REVIEW: Hexed and Vexed by Rebecca Royce

Blurb:

Olive White has had a terrible six months. It's not bad enough that years earlier she earned the nickname "Worst Witch In Witching School," she is now being forced to watch the love of her life, Campbell Bane, marry her sister Cindy. And she’s being asked to do so in a pink, puke-colored bridesmaid’s dress. Vexed doesn’t begin to describe how she feels.

Her powers pick the wedding as the perfect moment to turn on, zapping both her ex and her to a magical island not found on any map. Someone is bound to find them, but perhaps Olive can get some answers, once and for all.

When Campbell falls ill, she uses her considerable skills to save his life, but can she believe him when he tells her he still loves her and always has? Was he hexed, or is it all a flimsy excuse for breaking her heart?

Excerpt:

“Tell me again how we ended up here. And speak slowly so I can understand every word you say.” A muscle clenched in his jaw.


“Well.” She might have preferred Campbell not bringing up her tendency to rush through speech when she felt nervous. “I think I may have, completely unintentionally of course, zapped us here.”


“You. Zapped. Us. Here.” He nodded in between each word like he needed to make sense of all of them individually before he could move on. He ran a hand through his dark hair. Strands she herself had once caressed on a nightly basis before he’d gone and decided to marry her sister, thus destroying her life.


“Exactly.” She hitched up her pink monstrosity of a dress and walked toward the inviting waves. The sea air tingled against her skin.


Campbell grabbed her arm. “Olive White, you’ve never successfully performed one spell. Not even one.”


“Yes, you would know that since you were with me every single time I bumbled one. The worst witch in witching school.” She hated that phrase and obviously, she’d made a spell work. Even if she hadn’t meant to. Maybe she could finally lose the nickname.


“Yes.” He smiled at her, letting her arm go. For a second, she saw his brown eyes sparkle like they had when he used to look at her, in the days before the whole world had shifted sideways. But then as fast as the adoration had appeared it vanished. “Well, since you can suddenly make the gift of the ancestors work, zap us back.”


Campbell tapped his foot on the sand like she should hurry up and get the job done. She stifled a laugh, covering her mouth with her hand, at the image he portrayed.


He still wore his tuxedo. In the sand.


Dark hair, dark eyes, and dressed in a designer tuxedo, complete with a black bowtie that had to have been Cindy’s idea, he stood on the beach looking like a fish that had suddenly found itself in a bird’s nest. He really didn’t belong in his current habitat. At least not dressed like that.


Olive covered her mouth to hide her smile. Campbell always fit in wherever he went and even though it seemed mean to laugh, especially because it was her fault that he’d landed on the beach, she couldn’t help but find amusement in how uncomfortable he appeared. After her months of pain, he deserved the hours ahead of him.


He stood waiting for her to answer his declaration. Her sister’s fiancé wanted her to bring them back immediately if not sooner.


“I can’t undo the spell, Campbell. And I’m not sorry about it. Not even a little bit.”


Erin's Review: Poor poor Olive! She has the worst luck ever!!!!! You have to feel bad for a witch who can't get a spell right, loses her love to her sister, and then ends up marooned with said lost love when the last thing she wants to do is even look at him. You just know something is up with that sister of hers the second she enters the story. She is the epitome of jealous. Watching Olive stand up to her and go after what's right was my favorite part of the story. I also loved watching her sister get what's coming to her too. If you like paranormal, this is the story for you!