The Fairer Hex

Witch Among Warlocks Series, Book 1

By: Lidiya Foxglove

Narrated by: Troy Duran, Lauren Sweet

Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's Summary

So apparently my mom was a witch. And not just a witch, but a witch who turned bad. My poor, sweet, normal dad wanted me to have a good college experience. Instead I get a magical offer I literally can't refuse, from the world's most elite school for warlocks.  

Warlocks. As in guy witches.  

Even though I definitely have lady parts, somehow I ended up at a warlock school to learn the gentlemanly arts (which are a lot more badass than, ahem, lady magic). Did I mention the witch world is stuck in the 19th century? Unmarried witches and warlocks barely see each other outside of society balls, which are still a thing.  

My existence here breaks all the rules. Am I here for the right reasons? Or am I the pawn meant to destroy the very world I'm starting to love? When my magic proves stronger than anyone expects, and the school is attacked by a demon, I'll need help from the four gorgeous magical men who are willing to break a few rules with me. They're each forbidden to me in their own way, and the greatest danger of all might not be demons, but falling for them. All of them.  

Contains mature themes.

©2018 Lidiya Foxglove (P)2019 Tantor

Adult Harry Potter Meets Reverse Harem

This is a great slow burn. It is utterly hilarious at times and has its more serious moments. Great world building, and character growth. Overall though it’s just a good book, but the Audible is better. The narrators are really enjoyable.

Off to College

Charlotte grew up never knowing she was a witch. She doesn't remember her mom, and her father raised her the best he could. When Char gets an acceptance letter into a Warlock school, it not only breaks centuries of tradition, but upsets nearly everyone in the magical world.
I loved this creative story of "Harry Potter" meets "Mean Girls" (guys in this case), and throw in a reverse harem. Not only is Char sassy, snarky, powerful at magic and coming into her own....but she's intelligent and owns her personality with her head held high! The best part is with all Char's positive trait's, it irritates the old crotchety guys and their stuffy rules more.
There is nothing better than having true friends that have your back when the chips are down...even if you're romantically involved with all of them....

Steal Magnolia goes to Warlock school

I’m still not sure what to make of this book. I agree with another reviewer, that this is like Harry Potter meets Mean Girls, but in college ... with raging hormones ... and random accents and miscast voicing. The overall tone is YA, with some F bombs and sex words more appropriate to grown up romance (never gets past kisses and gropes though).

Feels like a new author trying to cram in every fantasy, romance, or cool movie reference into her first book. It’s as if the author thought, I need a hook ... no wait, I need two hooks ... or ten, each amped up to a ridiculous degree... and thus takes from Harry Potter, Twilight, and Beautiful Creatures and cranks up the book volume until the cover is bursting.

Char (lette) has the Harry Potter origin story: she is blissfully unaware of magic until out of the blue she’s accepted into a magic university, where she will prove herself to be uber powerful.
Char has the Twilight love triangle... except the author one-ups Twilight by making it a quadruple triangle: vampire (Montigue), fox familiar instead of werewolf(Furian), and a demon incubus (Alex) thrown in. Maybe even a quintuple, if you count the silver spoon maybe Draco, maybe Prince- to-her-Pauper Harris.
Char has the Beautiful Creatures backstory and potential dark future: her mother turned to the dark side and there are constant reminders that the school exists to train the most powerful warlocks, to keep them from being lured to the dark side.

Like the plot, the writing style and narration are equally Frankensteined. Is this a sassy, romantic comedy or a dark fantasy? The author says “yes.” Should the narrators read Char like a smart, capable college coed or a ditzy, superficial hair twirler constantly distracted by pecs, abs, and smoldering looks? The author says “yes.” The male leads are also played in conflicting fashion, at times introspective and knowledgeable, and then selfish and immature. Even the college professors should be learned, and yet are utterly imbecilic in their understanding of technology, women, fashion, ... and even magic, being completely unprepared to deal with, gasp, a female with strong magic!

