Marvelously Magical

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

This book gets a marvelous 4 gnomes and a gnome hat out of 5 gnomes for being full of fun, magic and a vampire that loves glitter.


First of all, this book has a great eye-catching cover that makes more sense when you read the book, plus the mirror effect is pretty darn cool.


Sophie's a witch who happens to get in trouble a lot.  The prologue shows what happens when Sophie tries to perform a love spell for a girl she finds crying at a dance.  It doesn't end well and leads to her being sent to Hecate Hall aka Hex Hall where Prodigium children: shapeshifters, witches, faeries and whoever else they let in are sent to learn to control their magic or skills.


Sophie has been raised by her Mom who has no magic but really understands her.  Her father is a warlock and Sophie's never even met him in person they just talk on the phone and email.  They moved around to many different places because Sophie used magic and was discovered causing lots of problems.

Jenna, Sophie's roommate, is a particularly interesting character.  She's a vampire who's favorite color is pink, she even has a pink stripe in her hair.  Her half of the room is extremely pink and she's not your stereotypical gloomy vampire.  Jenna is even able to walk around in the sun because of a blood stone that she wears.  Not everybody in the school thinks that vampires should be allowed there even though one of the teachers is a vampire too.  I love the relationship that Sophie has with Jenna and how they help each other out.


Sophie makes enemies fast when a group of dark witches wants her to join their coven.  Their leader, the oddly named Elodie seems to have most of the brains out of the trio but they do appear to be a very powerful group.  Their show of power makes Sophie contemplate joining but she sees that they aren't exactly nice people.


Another great character is the complex Archer.  He is to say the least tall, dark and handsome.  He is the love interest of Sophie but the boyfriend of Elodie.  Sophie doesn't even like Archer at first but her crush grows into something more when they spend time together.  Their relationship slowly builds and their are still many questions to be answered about him and the future.


Overall there is a ghost, murder, attempted murder and much magic sprinkled throughout the book.  Jenna's previous roommate was murdered and had two fang like marks in her neck so suspicion easily falls on her. Towards the end is one of the most interesting reveals of a secret that I've read in a while. 


There are some big family secrets that Sophie was unaware of which should lead to an awesome sequel.  The end of this book makes you wish that Demonglass was out right now instead of February.  All these secrets should lead to some quite interesting ramifications.