Every month Heidenkind from Truth, Beauty, Love & Books and I attempt to read a book together. Sometimes-like we when tried to read Katherine by Anya Seton, and just didn't have the wherewithal to finish it. Or when we attempted the Historian and looked at how long it was and said "another time." (I had read it before, but thought that was one book that maybe is meant to be read just once.) We did successfully read Some Girls Bite and Friday Night Bites, but somehow managed to out talk ourselves debating who was better for Merit Ethan or Morgan on Twitter and wrote separate reviews for . We did however did do a joint interview with Chloe Neill! The last book we managed to actual review together was last September when we read (and loved) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society where I fell in love with Dawsy. This month we chose to read Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins. I should warn you that our conversation jumps around a lot and we go from one random topic to another! We were also really tired when we talked about the book, and I think you can tell how late it was by the very end of the conversation!
Title: Hex Hall
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal
This is the second part of the conversation, so for part one check out Heidenkind's blog!
Time: Very late on Thursday Night
Place: google wave
Previously we were talking about Sophie's love interest in the book Archer, and what we thought of him.....
Me:
Archers appeal did grow more for the reason you mentioned, but we don't want to give everything away :) On a different note, I do wonder why the other supernatural creatures weren't more apart of the story. It makes you wonder how much was edited out. I loved Mrs. Casnoff! I also liked her roommate, and wished we could have had more interaction with Lord Bryon!
Heidenkind:
I forgot about Lord Byron! I was bummed he wasn't in the book more. He sounded hi-larious.
Me:
If I'm remembering this right, I thought it was kind of funny how she thought his class dragged on b/c of how much he liked to talk.I was like of course-he's Lord Bryon.
Heidenkind:
Poor guy--stuck in that awful school.
Me:
I felt bad for him as well being stuck in that school! All this talk of characters makes me realize one problem this book had-too many neat characters and not enough time spent on them all!
Colette's Note: we now jump to what magical parts of the book we liked....
Heidenkind:
I liked how the furniture changed depending on how you felt about the school. I want my house to do that!
Besides that, how do you feel about the witches in this book? Their powers were kind of lame, tbh.
Me:
I loved the furniture changing-I thought they could've explored their powers a lot more, or made them do some cooler things. Even though it's a witch trademark, I loved the flying on the broomstick parts.
Heidenkind:
Yeah, that was cool. And the sleeping spell--I need to do one of those. :P
Me:
I would love to use that spell at work!
Heidenkind:
LOL Maybe it's a good thing we aren't witches, then. ;)
Me:
I think it's a very good thing that we aren't witches! We would always be visiting the "you've abused your powers" council in London!
What did you like best about the book? I really like how Sophie was not afraid to do her own thing-I think that's an important message for YA readers.
Heidenkind:
I don't know... the premise felt a little clicheed to me. More than a little. I liked the threats to the school the most--there's a lot of potiential for interesting plot there. And of course I like the romance. :)
Me:
It was a lot cliched-but then I like that in a book sometimes! :)
Heidenkind:
LOL Yes.
Colette's Note: We are still talking about what scenes we really liked about the book....
Me:
I think with all it's faults, it still has room to grow into a great series. The problem with series is that there is always one book that falls victim to setting up the next book. I almost forgot-one of the things I about the book was how the items in storage kept changing places. I thought those scenes with Archer were great.
Heidenkind:
Those were some of my favorite scenes, too. Although the items changing places was very reminiscent of Harry Potter.
Colette's Note: Now we jump into what scenes in different magical movies we liked...
Me:
I loved the staircases in Harry Potter! The magic items moving reminded me of the Librarian series on TNT
Heidenkind:
LOL I love the librarian! It was kind of like that, wasn't it?
Me:
It was just a tiny bit like the libraian. I do love Noah Wylie in those movies-but I'm getting totally off track here...do you think you'll read the next book in the series?
Heidenkind:
LOL Yes and yes. :) Especially if it's at the library again. I'm glad I didn't buy this one because it's definitely not a keeper. The librarian, on the other hand, I own all the DVDs for. :)
Me:
I know I'll be reading the next book-I loved the cliff hanger ending. You've reminded me that I really need to buy the Librarian movies!
Colette's note: In typical form our conversation goes from the Librarian to talking about the ending of Hex Hall in the same breath:
Heidenkind:
Yeah, you totally know she's going to meet Archer in London and not get Removed. Because where would the series be then?
Me:
Totally..but do you think we've given too much of the story away?
Heidenkind:
Naw. lol I don't think that would make sense unless you've read the book, do you?
Me:
hmm..no, not really-at least I hope not!
This concludes our joint review! I hope it wasn't too confusing to read!!
