immrhananc67c

** spoiler alert ** There were some parts of this book that I really enjoyed and others that I just didn't like. The book was too slow for me. The first half of the book was spent with the two main characters mostly separated and Jazz avoiding Nick. Nothing really happened in those first hundred or so pages except random things that essentially had nothing to do with the plot. Another thing that annoyed me with this book was the constant reference to past events that were NEVER explained and in the end added nothing but frustration. The reader is told very vaguely about a past history with the bad guy in the book, but nothing detailed and so when Jazz is afraid or reluctant to help Nick at first, it is difficult to understand why. So there is this big vague thing that happened in 1932... it means nothing to me. Many times it seemed like there should have been a book prior to this one, one that explained everything. The reader can read every detail about what the character is wearing and how everything matches from her lemon shirt to her body spray scented with lemon, but the reader doesn't get to find out what happened in the past? Come on. Most of the time the characters seemed pretty flat. There were some amusing aspects in the book, but nothing that made me laugh out loud which is what the description kind of puts off. Most of the time I found myself counting down as to how many pages I had left until I finished it. I only continued to read it because it is a series and my mom states the later ones are a little bit better. There seemed to be too many things going on in the book, but nothing is ever really committed to as to where the plot is going until the last maybe 100 pages of the book. There is the random plot of Jazz's boss being cursed, that has nothing to do with anything... and related to that is Jazz's second job eliminating curses that the reader hears all about in the first hundred pages and then only once more with the boss' curse. Another pointless distraction from the plot was Jazz driving a disgusting creature of some sort who really could have been eliminated from the plot and no one would have missed him. (Those extra pages wasted on said disgusting character could have been used to describe those past events that were never described). Honestly, this book could have been better if the author focused more on what was the actual plot instead of all those other aspects that added nothing to the story. If the author had focused more on the Clive Reeves part of the plot, it would have been a much better book (or even more on Jazz and Nick's past). In the beginning, the reader hears a small snippet of Jazz and her sister witches being cast out on their own. However, you never hear why they were cast out or who actually did the supposed bad thing that got them kicked out and I am not sure why that was the prologue. It had absolutely nothing to do with anything and generally the prologue adds some bit of information relevant to the plot, but this one doesn't. So Jazz is kicked out of witch school... so what? It just really seemed like this book was written a long time ago and was forgotten about, then it was found again and published without really looking into what would make the book better. As I said, this book was mired in half developed plot leads and they really distracted from the main story. I never felt I knew where this book was going and because of all the little extra things, I didn't really care what happened in the end. The title is a reference to something mentioned once in the book about Jazz being late to return 50 Ways to Hex Your Ex, but nothing in the plot deals with hexing Nick. It also seemed that the paranormal creatures in the book were well known to humans and then some comment by one of the characters made it seem like they were not really all known by humans. Plus Jazz hides her age and her roommate did not believe in vampires. It would have been nice to know to what degree humans knew about witches and such just so that some of the things the characters did would make a little more sense. Things I liked were some of the interactions with Jazz and Nick, especially when some of the deeper connections between the two are revealed, however their relationship really wasn't developed enough for my liking. Maybe that is due more to the vague references at history rather than the relationship itself. Some of the things Jazz did to her clients that stiffed her for money was amusing, but not essential. I also enjoyed some of Jazz's powers and her trip to the library. But, that was about it. The situation with Clive Reeves was interesting, but it was so short in comparison with the rest of the dragging plot that it didn't save the book for me.

2022-11-14 16:01