. Gwyn and Wells are so funny and I loved their banter. Also their first kiss was excellent and I love the reveal about it later.

I received an arc through netgalley.

Love! Love! Love! This book made me so ready for spooky season. I loved the first one and this story was great too. I so enjoyed seeing the characters from the first one again and seeing the perspective of a different (also hot) Penhallow brother. I felt like Gywn was such a funny, strong female lead and I always enjoy her banter with other characters. I thought the ending/"big twist" was a little rushed and I wish it was more developed, but the story was so cute and will be perfect for fall.

*Thank you Netgalley, Erin Sterling, and the publisher for an eARc.

Oh my god, this book was sooo good! I really enjoyed the first in this series, but I have to say this one was even better. I loved the dynamic between Gwyn and Wells. Their entire romance was everything I look for in this genre. It was nice to see Graves Glen from Gwyn's POV and I found all of the characters to be extremely likeable. This was such a great story and don't even get me started on how steamy the romance was! If you loved The Ex Hex, this next installment in the series will blow your socks off!