This review may contain spoilers, so fair warning, upon reading the review.
About The Book
Notoriously bad at peopling, Isadora Savoie spends most of her time in the greenhouse or at the local animal shelter, using her Conduit powers of growth and healing. Content to remain in the background of the Savoie sister shenanigans, she’s reluctantly roped into the mystery of missing neighborhood girls. Now, she’s partnered with a flashy, flirty vampire to find them before it’s too late.
Devraj Kumar has seen and done it all. Three hundred years roaming the earth as a Stygorn — a legendary vampire warrior who operates in the shadows — has its perks. But ennui has set in. That is, until he has a run-in — literally — with an intriguing witch while on a new assignment in New Orleans. Fascinated by her resistance to his charms, Devraj can’t help but push her buttons in an effort to get to know the shy witch. Fortunately for him, she’s been recruited by the Lord of Vampires to assist Devraj on the case.
Between a Bollywood marathon, supernatural dating app, secret package, and sexy driving instruction, Isadora is in over her head. And Devraj? After just one taste, he’s playing for keeps.
My Review
Don’t Hex and Drive is the second book in the “Stay A Spell” series and I have been wanting to get back to this series, as I have fallen behind on it here. I will say that while I didn’t love it I did enjoy this one here. It is the type of book you could easily read in one sitting and it did contain some fun tropes and is so interesting to see this author write something so different, while I like the more serious toned PNR she did previously, this does have a unique flair that is quite entertaining and will definitely satisfy the crowd that lives for romantic comedies these days (aka books with illustrated covers). I will admit that I wasn’t sure what I would get in this book, I did remember how much I enjoyed Wolf Gone Wild but I don’t always connect with enemies to lovers type of stories but I found that I really loved the bantering and unrequited love that is built within this story.
Christ. One smile, and I was devastated. Lost. Swimming in an ocean of what-the-fuck.
The gist of the story is that our heroine, Isadora, is a witch and a powerful one at that. She lives in her garden and rides her bike everywhere she goes. What she doesn’t expect is to get hit by a vampire who also happens to be a famous Bollywood star. Devraj is known to be infamous in his talents as an actor but also has lived for centuries as a vampire and he is tempted to take a bite out of Isadora who only tempts him. She is so resistant to him but he is determined to prove to her he isn’t a bad guy. But when a series of events have them working together to bring down a ring of vampire-human trafficking down, they realize what a great team they make together. But Devraj is here in New Orleans on a temporary basis, and Isadora doesn’t do long-distance and can’t put herself in an emotionally fragile spot no matter how tempting Devraj is to her. But love has a way of making a mess of best laid plans….
We stood there in a silent hug for what might have been one minute. Maybe two. But that small moment filled me with dizzying bliss. Her slender body pressed to mine felt like holding home in my arms. I knew then that there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for Isadora Savoie.
Don’t Hex and Drive was such a fun enlightening read and I had such a fun time with it. I won’t say that it was a page-turner because as much as I love this author, her books can be a hit or miss for me when it comes to if they are page-turners for me or not. But I did have an enjoyable time with this one, and it turned out to be a quicker read than I expected it to be. I was really intrigued to see where this one would go here. I really liked the opposites attract/enemies to lovers type of setting here. Isadora and Devraj are so different from each other, but it was quite fascinating to see how they managed to make a relationship between them work. I loved how determined Devraj turned out to be and loved how he was such a solid guy at heart. He is always all-in for Isadora and seeing such a hero being so devoted was a thing of beauty. I do wish we could have seen Isadora be willing to fight for Devraj a bit more. There were paranormal elements to this story, but it wasn’t that focused. It’s definitely on the lighter side of things, and there is some fun bantering to really make this a light read.
Overall I found Don’t Hex and Drive to be a truly edge-of-your-seat fun wild ride, that delivered in some unique setups and beautiful magical delights to curl your toes!
Title: Don’t Hex and Drive
Author: Juliette Cross
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
Length: 346 Pages
Book Links
Amazon| Barnes and Noble| Kobo| Goodreads| LibraryThing| StoryGraph| Literal Club
Book Evaluation
Storytelling Quality: 3.75
Story Itself: 4
Character Development: 3.5
Writing Style: 4
World Building 3.5
Feels + The Romantic Heart 3.75
Pacing 3
Plot 4
Cover Art 2.5
Ending 4
Book Ratings
Overall Rating of the Book
Steam Level
Simmering—soft warm touches and light intimacy
Warm- a medium level of sexual tension, a balance of sexual and emotional intimacy, lighter on the details in the sexual moments.
Steamin’ up the room -the sexual content is more explicit in the language and tone, heavier amount of sexual scenes.
Blazing fire to the building-The prime focus is the sex scenes, scorching hot, and could burn one. Less focus on the emotional intimacy to the relationship.
Series Order
Stay A Spell
Wolf Gone Wild-Pub 2020 #1 in the Series
Don’t Hex and Drive-Pub 2020 #2 in the Series
Witches Get Stitches-Pub 2021 #3 in the Series
Walking in a Witchy Wonderland-Pub 2021 #3.5 in the Series
Always Practice Safe Hex-Pub 2022 #4 in the Series
Resting Witch Face-Pub 2022 #5 in the Series
Grim and Bear It-Pub 2023 #6 in the Series
About Juliette
JULIETTE is a multi-published author of paranormal, fantasy, and contemporary romance & the co-host of the podcast, Smart Women Read Romance. As a native of Louisiana, she lives in the heart of Cajun land with her husband, four kids, her labs, Kona and Jeaux, and kitty, Betty. When she isn’t working on her next project, she enjoys binge-watching her favorite shows with her husband and a glass (or two) of red wine.
These books keep catching my eye and I have been trying to decide if I should pick them up. They sound good, but I’m not sure. Thanks for your review.
I loved that one and I chose to listen to it. The narrator is excellent!
Glad to know you enjoyed it despite it not being a page turner.
Love this title, lol! Sounds like a fun read, too. 🙂