Review: Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins (Hex Hall #1)

Title: Hex Hall
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Publication date: March 2nd 2010
Publisher: Hyperion
Age group: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Cover rating: 4/5
Content rating: 5/5
Buy: Amazon

Description:

Three years ago, Sophie Mercer discovered that she was a witch. It's gotten her into a few scrapes. Her non-gifted mother has been as supportive as possible, consulting Sophie's estranged father--an elusive European warlock--only when necessary. But when Sophie attracts too much human attention for a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, it's her dad who decides her punishment: exile to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shapeshifters. 

By the end of her first day among fellow freak-teens, Sophie has quite a scorecard: three powerful enemies who look like supermodels, a futile crush on a gorgeous warlock, a creepy tagalong ghost, and a new roommate who happens to be the most hated person and only vampire student on campus. Worse, Sophie soon learns that a mysterious predator has been attacking students, and her only friend is the number-one suspect.
As a series of blood-curdling mysteries starts to converge, Sophie prepares for the biggest threat of all: an ancient secret society determined to destroy all Prodigium, especially her.

My thoughts:
I had been holding off on reading this one until after the third book came out. I have been getting really irritated about having to wait around for the next book in a series to come out so I decided I'd wait until I had all of these before I'd start. The third book, Spell Bound, was published last week so I finally got to dive into this one.  I can tell you that it was most certainly worth the wait and I have found a new series to obsess over!

Hex Hall completely blew me away. I read it in two short sittings. Partly because it's a quick read but also because I couldn't handle setting it down. My eyes were glued to my Kindle as I got completely lost in Sophie's story! Sophie is such a likable character and I was cheering for her from the very first page. She is sarcastic, funny and doesn't take anything too seriously. She's quite independent and a quick thinker. Sophie is thrown into a world she has very little knowledge about and it's fascinating watching her try to navigate her way through this magical place.

The plot was very intriguing. It's full of mystery and suspense which keeps the reader on their toes the whole way through. I really did not see any of the twists coming but they made sense all the same! Sophie's only friend at Hex Hall is being accused of murder and assault. She is torn between her loyalty to her friend (Jenna, who is a really awesome character!) and all the clues that seem to point at her being the attacker. It's not an easy place to be and I think Sophie handles it well. She's clever and knows how to stand her ground. I still don't know how I'm supposed to feel about Archer- Sophie's detention buddy and crush. He still seems like such a mystery to me and I'm really excited to see how things will go in book two.

As you can see, I LOVED this book and I'm so excited about this series! I would recommend it to anybody who is looking for a quick and fun read. It made me laugh several times and I can't wait to get back to Sophie's world.