Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Hex Work
SERIES: Babylon Boy
AUTHOR: T.A. Moore
PUBLISHER: Rogue Firebird Press
LENGTH: 136 pages
RELEASE DATE: November 23, 2021
BLURB:
My name is Jonah Carrow, and it’s been 300 days since I laid a hex.
OK, Jonah Carrow isn’t actually an alcoholic. But there’s no support group of lapsed hex-slingers in Jerusalem, so he’s got to make do. He goes for the bad coffee and the reminder that he just has to take normal one day at a time.
Unfortunately, his past isn’t willing to go down without a fight.
A chance encounter with a desperate Deborah Seddon, and a warning that ‘they’re watching’, pulls Jonah back into the world he’d tried to leave behind. Now he has to navigate ghosts, curses, and the hottest bad idea warlock he’s ever met…all without a single hex to his name.
But nobody ever said normal was easy. Not to Jonah anyhow.
REVIEW:
Jonah Carrow is . . . something. Not “normal” but he’s trying to be. He’s left his home in Babylon to live in Jerusalem and not use magic. To try to keep himself on the straight and narrow, so to speak 😉 he attends AA meetings daily. On this particular day, he attends a new meeting. Someone there thinks she knows him – well she did as they went to school together. He has a modicum of interest in the leader, Luke. But when he leaves the meeting is when things really get interesting. Another member of the circle calls out to him that she knows him – well not who he is – but what he is. And after that, all hell breaks loose.
Jonah is stalked by another group, the Crows, who apparently run this town and they know what he is too – although thankfully not who. He’s also plagued by a resident ghost. He’s nervous about what is happening and he discovers that he’s been thrown into the middle of something deadly and he needs to figure out how to stop before somebody – or he – is dead.
As Jonah tries to unravel the mystery and determine who is behind the appearance of a a murderous enemy, he’s also got to hide the truth of his identity from everyone else. If he can’t find the power source and destroy it, he’ll run out of time to save the current target. He needs help, but he really can’t trust anyone.
So this was a very interesting start to a new series. It has some mild horror elements, which aren’t really my jam. In addition, the name in the blurb for the antagonist is actually different in the story, so I was confused at one point. Be that as it may, this is a truly tangled web. We only get droplets of what Jonah’s backstory may be. This is really urban fantasy/paranormal with slight romantic elements, so be aware going in that this isn’t a romance. There are LOT of open questions we’re left with despite some resolution to the current problem. I’m interested to see where this goes with Luke and the stalkerish Shiloh and the Crows in general. Because Jonah is now tied to them, he can’t return to his attempt at a “normal” life any time soon. And who knows what he’ll face next? If you’re up for an intro to a new world that raises as many questions (or more) than it answers, then this might be the series for you. If you enjoy a good mystery with lots of twists and turns and some surprising chemistry with some magic thrown in, I think you’ll like this kickoff to Babylon Boy.
RATING: 
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