Rating - ⭐⭐
"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."
Witches of East End is the first novel in The Beauchamp Family, a fantasy novel by Melissa de la Cruz.
This one is going to be less of a review and more like a mini-review (or rant, it is a rant). So let's just get into it, shall we?
This book is...not great. I remember watching the first season of the show when it came out, but had no idea it was a book. I wouldn't have picked this up if I wasn't reading it for something, and that would have been the smart decision.
You know how when you read a book written by a male author and can tell he has absolutely no idea how to write about women, I got the same vibes about this book except that she is actually a woman. I don't know how she managed to write about someone of the same genre that badly. For example, she initially describes Freya very sexually, using the word ripe in one instance (which ew), and said that no one would ever forget her breasts.
At one point she also just wrote like she was trying to shove in as many eloquent words she could find in the dictionary into one sentence. The sentence in question being - "She was possessed of an arresting, effervescent beauty rare in a time when emancipated mannequins were the zenith of female pulchritude". Nobody actually talks like that.
Then there is Freya in general. First of all, she is 19 and engaged which...okay. Second of all, she cheats on her fiance with his brother and chalks it up to her just slipping up which, no. I am not here for the catalyst of a relationship to be cheating and ignorance, no thank you.
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