Hex Hall [ Spoiler Free ] Review

Title: Hex Hall
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Series: Hex Hall #1
My rating: 4/5 stars
Date Read: 11/6/18

I actually enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would and it is a good surprise read. This book has been on my Goodreads TBR shelf since I first created this account. 2014. For four years. I recently went through all my TBR books on my TBR shelf and I finally decided to pick this one up since it is one of the ones that has been on it the longest and I am so glad I finally read it.

Hex Hall is one of the early YA paranormal books (also heard some people say it is urban fantasy which they do have a point since it is a fantasy world that takes place in the modern world) so I did go into it with low expectation. I did read Hawkins other book Rebel Belle and did enjoy it though I do have no interest in continuing in that series but I do want to continue on with this one.

In this book we follow a girl name Sophie who is a witch and she is sent to Hecate "Hex" Hall, a school for witches, warlocks, werewolves, shapeshifters, a vampire and faeries. In Hex Hall, Sophie learns that there was a murder and the number one suspect because of the way the murder looks is her roommate and only friend who is a vampire.

I love the trope of boarding schools, especially one with magic in it. It is nothing like Harry Potter except for the fact that there are witches in a boarding school. They are completely different stories so do not go into this book thinking it is like Harry Potter or else you will be very disappointed.

There is a mystery element to the story and although I did predict who did what correctly, I was hoping I was wrong since I really was liking that particular character.

Overall I will be continuing on with the series and I really enjoyed it and it was a very surprising read in a good way!

View all my reviews

Top 10 Reads of 2018

I am so behind on all these Top 10 posts but here I am finally posting them! In 2018 I read 75 books! I did also enjoy most of them so it was a very good reading year. This list does not include rereads and are in somewhat of a countdown from my least favorite favorite to my all time favorite. It was difficult to find the order but I am satisfied with the order for now. It could change since I am very indecisive. The top 3 are very solid as my top 3 favorites. (Not including rereads)


10) In Order to Live is a memoir which is a genre I rarely read but it was very good and very important. We follow Yeonmi Park and her journey in escaping North Korea. It is a very important story yet very hard hitting. I have had this book n my TBR forever so I added it to my Top Books I Want to Read in 2018 and I read it in 2018 and I loved it so much and in definitely impacted me more than I thought it would.




9) Monday's Not Coming was one of my most surprising reads of 2018. I fell in love with this book when I first read it and it also ended up on my 24 days of book recommendations post! This book is about a girl name Claudia whose best friend Monday goes missing and she seems to be the only person who notices. We follow Claudia as she figures out what happened to her friend. This book was very addicting and very good!
TW Child Abuse



8) Empire of Storms is the fifth book in the Throne of Glass series. Even though it is my least favorite in the series so far, I absolutely loved it and am so excited to read the last two books. I have fallen in love with all the characters and the world. This series has become one of my favorites of all time. I hope to finally finish this series in 2019.





7) Love, Hate, and Other Filters is another very important book I read last year that I enjoyed so much more than I thought. This is an own voices book following an Indian Muslim American teen. Maya wants to go to film school in NYU while her parents what her to get a "practical" job and go to school close to home. There is also a terrorist attack near where she lives and the main suspect is Muslim who also happens to share the same last name as she does. Maya does not know who this person is but because of this she and her family deal with a lot of hate. It is such an important book that not enough people are reading.




6) Daughter of the Pirate King is another underrated read I read in 2018. I did not expect to love it as much as I did and I think that is the reason why it is one of my favorite reads last year. I never read a book about pirates as well so it was very different from my usual reads. Though it is short, I fell in love with the characters and the story line. I usually do not like the romance in books but I absolutely loved this one which was very unexpected. I hope to read the sequel this year.



5) The Cruel Prince is a on a lot of people's Top 10 reads of 2018 and it is also on mine because yes, I am one of those people who absolutely love it. This is an urban fantasy about a girl name Jude whose parents were murdered and she and her sister were taken in to live in the Fae lands. You probably already know about this book so I will not talk to much about it but I will say that I absolutely loved it and do recommend it. Also the cover is gorgeous!



4) Furyborn is another one of my favorite reads of the year. I also happened to meet Claire Legrand this year and she is very nice and I do hope to meet her again. Furyborn is about two prophesied queens. The sun queen who will bring prosperity to the kingdom and the blood queen who will destroy it. We follow the perspectives of both of the prophesied queens who both live 1,000 years apart in time. I fell in love with the characters, world, and writing.





3) Queen of Air and Darkness also made the list which is probably no surprise to anyone who also follows me on Instagram since I love it so much. After thinking about where to place this book, I decided to place it as my third favorite of the year. Queen of Air and Darkness is my least favorite in the series but I still loved everything about this book. I absolutely love this series and I love the characters and the world so much and I will be reading the new shadowhunter books!




