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Witches Of East End (2011)

by Melissa de la Cruz(Favorite Author)

3.5 of 5 Votes: 1

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Disney-Hyperion

series

The Beauchamp Family

review 1: Once I got past the initial paragraph of description, which was two sentences long but took up most of the page, things were on the up. The book focuses on sisters Freya and Ingrid and their mother Johanna, who are all witches but trying to live a magic free life in the East Hamptons. They are banned from using magic but we never find out why or what the back-story is until much later in the book, so in my view a lot of this just doesn't work.It doesn't take long before mysterious happenings start to occur and all three start to use magic to "fix" situations and people. There's an environmental crisis, a suicide, affairs, infertility issues, a sick kid, a man in a coma and even murder. The early part of the book feels disjointed, unsure of what it wants to be. The writing ... morestyle has a very YA feel to it, but then out of the blue we have a few sex scenes thrown in. It made me feel uncomfortable was I wasn't expecting it (I am no prude I assure you) and with references to Freya passing for 17, it felt a bid odd. Her sister, Ingrid, on the other hand is the stereotype of the prissy librarian which is a shame. She has the potential to be a more interesting character than Freya but I don't feel this opportunity was used to its fullest. The same is true for Johanna, the mother.I preserved with the book and it wasn't bad exactly, it was just...odd. The plot bumbled along until it was at the 50% mark and then bizarrely, lots of exposition and subplots were thrown in. Suddenly, vampires and even a zombie were shoe horned in, followed by some fast and loose interpretation of Viking mythology. I found the whole thing very confusing. Towards the end, it felt as if De La Cruz was running out of her word count but wanted to ram in as much as possible. Again this very much feels "shoe horned" in, making it clunky and out of place. Loki, Ragnarök and a host of Norse characters and myths all make an appearance with very little context built into the plot overall.I don't often give a "bad" review as I can usually appreciate the merit of a book even if I don't like it. I can still give five stars to a book I didn't enjoy as I can appreciate that its well written, it's just not to my taste. Perhaps if I was reading this on a beach somewhere or relaxing by a pool, I'd have enjoyed it more, as on holiday I can pretty much read anything, but sadly this was not the case. It's not without merit. Much of the characterisation is fairly well done and I very much got a sense for the places and locations. If you strip back the story there is some really good stuff here but it's a bit of a jumble I'm afraid.
review 2: It's a good book, it really is but I think I ruined it for myself by watching the first season on Netflix! I fell in love with the TV show and then was crushed that the book barely resembled it. Silly me, we all know that's how it usually is!In and of itself the book is a good read. It slightly resembles the show, or maybe it's the other way around. ;-) Once I could separate the two it became a much better experience! I'm excitedly anticipating the sequel. :-) less

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