Witches of East End

Witches of East End

By: Melissa de la Cruz

Disney - Hyperion

Published: June 21st, 2011

Acquisition: Library

Summary: 

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.

With a brand-new cast of characters, a fascinating and fresh world to discover, and a few surprise appearances from some of the Blue Blood fan favorites, this is a page-turning, deliciously fun, magical summer read fraught with love affairs, witchcraft, and an unforgettable battle between good and evil.

My Review:

The Witches of East End is an addictingly fun book to read and I didn't want to put it down. The sisters are incredibly different from one another, like yin and yang. Freya is more free-spirited and emotional than her serious and aloof sister Ingrid. It allows the reader to connect with a similar soul and relate to the book more. I frequently see pairings like that, allowing the extrovert to find their favourite character in one and the introvert in the other.

Generally, this book is suitable for teens and adults but there were a few sections that I don't know I would want a teenager to read. To make this book more accessible, I would have mentioned that the two characters were having sex, without vaguely describing a few of the things that were happening. It was just a little too explicit to want to recommend to teens. In young adult novels, the act may occur but that is usually the extent of what you read.

The plot was enjoyable overall, if not entirely well thought out. I found myself on Chapter 41 and enjoying the novel. Suddenly, the entire plot was thrown on its side, scrambled up, and shoved into a 30-second Norse Mythology book. It seems as if the author just wanted to get all of her thoughts and storylines into the book... in the last 30 pages. Thus far it had been relatable and realistic, despite the fact that zombies, demons, fallen angels/vampires, and witches were in the book. Those last 30 pages were completely rushed and confusing. The characters come to incredible conclusions with almost no prompting, secrets are revealed, and the threads that were woven within the story are just conveniently put in their place. The ending completely threw me, not because of the mythology (as I love mythology and understood the roots/stories she pulled from) but because it wasn't well written. The book would have been much more appealing if the final 30 pages were explained and fleshed out in another novel. It seemed to rushed, like the author saw she had written over 230 pages and needed to get everything out before she ran out of her 270 page allotment.

Despite the decent world building and character development, as well as the rushed ending, I really enjoyed reading the book. I recommend it to readers who enjoy mythology, fantasy, stories about witches, but particularly to older teen readers or people in their twenties.

Verdict: Take A Chance!

Star Rating:

Frozen

Frozen (Heart of Dread, Book 1)

By: Melissa de la Cruz
and Michael Johnston

Putnam Juvenile

Published: September 17th, 2013

Acquisition: Net Galley















Summary:

From New York Times bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston comes this remarkable first book in a spellbinding new series about the dawn of a new kind of magic.

Welcome to New Vegas, a city once covered in bling, now blanketed in ice. Like much of the destroyed planet, the place knows only one temperature—freezing. But some things never change. The diamond in the ice desert is still a 24-hour hedonistic playground and nothing keeps the crowds away from the casino floors, never mind the rumors about sinister sorcery in its shadows.

At the heart of this city is Natasha Kestal, a young blackjack dealer looking for a way out. Like many, she's heard of a mythical land simply called “the Blue.” They say it’s a paradise, where the sun still shines and the waters are turquoise. More importantly, it’s a place where Nat won’t be persecuted, even if her darkest secret comes to light.

But passage to the Blue is treacherous, if not impossible, and her only shot is to bet on a ragtag crew of mercenaries led by a cocky runner named Ryan Wesson to take her there. Danger and deceit await on every corner, even as Nat and Wes find themselves inexorably drawn to each other. But can true love survive the lies? Fiery hearts collide in this fantastic tale of the evil men do and the awesome power within us all.

My Review:

The story Frozen, by Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston, is a tale about a girl with powers who lives in a world unlike our own. In post-apocalyptic New Vegas, Nat fins the one object that might allow her to escape the frozen landscape. The map to help her find the Blue, a promised land untainted by the cold and destruction her world knows. A place that maybe she can live a good life and not spend each day fearful that she will be discovered.
For an established YA writer, this book is surprisingly wrought with errors and would make an English major cringe. It was a poorly written novel with a multitude of punctuation, grammar, and spelling errors. Those completely detracted from the book and made it difficult to read the novel fluidly. There was an overuse of commas, "For days upon days she had been left in the room, alone, in total silence, with little food and water, the weight of solitude becoming ever more oppressive, the silence a heaviness that she could not shake, punishment for refusing to do as she was told, punishment for being what she was." I ran out of breath just reading that incredibly long, run on sentence. It also illustrates another example, the banal repetitiveness. Some examples would be, "She walked down the road, the road that was smooth." Or "The fire that raged within her. The fire that destroyed and consumed. The fire that would destroy and consume her..." How many times does one need to write the fire? Many of the sentences are just reworded versions of the one that came before it. Unnecessarily repetitive and it makes the book sound like a novice writer threw it together in a slap-dash manner with no editor to speak of.

It also cannot decide what genre it wishes to fall under. The magical elements and new species lend itself to a label of fantasy, like books about faeries or nymphs. Paranormal romance perhaps, for the love story that blossoms over the course of the novel? Or the more recently popular zombie novels, with their diseases and alterations of the human dNA, like Forest of Teeth and Bones? Perhaps its a post-apocalyptic or dystopian style novel, akin to Divergent or the Hunger Games - with its frozen world, scarce resources, and tyrannical governments. Whatever it is, the fact that it cannot decide makes the book quite confusing. It does not flow well as a result of the colliding and conflicting worlds. There also is no world-building, which is incredibly important to me in a book. And character building, or even character personalities? Almost non-existent.

I would recommend this book to young teen readers, but not anyone who finds themselves frequently noticing errors in novels (even minor ones)as this will drive you crazy. I almost didn't finish the first chapter because the book was so poorly written, but I wanted to see if it would improve.

Verdict: Skip
Star Rating: