Just in time for Halloween, Christopher Golden and Rachel Autumn Deering’s Hex Life: Wicked New Tales of Witchery delivers an anthology of magic, mystery, and mayhem. My favorite story is Kelley Armstrong’s “Black Magic Momma: An Otherworld Story.” Armstong’s witch, Eve Levine, deals with plenty of supernatural baggage as she tries to protect and provide for her daughter. Armstrong’s urban fantasy blends witchery and criminal duplicity to produce an action-packed story. I also enjoyed “Toil & Trouble” by Sherrilyn Kenyon & Madaug Kenyon where the Kenyons show it never plays to double-cross witches. Hex Life concludes on a high note with Theodora Goss’s fractured fairy tale, “How To Become a Witch-Queen.” The Sleeping-Beauty story gains depth and strategy in Goss’s version.

If you’re in the mood for magic spells and spooky situations, Hex Life conjures up fear and fun. GRADE: B
TABLE OF CONTENTS
An invitation to a burning / Kat Howard — 7
Widows’ walk / Angela Slatter — 17
Black Magic Momma: An Otherworld Story / Kelley Armstrong — 41
The Night Nurse / Sarah Langan — 63
The Memories of Trees / Mary SanGiovanni — 99
Home: A Morganville Vampires Story / Rachel Caine — 117
The Deer Wife / Jennifer McMahon — 147
The Dancer / Kristin Dearborn — 169
Bless Your Heart / Hillary Monahan — 187
The Debt / Ania Ahlborn — 207
Toil & Trouble / Sherrilyn Kenyon & Madaug Kenyon — 223
Last Stop on Route Nine / Tananarive Due — 239
Where Relics Go to Dream and Die / Rachel Autumn Deering — 263
This Skin / Amber Benson — 275
Haint Me Too / Chesya Burke — 287
The Nekrolog / Helen Marshall — 309
Gold Among the Black / Alma Katsu — 333
How to become a Witch-Queen / Theodora Goss — 347