11.21.2025 | Friday

Holiday Hexes

Item: Holiday Hexes
Rating: 3.5
Author: Kim

category: Book Reviews

tag(s): adult

0 Comments

book notes

title: Holiday Hexes
author: J.L. Collins
series: Winter Witches of Holiday Haven #3
published: 11.11.2020
publisher: self-published
genre(s): cozy mystery, holiday/seasonal
pages: 151
format: eBook
buy/shelve it: Amazon | BookBub | BookHype | StoryGraph | Goodreads
rating:

| series rating:

the blurb

Top toy designer Star Clearwater is convinced that Christmas is cursed. What’s supposed to be her hard-earned vacation turns into chaos when her mother lures her to the North Pole only for all spell to break loose at her arrival.
A heinous hex threatens the entire toy production inside Santa’s Toy Workshop, putting millions of children’s wishes in jeopardy. If her mother—who reports directly to Mrs. Claus—can’t get things under control, Christmas won’t be the only thing getting canned.
Star has no choice but to crash at her mother’s cottage in the charming magical town of Holiday Haven. The sooner she can find the Scrooge responsible for the crime, the faster she can get back to her normal life.
Armed with her witchy wits, Star accepts help from a talking husky and the cute guy running the town bookstore as she follows the trail while the countdown to Christmas Day ticks away.
Will Star find a way to catch the criminal and reverse the hex? Or will Christmas be canceled this year?

a few notes

POV: 1st person
setting: Holiday Haven
keywords/phrases: holidays, hexes, mystery
tropes: reluctant hero, magical creatures, family drama
spice: 0/0
language: 0/0

mood reading: in the mood for cozy seasonal reading in a wintry setting.
bonus points: a magical bookshop

my review

This one didn’t click with me the way the first two did, unfortunately. I still love the world, but, for me, the flow just didn’t really flow. I think some of it comes from a lack of background information. There’s strife between Star and her mother, but there is never any explanation of that, which left me feeling as if I only got half the story. I think the other part of it came for my inability to suspend belief with Star. In the mundane world, she’s in the middle of major things that are going down with her company, yet she essentially went AWOL with little concern, which seemed out of sync of who she was supposed to be.

But even with my issues, it was still a good read with a great setting.

About J.L. Collins

J. L. (Jerri) lives in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, with her family and feisty canine. She loves delicious southern food, dogs, Carolina sunrises on the beach, shopping on King Street, and curling up with about twenty different books on the weekends. When she gets the rare chance, she also likes to go exploring and learning more about Charleston’s rich history.

Goodreads | Amazon