Half Pint Hex

The Hundred Halls Universe

by Thomas K. Carpenter

Second generation con woman and all-around thief Remi Wilde joined the Hundred Halls—the world's only magical university—in hopes of learning the right spells to pull off a dangerous heist. But rather than one of the less scrupulous Halls, she ends up in Aura Healers, known for its public service and healing arts.

Remi isn't dissuaded, and prepares to turn this setback into an advantage as she steals from the school's ample alchemy supplies to fund her artifact hunting mission. The only problem is one of her fellow students, a try-hard werewolf with a god complex, is doing everything he can to get in her way.

As the already chaotic hospital gets overrun with patients suffering from a strange madness, the handsome werewolf asks for Remi's help—and her thieving skills—to find out who's really behind the chaos. Their journey leads them into the darker corners of the university, and reveals a plot against the city that will force her to choose her true destiny.

358 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 10, 2024

About the author

Thomas K. Carpenter is a full time contemporary fantasy author with over 70 independently published titles. His bestselling, multi-series universe, The Hundred Halls, has over 43 books and counting. His stories focus on fantastic families, magical academies, and epic adventures. All the books can be found at major retailers and directly from the author at https://thomaskcarpenter.com/.

You can sign up for his newsletter at https://www.subscribepage.com/trialso...
When he is not writing, he enjoys playing turn-based strategy games and MTG, skiing, hiking, traveling, and chilling on the couch with his wife and their little dog, Merlin, at home in the beautiful mountains of Colorado.

Reviews

[J. Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Half-Pint Hex SPFBO Review

The best parts of Half-Pint Hex are the interactions between the three protagonists — Remi, Damon, and Lily — and the quick and entertaining action sequences that are layered consistently throughout the book, made especially intriguing by the magic of the world. These highlighs are dampened by some plot conveniences and a final act that could have been more compelling, but overall, I am happy with my time spent reading Half-Pint Hex.

Half-Pint hex is a contemporary fantasy, set in a modern-day world where magic is prevalent and there exists a society that utilizes and functions with magic. Living in this world are Remi, Damon, and Lily, each with their own magical inclinations. The world in Half-Pint Hex was interesting and fun to explore. I never knew quite what to expect. This was a blessing early on when I was discovering different magics but also a curse toward the end of the story when there were still surprises that felt like plot conveniences to finish the story. While I was not able to discern an official magical system with specific rules and limitations and expectations for use, I still enjoyed the plethora of surprises and discoveries that made the world a fun place to tell a story.

Each of the three main characters were very different in both personality and goals. This made for contention at times and having to overcome interpersonal obstacles that felt genuine. Seeing certain characters change their perspective on life and reflect on their personal desires made me feel more vested in and connected to each of their experiences. There was a moment or two when some internal conflict felt forced or unnecessary, but outside of those few instances, the characters were well-written and suited to the story.

Speaking of the story, the one told in Half-Pint Hex had me hooked from the beginning and intrigued at the different beats, but ultimately, I felt the final act did not quite deliver the effective climax that I was hoping for. Avoiding spoilers, I would have liked to have understood more the motivations and decision making of the antagonist of the story. It is possible that future books in the series will explore these issues further, but I still expected to see more in this novel. While I still felt vested in the main characters, I felt much less so in the main story.

Half-Pint Hex was a fun and exciting contemporary fantasy with characters I easily attached to and enjoyed following along in their adventures. Unfortunately, the main story did not offer the payoff I had hoped for and some convenient plotting that utilized the world’s magic dampened climactic elements. Fans of Contemporary, Urban, and Young Adult fantasy should find Half-Pint Hex very enjoyable, while those who cater more toward epic fantasy and related genres may find the lack of a concrete magic system and a slightly underdeveloped plot too large a hurdle.

