The Hexed & The Hunted

Faery Bargains #3

by Melissa Marr

The third novel in a new faery and fanged world written by the author of the internationally bestselling Wicked Lovely series.

Half-dead witch Geneviève Crowe makes her living beheading the dead--and trying to juggle her new duties as a faery princess now that she's married Eli Stonecroft, a faery prince who was in self-imposed exile in New Orleans.

But monsters have no patience with royal obligations, and the same creature who once hunted her great-times-great grandmother is now trying to put Gen in the ground. When the relentless monster from her family's past decides to hex Geneviève, she's forced to go on the run or expose how much power she's started amassing. Her royally impatient uncle-in-law, the faery king, has already threatened her and Eli.

Death or Flight? Hexed or Hunted? This is not the honeymoon Gen and Eli were planning...

Genres: Urban Fantasy, Romance, Magic, Fantasy, Audiobook, Fae, Paranormal

319 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 30, 2022

About the author

Melissa Marr writes fiction for adults, teens, and children. Her books have been translated into 28 languages and been bestsellers in the US (NY Times, LA Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal) as well as overseas. Wicked Lovely, her debut novel, was an instant New York Times bestseller and evolved into an internationally bestselling multi-book series with a myriad of accolades.

In 2024 she released a queer fantasy (Remedial Magic via Bramble), a picturebook about a wee one and his two moms (Family is Family via Penguin), and a DC Comics graphic novel about teen Harley & Ivy (The Strange Adventures of Harleen & Harley).

An Illumicrate edition of 6 Wicked Lovely books will release in 2025.

If she's not writing, you can find her in a kayak or on a trail with her wife.

Reviews

[Sophia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t love this series, but I don’t hate it. I’m not sure exactly what I dislike? I felt I didn’t really understand some of the backstory/set up until the 2.5 novella. But the author claims that these novellas are side stories and not required to understand the novels main story. I think one would be a little lost without reading the novellas. A 1/3 of this book (at least for kindle) is the wedding novella so I skipped it because that was the one I started this series with (on accident).

I guess it feels rushed, maybe? I’ll have to think about it some more.

[Darcy · Rating 3 out of 5]

With this book Geneviève needs to band together with all her people and some of her people's people to defeat a big pain in her ass. Things don't go well at first, but slowly they find things to help and figure out a way to get others to help them. So that by the end, by the just in time Geneviève is able to defeat this person and hopefully now she and Eli can live their lives happy.

[Louisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a great read, loved all the developments, I had such a great time!

[Alix · Rating 2 out of 5]

Narrators make such a difference! This book was probably a decent read, but the narrator…ugh! Plus, I hate when they switch narrators in the middle of a series :( 2.5 ⭐️

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Geneviève and Eli are settling into married life but thing seem just a little bit too quiet. They are getting anxious about Chester and his retribution. Gen has upped her patrols but doesn’t expect the grandmother looking person in the cemetery to be evil and a minion of Chester. Gen is swooped up and taken to a location that is warded so she cannot contact anyone – until the dunking in water started. Gen manages to trick Chester a bit and sees that he is afraid of a weapon in Scotland. Most of the crew goes to fae and the rest go to Scotland to figure out what the weapon is. This story takes some interesting twist and turns that I thoroughly enjoyed! Really enjoying this series!

[Winter Dickinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite kind of book is one where someone else gave it low stars before it's even out. This is one of those books.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series and book 3 did not let me down - it was a great continuation of the series!

This series has so many things I love: strong female characters (I mean REALLY strong and seriously kick-ass, all of them in very different flavours here which is super-fun), a terrific, well-crafted paranormal world for the characters to move in, more excitement, suspense, epic battles and drama than any reader has a right to hope for, and just enough romance between Gen and Eli to satisfy a romance-lover without being overblown, or over-taking the story which really is the main draw here.

Genevieve is a fantastic main character and I love her! She's smart, capable, determined, funny and loving to the people in her weird and wonderful family of misfits and she moves through her world very philosophically, just getting sh*t done, even when that needs to get bloody. She's just a really likable and engaging character that a reader can connect with (as weird as that sounds, given the subject-matter!) and enjoy going along with as the story plays out.

The supporting characters here are also delightful. All of them are odd and quirky, some are dangerous and demented, but all of them have the subtle humour that Melissa Marr does so well. There is nothing in this series not to like. I hope there are more books coming with these characters in this world because I am SO HERE FOR THEM!!

[Juniper · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t know why the author decided to number the books as they did, but this is really book 4 or 5; the 2.5, 2.6 ‘novellas’ contain about 300 pgs between them and apparently introduced the BBGE, started at least two relationships within the core group and fundamentally changed some of the alliances.

