This novella kicks off a brand new series—the Hex Files.

A Cozy Urban Fantasy with a strong romantic element, this series is inspired by Legally Blonde and Ilona Andrews.

At eighteen, Bella Hexley was forced to leave her home—and her magic—far behind. She went to law school, built a career, raised her daughter, and lived a completely normal, spell-free life. Easy… until her husband pulled the ultimate dirty trick: filed for divorce, drained their bank accounts, and somehow convinced the court she’s an unfit mother. Like, seriously?

Now broke, blacklisted, and one mascara smear away from a full-on breakdown, Bella has no choice but to dust off her law degree and seek help in the one place she’s been told she doesn’t belong: Chicago’s Enchanted District—the Midwest’s magical capital.

It’s the only place she can go to reclaim her magic and take on the legal battle that matters: fighting for her daughter. The case is messier than her ex’s Instagram lies. Along the way there’s magical mayhem, shady advice, and Jack—a middle-aged man with a James Bond vibe, salt and pepper hair, electric-blue eyes, and magic that sparks something deep inside her.

No matter how life challenges her, Bella won’t back down. Because saving herself? Totally on brand.

And falling in love along the way? Well… nobody’s perfect.

The first full-length book in the Hex Files, a cozy urban fantasy series with a strong romantic element that is inspired by Legally Blonde and Ilona Andrews.

Forty-year-old Bella Hexley thought she left magic behind for good. She built a perfectly ordinary life—law school, marriage, motherhood. Then her husband blindsided her with divorce, taking their house, their savings, and every illusion of stability she had. The only thing she kept? Custody of her daughter—if she can prove she can support her.

With bills piling up and no job offers, Bella does the unthinkable: she returns to the Enchanted District of Chicago. Broke and desperate, she borrows money from a half-demon loan shark and opens a magical law firm. But when the clients don’t come and the money runs out, she owes Paul a favor she can’t refuse—suing a man for wrongful death.

There’s just one problem: Bella can’t stop thinking about the defendant.

Now she’s juggling shady clients, a missing diary, and magic that tends to set things on fire—all while raising her daughter and trying not to fall for the one man she’s supposed to destroy.

At eighteen, Bella Hexley made a desperate bargain with the formidable witch Cassie Kovar: give up her magic, leave the Enchanted District forever, and in return Cassie would pay for her college. With her mother in prison, her father gone, and her family in ruins, Bella agreed.

Twenty years later—fresh from a bitter divorce and fighting to keep custody of her daughter—Bella returned and freed her magic. She’s trying to rebuild her life and failing forward, when Cassie’s death drags her back into the spotlight she never wanted.

At the will reading, Bella is shocked to find herself bound by blood magic to Cassie’s estate: a semi-sentient house that has chosen to test Sabine Kovar through a gauntlet of magical trials to determine if she is a worthy heir. Bella’s role is to stand at Sabine’s side—but she can’t shake the fear that Cassie set a trap, revenge for the deal Bella broke.

Yet something inside the estate feels…wrong. The trials twist and shift in ways that suggest meddling from forces beyond Cassie’s design. Caught between the house’s demands, her conflicted pull toward the charming Phin Kovar and the off-limits grim reaper Jack Payne, and the weight of her own past, Bella must find a way to help Sabine survive the trials—before the estate destroys the future she’s fought so hard to rebuild.