Description:
From the author of the highly addictive and bestselling Blue Bloods series, with almost 3 million copies sold, comes a new novel, Melissa de la Cruz’s first for adults, featuring a family of formidable and beguiling witches.
The three Beauchamp women—Joanna and her daughters Freya and Ingrid—live in North Hampton, out on the tip of Long Island. Their beautiful, mist-shrouded town seems almost stuck in time, and all three women lead seemingly quiet, uneventful existences.
But they are harboring a mighty secret—they are powerful witches banned from using their magic. Joanna can resurrect people from the dead and heal the most serious of injuries. Ingrid, her bookish daughter, has the ability to predict the future and weave knots that can solve anything from infertility to infidelity. And finally, there’s Freya, the wild child, who has a charm or a potion that can cure most any heartache.
For centuries, all three women have been forced to suppress their abilities. But then Freya, who is about to get married to the wealthy and mysterious Bran Gardiner, finds that her increasingly complicated romantic life makes it more difficult than ever to hide her secret. Soon Ingrid and Joanna confront similar dilemmas, and the Beauchamp women realize they can no longer conceal their true selves. They unearth their wands from the attic, dust off their broomsticks, and begin casting spells on the townspeople.
It all seems like a bit of good-natured, innocent magic, but then mysterious, violent attacks begin to plague the town. When a young girl disappears over the Fourth of July weekend, they realize it’s time to uncover who and what dark forces are working against them.
Review:
For some reason Witches of East End didn’t leave me with a whole lot to say. But here’s what I got:
1. A great read for fans of Norse Mythology.
Witches of East End is a paranormal romance with mythic elements. By that I mean that many of the main characters–including Ingrid, Freya, and Joanna—are based on Nordic deities.
So check this out if you love Thor, Loki, Yggdrasil (the World Tree) and other Nordic stories.
Don’t worry, not everyone has a weird name. The story takes place in modern times and is very easy to follow.
2. Well written and excellent prose.
Instantly from reading the story I was drawn to the writing. The prose is clear, and easy to read.
Witches alternates between the three sisters. The characters take turns telling the story. Often adding too many perspectives can dilute a novel, but here it is well done.
This is a good one for busy ladies because the chapters are really short!
Each character became dear to my heart. The sisters are very different and take up a classic archetype–virgin goddess (Ingrid the librarian), sex goddess (Freya the bartender) and mother (Joanna the babysitter).
3. Conflict keeps the pages turning but leaves a cliffhanger.
There are some times I like a cliffhanger–when it creates more excitement for the next chapter, when hope exists beyond the obstacles.
I enjoyed the pace of Witches. By the time the ending swung around, I was really hoping for a happy ending.
And it was sorta happy. But the epilogue set things up for the next book, which promised to be full of even more tortuous conflicts.
Why could Melissa de la Cruz wait to introduce that in the second book of the series? I have no desire to read it now, because the I expect that the happy ending will be shattered completely.
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Hi Wren,
I really enjoyed reading your review and appreciate your review style. I love lists! 🙂 I’ve been wondering about this one. Thanks for piquing my interest!
thanks for stopping by Steph 🙂 I figure lists are easy to read on the go.
Doesn’t this book have an amazing cover?