And what’s with the female narrator’s Southern accent for Char? There’s no explanation of southern roots. Char’s dad doesn’t have an accent. When the male narrator does Char, there’s no accent...and half way through the book even the female narrator drops the accent half of the time. She narrates all three male romantic interests with slow, smarmy pacing that I guess was supposed to be sultry. I preferred the male narrator’s female voicing, although his deep bass for the males made them all seem like 50 somethings rather than the college coeds they were supposed to be. And why the male narrator? Seems like there’s one male narrated chapter for every ten female narrated ones, maybe just to remind us that each male is wildly interested in her? That is a pet peeve of mine: when the author tells you rather than let the story show you what’s up.

The common thread here seems to be lack of thought before writing, or an inability to choose a limited number of concepts for this first book in the series. Sometimes, odd combos of plots, styles, or characters work. I’ve enjoyed Buffyesque fantasy action while trying to fit in school stories. I’ve enjoyed dramatic, coming of age, one Witch to rule them all horror epics. I’ve enjoyed fantasy romance and even fantasy erotica. But, the more complex the story, the better the writer needs to be.

And yet, astoundingly, I kind of enjoyed this hot mess. Not a five star read, but diverting and fun in an afternoon matinee kind of way.

Weird. Random. Schizophrenic. Kind of like my favorite, and just wrong, line in the book:
“The pussy cat was hungry and the can was already open.”

Worth the listen

I really enjoyed the dynamic of the characters. I am also very intrigued to see where the story line will go. I definitely recommend reading or listening to the story.

The two narrators are just a great combo. Lauren has that southern accent that makes me miss home, and Troys deep voice is swoon worthy.

Amazing

Satisfying narration and well made plot with characters. It has convinced me to listen to the whole series.

Not for me

Hormones in place of a story. Not my cup of tea. I think it seems a bit more of a teen level book.

Couldn’t finish

Man, I love weird romance novels, but this one had me rolling my eyes too hard. Timelines were weird, characters seemed too sloppy and undriven.

Expository Dump

This story lost me within the first 20 min. Instead of taking time to build any kind of mystery or slowly reveal information about the world. the characters just tell you through dialogue about everything. "hey did you know magic exists and you have powers and your online boyfriend is catfishing you he's actually just your familiar; let's meet him right now." No. that's not a spoiler. You learn that 4 min after the video game boyfriend is introduced because... reasons. If in the first 20 min I'm already bored then it's a waste of a credit. Show don't tell.

boring and creepy

the school part other than being a school for boys is pretty much pointless because nobody bothering to teach her anything. While she's supposed to be really powerful, there's not much of that in the story at all. All of the supposed love interests are just creepy not in like a forbidden fruit kind of way in like a something to be avoided because it's gross kind of thing. the plot doesn't really move there's just info dumps randomly scattered throughout the story and nothing really evolves it's just updated. I had a really hard time finishing this book. the male narrator serves absolutely no purpose. both narrators read all the voices depending on whose point of view it's being told from so there's just no point to his voice which sounds over modulated and just wrong for the men in the story. is everyone supposed to be a radio talk show host really?

Lone female in an all male university...

If you haven’t already guessed, this
Is just another paranormal harem type romance novel. Seriously, If all the authors are going to follow the same script, they should make the books standout somehow. This one was just ok for me. The story was interesting in the beginning but as it progressed, I felt like something was missing. The MC struggles were predictable and 80 percent of the book was too. I didn’t hate it the book but I can’t say I loved it either. I am conflicted because the overall premise was good. Not sure on this one . I will see if book two helps or hurts things.

Fantastic!

I loved this book, I was hooked from the beginning and couldn't put it down, Charlotte finding out she was a witch and had to go to Wizard school was so funny, and her friends were really entertaining, I can't wait for the next book.

Narrations

The Narrations drove me nuts! spoiled the story and grated on my ears, wining and juvenile.