I think it is pretty safe to say that I like stories that marry (pun fully intended) romance, fantasy, and historical settings. In fact, I should probably read and review something a bit different soon, or else I will risk becoming predictable!
Hex and Hexability, by Kate Johnson, is a fantastic example of this very specific sub-sub-genre. In this story, we have a handsome ex-pirate Duke, a young debutante with uncontrollable magic, and society doing its best to have a good time whilst the Napoleonic Wars are happening mostly off-screen.
This was clearly written by someone who loves Regency Romance. I know because a lot of the tropes included in this story are ones I have used myself. Honestly, it’s lucky that I read it this side of writing A Dragon For Tea or else I would be double-guessing my own writing! Magic involving art, relatives who manage to be both controlling and neglectful, hmmmm . . .
And it is also true that I am a big fan of the name Theophania, and its nickname Tiffany. It instantly brings to mind Sir Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching stories and the connected “Tiffany Problem”. The “Tiffany Problem” is typified by the fact that Tiffany sounds like a very modern name when actually it was quite common in Medieval France. Likewise, there is a Saint Chad, of whom numerous churches have been named. We associate these names with modern times, so if we read about them in a historical or fantasy story, we lose our belief in it, it doesn’t feel right to have a witch called Tiffany or a Saint Chad. But these people did exist and it helps to show how our expectations are often completely wrong about history, and the historical fantasies that spin off from them.
Kate Johnson is clearly also a big fan, the Tiffany Problem gets referenced in the foreword. This was very fun for me because it meant I got to have that little jolt of endorphins when I knew something in common with the author.
This story is very fun, and the only times it takes itself seriously are when it sneaks in with a stab to the heart, when we are dealing with the painful family situations of both protagonists. They have both been abandoned by their parents. They have both taken on responsibilities in the hopes of making themselves more lovable by doing so. And they both feel desperately out of place amongst society.
Tiffany has magic and is terrified of society (which is mostly personified by her sister-in-law) finding out. She is being pushed into the life of a debutante and, at the heart of everything, is just looking for friends and family who care about her. Santiago needs help to navigate the rocky waters of society, and seeing her magic come alive, bargains with her to help him. There is a bit of a misunderstanding here, which did annoy me, Tiffany thinks he is more serious about telling people that she is a witch than he actually is, but I will forgive it.
There were points in this story where I felt that it fell a little short because the author didn’t take the risk of going down a deeper, more painful route. Things got solved a little too easily and people were forgiven too quickly. I still loved it, but it just felt like there should be more and that Johnson was pulling back before committing.
The descriptions in this story are soooo good, though. There are some scenes which are so wonderfully vivid that I think I’ll be carrying the images with me for a long time. I’m never going to think of the Thames in the same way again! And the characters, oh the characters! And the relationships between them! Aaah so good! Something I have begun picking up on more and more, and which is done really well here, is when characters stay true to their characterisation but act differently when the point of view character is someone different. This is something that I think I need to work on in my own books in the future, but I am very happy to point to Hex and Hexability as an example of that being done well.
So yes, I recommend Hex and Hexability by Kate Johnson, it seems to be on sale at the minute, so grab it while you can. Interestingly, it is part of a series, but none of the other books are set in the Regency period, or even historical settings. I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that, aside from the odd series with a prequel, which isn’t exactly what this is. But I think I am probably going to read the other two books in the series to see what the rest are like!
Stay safe out there,
K
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