Witches of East End (The Beauchamp Family, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Nov 26, 2011 Kristen rated it it was ok

Shelves: paranormal-romance

The first few chapters of Witches of East End, Melissa De La Cruz's (attempt at a) first "adult" series seem promising. We meet three women who, we don't know why, aren't permitted to use their magic. They live in this town where something is clearly different on Long Island.

While we get a few adult scenes they were neither necessary nor well written. The author tried to squish way too much into this series. Not only do we get the close look at the adult scenes (which are disappointing comparat The first few chapters of Witches of East End, Melissa De La Cruz's (attempt at a) first "adult" series seem promising. We meet three women who, we don't know why, aren't permitted to use their magic. They live in this town where something is clearly different on Long Island.

While we get a few adult scenes they were neither necessary nor well written. The author tried to squish way too much into this series. Not only do we get the close look at the adult scenes (which are disappointing comparatively to other authors in the PNR genre - even to authors like Nicole Peeler who sits in the SciFi genre with a tilt towards the adult) but we get a few scenes with Mimi force and the Blue Bloods from that series. Which if you haven't read the Blue Bloods would be awfully confusing because the author clearly assumes the reader knows things about that universe (and I quite a few books ago so I was confused by what Mimi was asking and why). But, then, when we start to find out some of the details of the ladies' story it gets even more confusing. We are told that they are goddesses. But witches. They need wands but are all powerful goddesses? The yggdrassil and Norse mythology is at play behind the story and all the happenings but the potions and workings of witches is how their powers manifest. It was confusing. I think she tried to find a unique take on magic and witches - which isn't a bad idea - but it was too much. Just way too much. And too predictable. That Ingrid's secret partner was her father could be seen almost instantly. That there would be more to Johanna and her husband's split - same thing. Of course that Bran and Killian would be other than what who we thought was also so very apparent. To tell us that the women are stuck since the collapse of the bridge - but not explaining the bridge until 80% through the book was just frustrating. It wasn't clever or motivating or enticing - it was just frustrating. I hate reading a book where my thoughts are "I need to finish just so I can figure out what the hell the author is talking about". Clever and subtle foreshadowing is a different story - that works and makes me want to read more. Here, I just didn't get that. I am also not sure that the Norse mythology that is used is twisted well enough to make the story feel like anything more than a boring - and failed - attempt at a genre that this author might not belong wading into. ...more

Like · see review