I am used to and expect novellas and bonus stories to add extra scenes and fun bonus content, maybe follow a supporting character - enjoyable content, great world building, but not major plot points.

When I finished book 2, I picked up book 3 not realizing there were intermediate books - and even if I had known I prefer to read the main story through first then go back and read the bonus stories. Leaving book 2 with everyone happy and a wedding on the horizon and coming into the start of book 3 with everything that was set up in 2 being completely fubar was disorienting and irritating.

The story itself was probably good - but I spent most of it trying to figure out what I missed and I guess now I’ll try to find the two intermediate books I guess - maybe.

[Tammy · Rating 5 out of 5]

When the third novel in the Faery Bargains series begins, Genevieve is happily married to Eli and life is calm, too calm for Genevieve’s need to flex her monster hunting skills. She goes out without protection figuring she will be the most dangerous thing out there. Unfortunately, her complacence leads her to trouble. Her new(ish) enemy Chester is back and everyone from Iggy to faery king Marcus is frightened of him. Genevieve never lets a little thing like danger stop her from heading sword first into battle. Chester proves to be a stronger enemy than those before him. Genevieve and Eli’s relationship is threatened but both stand strong and present a united front to all throughout the action. Allie’s cousins join the story, and it is easy to see where Alli gets her chutzpah. They were a great addition to the story. I am not sure if this is the last book in the series, but I certainly hope not. I would love to see how Allie and King Marcus’s relationship develops.

[Lenore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay so this is another episode of Buffy or Charmed.
It has a tiny amount of spice in the romance that is all green light- boundaries are acknowledged and filled in a respectful manner. Sweetly done. Mostly blacked out not explicit.
The chapters are given character names but not all of the story is in their POV sometimes it's 3rd person narrative so it's a little distancing as a reader.
I've read about 60 books since the last time I read the series so I did have a little forgetfulness about where all the characters were in their lives. But oh my goodness I think I almost broke teeth on how sweet the characters are. They are over the top for real. The action was like random happenstance that just happened to fall together.
Definitely not my favorite.

[Ronel Janse van Vuuren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ally’s family is endearing and hilarious. The king of Elphame is in for a surprise…

I liked how Iggy made Geneviève his apprentice (for real) and helped her to trust her own abilities. The truce between him and Beatrice is so funny.

And Chester being afraid of powerful women… Typical misogynist. The way he was defeated was awesome.

I wonder what Nora will do next…?

The setting for the final battle was perfect and I enjoyed the various groups coming together to fight their common foe.

I would’ve liked to know more about Chester’s brand of magic and how it was different from that of witches and fae (just powders and potions or is there something more?).

A great ending to the series. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Trigger warnings: domestic abuse, torture, blood, abduction

[Katie Kaste · Rating 5 out of 5]

battle for the Crowns

Chester is after Gen. He wants nothing more than to get rid of his biggest threat in an endless life. Genevieve and her friends are tied together in a wold wide hunt to end the threat against their family once and for all. I really enjoyed this series. It has been fun to read. The world was interesting and a wonderful mix of our world and fantasy elements. I love Marr’s writing and this was a solid series.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Together

I love how everyone's characters have evolved throughout the books. I lived how they all come together even after many crises. I don't know but I'm assuming this is the end of this series. I enjoyed them so much. If there will be more even a novella again i will definitely be back to read them.

[ROMEOISNOTFUNNY · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because I'm so use to audiobooks I missed the small short stories between book 2 and 3. So I was totally confused. But that's my fault, so still 4 stars because it was still funny and thrilling. Still has badass kick punching heroines, and it still has good men that make you want to reach in and pull a copy out for yourself. Oh and some damn good steamy moments! It's a good read

[Brittany Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book wasn't bad, but is probably my least favorite in the series. It felt kind of rushed, and as soon as the bad guy was defeat the book ended. Also kinda disappointed that 1/3 of the book was a novella she already published in her novella compilation book.

[Rachael]

Decent story, but not quite as good as the first two core books. Still, glad our couple got their happy ending.

[Colleen Sandusky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I truly like this series but the male bashing in this book was a bit much in my opinion.

[Alicia Nichols · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good read! A lot more action and romance in this book that kept me reading ❤️ The love between Eli and Gen was just beautiful and one I could only dream of. ❣️

[WonderWomanNZ · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really tried, but couldn’t finish it, I had totally lost interest in this book and the series, just not for me.

[Jessica Lerbs · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too slow, I got bored