Hex Breaker by Devon Ellington
Firedrake's Weyr
Action/Adventure, Paranormal
Novella, Hot
Review by Magnolia

Hex Breaker Jain Lazarus joins the crew of a cursed film, hoping to put to rest what was stirred up before more people die and the film is lost. Tough, practical Detective Wyatt East becomes her unlikely ally and lover on an adventure fighting zombies, ceremonial magicians, the town wife-beater, the messenger of the gods, and their own pasts. 

♥ ♥ ♥

Fall is here and I always look for books with a ‘spooky’ feel to go along with the season.  While, Hex Breaker is not meant to be a Halloween story it does fall into the spooky category.  The plot is woven with ‘spooky’ type of characters, like zombies, magicians, and demons, though the main characters Jain and Wyatt, are human.  The plot is well developed, excellently paced with interesting facts about the paranormal characters included, so it’s clear the author researched these topics.  (Or at least I hope so….I would hate to think someone just knows these sort of thing about zombies.) 

Jain Lazarus, the Hex Breaker, comes to help out a friend, Zig.  Friends are very important to her and there is very little she won’t do to help them (as she repeatedly demonstrates through out the story).  Jain is a ‘tough, take no names’ heroine.  I don’t have a problem with self-assured women, but the way Jain reacts in the beginning when she is referred to as a girl, made it hard for me to like her.  Jain's character as a whole is well developed and stays within the boundaries.   And still, she remains the part of the book I struggled to enjoy.  

Wyatt East is the great hero.  Where Jain flies off at the slightest thing that may even remotely be interpreted as ‘demeaning,’ Wyatt rolls with everything and because of this I actually found him to be the more self-assured character.  He didn’t walk around ‘proving’ himself.  The world of zombies and such is not one that he is familiar with, and his approach is understandably hesitant.  This offers the author an excellent avenue to fill the reader in on the workings of the paranormal.  

As a team, Jain and Wyatt are good.  The chemistry between the two is well developed and solid.  The cast of secondary characters is large and offers great depth to the plot.  Billy Root is by far my favorite and hope to see him in other books in the series.  I would dare any reader not to like Billy.  The ‘bad’ guys range from human to demon to God and all are exceptional.  

The setting of the book also offers an unique twist.  Jain is a wardrobe assistant.  I have never read a book that deals with the ‘behind’ the scenes of a movie as well as Hex Breaker.  I also learned several interesting things about the life of a wardrobe assistant.   

Hex Breaker is the first book in a series and if all the books are as well developed as this one it is, they all are guaranteed to make it on to my must read list.