2) The Astonishing Color of After is one of the most hard hitting books I read. The main character in this book is half Taiwanese and half white. I am half Taiwanese and half Chinese so seeing Taiwanese representation in book was very meaningful to me. When Leigh's mother committed suicide she is convinced she turned into a bird. She travels to Taiwan to meet her grandparents for the first time and learns more about her mother and her Taiwanese heritage. TW Suicide, Depression



1) My favorite read of 2018 is Renegades by Marissa Meyer. I still have not read Archenemies yet but I hope to get to it soon. Renegades is a superhero v. super villain type book. We have the Renegades who are the heroes and the Anarchists who are the villains. Nova is an Anarchist who hates the Renegades and Adrian is a Renegade who believes in justice. This book is perfect for Marvel fans as it gave me so many superhero feels. I have not been disappointed by a Marissa Meyer book yet and I am so excited to continue on with this trilogy.


Those were my favorite reads of 2018! Here are some honorable mentions since I read so many good books. (Not including rereads) These are in no particular order.
- The Hobbit by J.R. Tolken
- Forest of A Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao
- Love Life and the List by Kaise West
- Click'd by Tamara Ireland Stone
- Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder
- A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

Top 10 books I Want to Read in 2019

So in 2018, I made a list of books I wanted to read that year (or this year if I post this in 2018) and it was kind of a fail. I did read some of the books I wanted to read but I also did not read a lot of them but I did enjoy the ones that I read and having the list did motivate me to read it. So here I am again making another top 10 list of books I want to read in 2019 and hopefully I will read all of them! All of these are books that have been released in 2018 or prior. I am behind on posting all these Top 10 end of the year lists since I caught a cold and had no desire to write them earlier but I am finally feeling better so here are the books I want to read in 2019. They are in no particular order and these are not all of them.


The first book is making an appearance again and that is The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. The first book in the Mistborn series. This is such a popular book among fantasy lovers and readers in general, and I still have not read it. I actually still have not read a single Brandon Sanderson. Hopefully that will change in 2019. Yes, I also heard about this book so much and still have no idea what it is about.





The next book I hope to get to is Wildcard by Marie Lu which is the last book in the Warcross duology. Warcross was one of my favorite reads of 2017 so I have no idea why I have not read it yet. I did also here mix reviews of this book which could also be a factor to why I have not read it, but book one left off on such a cliff hanger and I need to know what happens next. Warcross is about a virtual reality universe (in a way. It is hard to explain) and it was so cool to read about and I cannot wait to dive into book two.



Next is Archenemies by Marissa Meyer which is the second book in the Renegades trilogy. Renegades is one of my favorite books of 2018 (I will post my favorite 2018 reads soon). I absolutely fell in love with the characters and the world and was completely invested in what was going on. It gave me so many superhero vibes and as a Marvel fan I loved it. I cannot wait to read it and I already have a copy!




Another book I hope to get to is Vicious by V.E. Schwab. Vengeful came out last year and so many people were reading it and I heard such good things about this one and also the sequel. This book is about villains and that is all I really know and want to know about it. I absolutely love all the books by V.E. Schwab that I have read so far and want to read all her works one day. A Conjuring of Light also by her is a book I debated putting on this list, but I did not want this entire list to be sequels so I ended up putting Vicious on it but I do hope to get to that one as well.




Next up is Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas. Tower of Dawn had made an appearance last year as well however I did not read it, but I did get to Empire of Storms so at least I read one out of the two! This is the Chaol "novella" which is required to read before Kingdom of Ash. I am actually pretty excited to read it since I heard that so many people really liked it much more than they thought including Chaol haters!




I finally plan on finishing The Falling Kingdoms series and plan on reading Immortal Reign which is the final book in this series. The Falling Kingdoms series has become one of my favorites and I am so sad that it is ending that I am currently procrastinating reading the last book. I am really excited to see how it ends though and I hope I really enjoy it. Also the cover is just AHHHH. It's so perfect. For those who read the series you probably understand why.




In 2019 I hope to read more diverse books than I read last year so I really hope to get Dear Martin by Nic Stone. I heard such good things about this book yet I really do not know much about it. I believe the main character is very inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. and writes letter to him. I also think it has to do with the Black Lives Matter movement but am not sure. I know it does deal with important topics and I cannot wait to read it.




A book that has been getting so much hype that I hope to get to is City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty. This is a fantasy book that takes place in 18th century Cairo! I never read a book that takes place in Cairo so I have a feeling it is going to be a unique setting. I heard such great things about but the reason I have not picked it up yet is because of the size of the book. This book is huge and very intimidating but I hope that putting this book on a TBR list and posting it online would motivate me to finally read it! The cover is also gorgeous.



Up next is Legendary by Stephanie Garber the second book in the Caraval trilogy. I read and loved Caraval the year it came out and I still for some reason have not picked up the sequel. I have been wanting to read it since I heard that it is better than the first book and that is not that common in the YA world. I hope to dive into this world soon and like all these books I cannot wait to read it. The covers are also so pretty!




And finally we have Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan. I believe this is an East Asian inspired fantasy featuring a queer main character? I am not sure do not quote me, but I hope I am right because that sounds like an awesome story and has so much potential. This book also has been getting so much hype and everyone seems to love it that it makes me want to join in and see if I would like this book or not.



And those are all the books on my Top 10 books I hope to read this year. These are not all of them as there are so many other books I am hoping to get to this year. I hope having this list will motivate me to read them even more! What is a book you hope to read in 2019?