[Lana · Rating 5 out of 5]

A new hall is opening in the city of sorcery called the Aura Healers Hall and they are calling for students to attend the trials, and three young people mean to attempt to pass these and get accepted into Invictus. Damon is hard working and really intent on helping others, and this is the only hall he wants to be a part of, whilst Lily is an Irish witch who comes with her own agenda, as does Remi, a young thief newly released from the juvenile penitentiary, and who has no interest in this hall but it is the only one which accepted her. She too has her own agenda for learning magic, however when they start working at the Golden Willow Hospital nothing is as they imagined and their experiences there were very challenging. Instructors were not what they expected, and working double-shifts more often than not left them stressed and wiped out. Emergencies were called in all the time, something was wrong in the city, and Damon who was a shapeshifter, wanted to investigate as things were getting out of hand in the ER. This first book in a new series is extremely gripping as there is a mystery involved and the students take on the role of private investigators to get to the bottom of who was causing the problems. Fae and magic obviously are involved and all three risk being thrown out but they are intent on getting to the bottom of the problem. I love this first book, the characters are very interesting and I like that Damon and Remi are so different to one another yet sort of balance each other out. Will all three be there for the 2nd year in the Aura Healers Hall?

[Tony Lavely · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread this book, getting back into the Hundred Halls while waiting for new offerings from Mr. Carpenter. A pleasure, for sure. Mystery, suspense, lots of human characteristics—good and bad, for sure!—humor and pathos.

More than some of the other books in the universe, Remi survives a laudable character arc, and the other main characters are truly satisfactory. I look forward to the other books in this series.

I was pleased by this addition to the Universe, and I recommend it to readers of contemporary fantasy.

I obtained this book through a Kickstarter. I read the ebook on my MacBook Air. The cover calls out for a color reader, but the balance of the book is fine on a monochrome reader.

This review will be posted at Amazon and Goodreads, and other sites.

[Debbie Eyre · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so good. From the minute we followed Remi as she left lock up and made her way to the halls, to her meeting Damian and Lily as 1st year students In aura healers, you find your self hooked and ready to learn more about them. Each have their secrets as they struggle to find their paths but their journey is exciting and intriguing as they see more than what others see. It’s a chaotic place full of interesting characters, magic and so much more as these 3 foil a plot and save the city of sorcery and I look forward to continuing their adventures.

[Anya Smits · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good start of a new series in the 100 Halls Universe.

I do love the 100 halls books. And this first book of the series is no exception. Remi. a former thief, meats up with Damian and Lily for the first year class of Aura healers. A story with great twists, strange illnesses, fun healing, and weird patients. And all this in "too much work, not much fun hospital-like surroundings". Despite the hard work there is time for adventure, roller coaster events and an ending that leaves the reader wanting to read the sequel.

Highly recommended!

[Mike]

Alarms went off when there were three obvious errors in the first page of the foreword (including referring to it, not in the heading but in the text, as a "forward").

The sample seemed about average, though, from a copy editing viewpoint. I decided against it based on the strong vibe of "standard brutal magical academy" I was getting. Not my thing.

[Recording mainly so I don't pick it up again in future.]

[Quilting Tangent · Rating 5 out of 5]

New Hall!
Good, long interesting story. Interesting characters will come together to form the 1st years class of Aura Healers were they will learn the magical ways of healing, while dealing with many strange emergencies. Also several students try to figure out the mystery of why so many people are being sent to the hospital with strange symptoms. What secrets do these characters hide?

[Leanne Pert · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a brilliant start to the new hundred halls series. On reading you can see great character progression right from the start. Characters are relatable and you can sense their personalities whilst reading. I can’t get enough of the hundred halls series and look forward to reading the next installment for the aura healers at Golden Wilow

[Inger · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun and entertaining start to a new series. Great characters with a fantastic new friendships. Who would have thought the Healing Hall would have so many fun magical calamities. No graphic sexual content or foul language. I recommend it for all ages.

[Phyllis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remi is showing definite signs
of increasing maturity.
Watch her go !!
I'm eager to see the next stage.
Enjoy !!

Phyllis S.

[Harro · Rating 5 out of 5]

As all the others, a great page turner, hard to put away once you get into it with many promises for more to come in the next ones.

[George · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read several books from the Hundred Hall series and I must say that this is my least favorite.
The whole thing felt like it was a book written to fulfill a contractual obligation.
The characters, particularly at the beginning of the book, were not very interesting as individuals and there was no point to their being there.
We later get a better idea of who they are, and what their goals are, but it feels more like back-filling than something thought out before hand.
I also found it annoying that the medical school they were attending was more centered on abuse than learning, which was not true of the other colleges of the Halls that I have read about.
What annoyed me most, however, is the frequent plot driven stupidity of the characters, who were almost constantly making the wrong decisions, and ignoring obvious solutions.
I may go on to read others of Carpenter's works, but not in the "Aura Healers" series.