By Ani Gonzalez
Genre: Humorous Urban Fantasy
Age category: Adult
Blurb:Review of Hex Marks the Spot (Drop Dead Witchy Book 1) by Ani Gonzales
Going to Hell is easy. Going back home is a different story.
They say you can never go back. I wish that was the case.
Returning home is complicated when you’re a necromancer and your hometown is the Most Haunted in America. It doesn’t help that your pet hellhound chihuahua thinks the place is a dump, and it gets worse when your high school crush is still there and still dead sexy. Literally, as he’s now a ghost.
Oh, and did I mention that I have to save the world? I tell you, going to Hell is easy.
After reading the words “pet hellhound chihuahua” in the blurb, I knew I had to read this book. By day, Claire is the star of a haunted house television show. Her real job, however, is working as a necromancer who deals with nasty things like possessions. Her latest job, dealing with her family’s ancestral home, ends up proving more challenging than she anticipated. I would recommend Ani Gonzales’ Hex Marks the Spot and the Drop Dead Witchy series to paranormal romance and urban fantasy readers who are looking for something quick and humorous.
The characters were the star attraction of the book. I loved the hellhound masquerading as a chihuahua. Pookie is super sarcastic, and one of my favorite characters in the book by far. I’ve decided that I will be reading any future books he appears in. One of my favorite Pookie-related quotes is, “You are an immortal being projecting an illusory earthly avatar,” I responded reasonably. “You don’t need bacon.” I was also quite amused by Claire’s somewhat love interest Cole (who is a somewhat powerful ghost and has impeccable timing during some of the key scenes in the book).
The storyline was entertaining and exciting. I enjoyed seeing the little trio of Claire, Pookie, and Cole work on discovering how to fix the curse that seems to have spread from Claire’s home to the rest of the house. The scenes with the ghostly informants were also fun. However, I struggled to connect to the worldbuilding and the Banshee Creek setting. Until starting the book, I didn’t realize that this was connected to Ms. Gonzales’ other books in the Banshee Creek universe. There were some references that readers who are not familiar with her earlier books may not understand and they will subsequently end up at a disadvantage. For a more in-depth reading experience, I would recommend starting at the very first book in the Banshee Creek universe (which I believe is Must Love Ghosts). If you don’t mind missing a couple of details and you would prefer starting from one of the spin-off series, I would recommend this one over the Main Street Witches (that series was much harder to understand without the background of the previous series in my opinion).
Thank you to the author and Lola’s Blog Tours for the complimentary review copy. I voluntarily read and reviewed Hex Marks the Spot; all opinions are my own and not influenced in any way.
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I'm a USA Today bestselling author of paranormal romantic comedy and cozy mystery (whew, that's a mouthful!) set in Banshee Creek, Virginia, The Most Haunted Town in the USA. My books feature feisty, irrepressible heroines dealing with a host of paranormal critters (ghosts, cryptids, pagan gods...the sky's the limit) and mysteries. They find love and laughter (and sometimes corpses) along the way, and readers get to follow them every step of the way.
I love quirky towns with spooky stories, and, thanks to my books, I get to "live" in one year-around. In real life I live in a Virginia suburb (which is sadly lacking in ghosts) with my husband, three children, two cats, and one adorable dog.
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