Audiobook Review – Hot Hex Boyfriend by Carly Bloom (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Paranormal/Romance/Humor
Length: 11 hours and 47 minutes
Publisher:‎ Forever
Release Date: September 03, 2024
ASIN: B0CS3W8BQX
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone book
Source: Audiobook from NetGalley for Review
Rating: 3/5 stars

“As a child, Delia Merriweather believed with all her heart that she was a witch. Because all Merriweather women were witches. There was just one problem: they had no magic. As an adult, Delia no longer believes magic even exists. However, when she accidentally breaks a hex and restores her family’s powers, she’s forced to accept a new reality: she is a witch. And maybe that’s why the crushingly handsome guy next door has been looking at her like he’s expecting her to fly off on a broomstick, cackling into the night.

Just when Max thinks he’s done keeping an eye on the bumbling Merriweather women, now he must help his neighbors learn to control their magic before they out witches everywhere. But Delia can’t decide if Max is helping or hexing, and Max can’t tell whether his growing feelings for Delia are real, or if he’s come under the spell of the most powerful—and clueless—witch he’s ever known. And the last thing Max needs is to fall for the one witch who could rule the entire witching world by controlling the hearts of men.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got this in audiobook format from NetGalley for review.

Thoughts: This was a fun paranormal romance read that is a bit goofy. The characters were decent, but the world-building was weak. The story is very predictable as well. However, it made me laugh multiple times, and that is what I wanted it out of this.

I did listen to this on audiobook and the audiobook quality was okay. The chapters alternate POV between Delia and Max and each POV has a different narrator. This is where the trouble came in. The woman narrator is very loud and clear, while the male narrator is more soft spoken. I kept having to increase and decrease the volume when the POV switched because the woman’s voice would be too loud and shrill and then the man’s voice would be too soft to hear. This really could have benefited from better sound balancing between the two narrators.

Delia’s family is convinced she is a rare blue witch but Delia knows her family likes to play at being witches but aren’t actually witches (because they have no magic, duh). When the sweet old neighbor man who was like a grandfather to Delia passes away, his stuck up nephew, Max, shows up to sell the house. Delia is an aspiring interior decorator and sees a good opportunity to stage an amazing house. However, Max has another purpose that Delia doesn’t know anything about. Delia’s family are witches who had their magic cursed away, and Max is here to make sure that Delia doesn’t break that curse on her birthday. Delia and Max weren’t expecting to like each other so much, and neither one of them was prepared for the curse to accidentally get broken.

The main characters in here are fun and cute. I had trouble keeping Delia’s family straight; the aunts, mother, and grandmother all seemed fairly interchangeable. However, Delia, her friend Amy, and Max and his brother Luke, and the familiar Nicky, are well done. The romance is simultaneously spicy and cute. There are heavy themes around family and belonging.

The world-building here is pretty weak. We get some explanation about the main big powerful witch and the city they live in and how everyone else is considered a “stray” witch. However, this is very shallow world-building and doesn’t explain how witches function outside of the tiny sphere of this one town. This was odd because the main witch lives pretty far away and I was confused about how she didn’t have oversight to more towns. Let’s just say don’t read this for amazing world-building, there are a lot of plot holes if you think about it too hard.

The plot was incredibly predictable. The author tries to throw a couple twists in there; but you can see them coming from a mile away. This is a decent typical paranormal romance with some humor. There really isn’t anything special about this story. The story is cute and fun and sexy, but don’t think about the world or plot too hard or you will find it lacking. This fit exactly what I needed at the time I read it. I needed something light and fun, filled with kind characters, and I got that.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this is a fairly typical humorous paranormal romance read. There are heavy themes of belonging and family. The main characters are adorable but the side characters are interchangeable. The world-building is very light and doesn’t necessarily make sense, and the plot is incredibly easy to predict. If you are looking for a fun and light paranormal romance this is a decent choice. It doesn’t really stand out for me from the million other cutesy paranormal romance books out there but it wasn’t bad either.