Book Review: A Hexcellent Chance to Fall in Love by Ann Rose

I hate to give negative reviews to queer books, but sometimes a book just isn’t good. A Hexcellent Chance to Fall in Love by Ann Rose is an example of a book that has a great title, and a fun concept, and just completely failed on the execution — for me at least. Other people seem to be enjoying it, because there’s a reader for every book.

You know how every year, around August, Spirit Halloween seems to just suddenly appear in the most convenient empty store front in your town? Well, what if it was literally magic? And what if, for some reason, the store needed a human keeper magically bound to it? And what if that person disappeared with the store every year, and was forgotten by everyone?

It’s both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, Pepper White has job security, infinite schedule flexibility (she really only works during this book if it provides an opportunity to encounter the love interest), all expenses paid, and she never gets sick or grows old. On the other hand, her family and friends don’t remember her, she only has 70 days a year to enjoy the town she loves, and the new guy at the store is really annoying.

This whole concept falls apart if you think about it for 30 seconds. WHY a magical Halloween store? The only magic is its appearance, disappearance, and Pepper’s bond to it. It sells regular-degular Halloween stuff. How does the store turn a profit if Pepper has a company card and can buy whatever she wants? Why does the store need a magical keeper? If she’s so important, why can she just leave and do whatever she want for those 70 days? How are the other employees hired? What do they do for the rest of the year? (Except for New Guy, they’re all regulars who work there every year) Why does the store magically heal all injuries and maladies if the keeper doesn’t actually have to do any work? I didn’t ask for mystical ableism in my Halloween-themed escapism.

So the thing about a book this silly is that it has to lean into the silliness. But instead this book wants to take itself seriously and give Pepper a tragic backstory. This leads to a moment of extreme emotional whiplash as she’s remembering her Tragic Inciting Incident, and then comes back to the present and gives us a really detailed narration of how she tried a new flavor of hot chocolate instead of her usual one, and how delicious the apple fritter is.

There are more than a few times when Pepper comes across as just a little sociopathic, and once or twice where love interest Christina also shocked me with her behavior.

Also, this book is marketed as being “slightly sp**ky*” and it’s not. At all. Like at least give me some creepy liminal backrooms vibes to the storage room of The Dead of Night, or some ominous communications from Corporate, or the hint that something horrible has happened to all the past Keepers. This book is light on the Halloween chills and the supernatural factor. Mostly it’s just two women having a somewhat slow burn romance and then some very mild heat love scenes, and then suddenly the last 15-20% is focused on breaking the curse.

The author is trying to do something very clever with the book, but honestly, the writing is not great, so the hints that she started dropping around the mid-point felt like bad writing or editing mistakes, so when the reveal finally came, I was just like “Oh. You did NOT pull that off.”

I really wish I had written a review of Cosmic Love at the Multiverse Hair Salon by Annie Mare. It’s not only one of the best romance novels I’ve ever read, with such beautifully well-developed and important side characters, but it handles this “trying to solve a problem before time runs out” pining feeling so much better.

On the other hand, Cosmic Love isn’t specifically Halloween themed. If you have a favorite queer Halloween romance, let me know!

TWs and CWs: Magical ableism, light sexual content, bi erasure (by antagonistic characters, this is a bi4bi story), some strong language, references to past death of a loved one.

Source and Format: I borrowed the ebook from Sno-Isle Libraries.

*The word “sp**k/sp**ky” has been used as a slur against Black people in the past, so I don’t use it anymore except in direct quotes.

Reading Challenge Prompts

Book Riot: Holiday romance that isn’t Christmas. I love this prompt! I don’t celebrate Christmas and it’s silly to me that Christmas has such a stranglehold on entertainment, especially romance and romance-adjacent stuff. I had looked at St. Patrick’s and Valentine’s Day themed options, but I really enjoy Halloween and it’s seasonally appropriate now, so I was really hoping this book would be a winner.

Reading Challenge Progress

Nook & Cranny (Card 1): 18 of 25, 3 bingos.

Nook & Cranny (Card 2): 22 of 25, 6 bingos.

Book Riot: 19 of 24.

Physical TBR: 10 of 12.

World of Whimm: 21 of 24, 6 bingos.