Love Potions, Librarians, and a Tiny Hispanic Boy: Review of Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz

Witches of East End

#1, The Beauchamp Family

Melissa de la Cruz

Adult, 272 pages

I like the cover, but I'm not too sure
why there are pretty red leaves.

This is Melissa de la Cruz's first adult novel, and I LOVED it.  It was fun, but not ridiculous (some of the Blue Bloods kind of weirded me out), it read smoothly, and basically, it was like the perfect truffle- rich but not too big of a serving.  I also liked that although there will be more books about the Beauchamps, this book could be a stand-alone novel.  As in, it's a complete story in one book!  Imagine that!

North Hampton is an old-fashioned coastal town in New York, and three witches live there.  Joanna Beauchamp lives there with her two adult daughters, Ingrid and Freya, and their familiars: a griffin, a raven, and a cat.  Joanna's gift is wisdom, Ingrid's is Hearth, and Freya's gift is love.  Unfortunately, back in the 1600's, the three were told that they could no longer practice magic- they had to live as humans...  So Joanna is a lonely woman, Ingrid works at the local library as an architectural archivist, and Freya is a bartender, engaged to be married to wealthy Bran Gardiner.  Things are going well for the family until Freya's eye is caught by Bran's younger brother at their engagement party.  When Ingrid decides to secretly practice a little magic to help a fellow librarian conceive, things really start to spin out of control, and the events that follow start to look pretty bad for the family.

As I said, this was an excellent novel.  It's advertised as a summer read, and it's really perfect for reading right now, with the end of summer mentality going around.  For me, it's cooler nights, stormy weather, and an air of nostalgia.  Some Blue Bloods characters show up, which is fun, and there is a heavy infusion of Norse mythology, particularly at the end.  It's also refreshing to read the first book in a paranormal series where the paranormal beings already know about their powers!  All three main characters are engaging and likeable.  Joanna is a very motherly figure, and her affection for her housekeeper's young son is endearing.  Ingrid, who might have an unrequited crush, has a sincere desire to help others, and Freya's passion for love and life is energizing and sexy.  My favorite part is when Freya starts to mix up love potions at her bar- I love fancy drinks, and magical ones sound even better!

I'd recommend this to older fans of Blue Bloods- I like this book better, and it's got a positive energy flowing through it. I'm looking forward to the next book!

Review of The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan

The Throne of Fire

The Kane Chronicles, Book Two

Rick Riordan

May 2011

Sadie and Carter are aboard the sun boat.
Ra's throne is glowing behind them!
You can also see creepy scarabs at the bottom...

In Book One of the The Kane Chronicles, The Red Pyramid, we meet totally awesome brother and sister Carter and Sadie Kane.  Carter has spent his life traveling the world with his father, who is an Egyptologist.  Sadie lives with their grandparents in England, because, sadly, their mom died when they were young.  When something goes terribly wrong and their father disappears, Sadie and Carter are taken by their uncle, and they discover that they are descended from two lines of pharaohs- and they are Egyptian magicians!  They work together to save the world, but learning about their new life is full of challenges in unexpected places.

In Book Two, Carter and Sadie again have to save the world- this time from the rise of Apophis, an evil snake (aka Chaos), and to do this, they must find the sun god Ra, who hid himself away long ago.  A host of fun trainees (including a cool healer named Jaz and a charm-maker named Walt) and a very strange god who smells like curry help them out, but ultimately it comes down to Carter and Sadie to get the job done.

While I enjoyed Book One, Book Two is really excellent.  The Throne of Fire has a faster pace, and I really enjoyed the adventure that the kids go on.  There are also several intriguing subplots, including Walt's secret, Sadie's crush triangle (try competing for a girl with a god!), and Carter's anxious search for Zia, which provide a change of pace from the main story.  I also like the switch off on narration between Sadie and Carter.  As usual for one of Riordan's books, there is a lot of humor- the god Bes is quite entertaining- just wait until you read about how he scares away demons! 

Here is a quote that I particularly enjoyed: "Our camels plodded along.  Katrina tried to kiss, or possibly spit on Hindenburg, and Hindenburg farted in response.  I found this a depressing commentary on boy-girl relationships."  Too true.

There is really nothing that I would change about this book, except I was really sad when it ended! The ending definitely makes you eager for Book Three to come out (2012!!).  I recommend this series to readers who enjoyed Percy Jackson, readers who are curious about Egyptology, and readers in 6th-9th grade- appealing to both boys and girls.

For more information, see The Kane Chronicles website here!

Review of Abandon (or My Love for Authoritative Boyfriends)

When I reserved Abandon at the library, it was only because it was a Meg Cabot book.  I actually knew nothing about the plot, but as you can easily tell from my blog, I am a little bit obsessed with MC, and have been since I was about 15.

Abandon is the first book in the story of high school student Pierce Oliviera (loosely based on the myth of Persephone).  I don't want to spoil the mystery that surrounds the first chapters of the book, so I will just say that Pierce is recovering from a NDE (near death experience) and a subsequent disastrous event, referred to at first as "the incident."  As a result of her bizarre behavior following and surrounding these events, Pierce is asked to leave her prestigious all-girls school. She moves with her mother to her mom's hometown on Isla Huesos, based on Key West, where she is expected to start high school.  Little did Pierce know that she had escaped from one dangerous situation into another even more dangerous one.

This book is full of action- very fast-paced.  It reminds me of Rick Riordan's writing (appropriate given the subject matter!) in that it moves quickly between scenes, no pages of descriptions or long transitions to flip through.  The beginning is so mysterious that I couldn't put it down until I made it about halfway.  It was fortunate that there was sort of a gap between the mystery and the climactic action so I could get some work done, because once I picked it up a second time, there was no stopping.

I give this book 4/5 stars, which on my rating scale means that PERSONALLY I loved it, but I am not sure if it is for everyone.  I would definitely recommend giving it a shot, this book is dark and delicious and surprisingly romantic.  The male protagonist (or is he?) is a perfect combination of Mr. Darcy, Michael Moscovitz, and Will Herondale- old-fashioned, sexy, demanding, and tortured. LOVE IT!!  I've been rereading the PD series, and Mia goes on and on about how she likes it when Michael is bossy (me too ;D), so I laughed when I realized that MC had created this amazing fantasy character whom Mia would swoon for.

Anyways, the ending was epic (shoutout to Jade!), and I can't wait for book 2, Underworld.

Check out MC's guest post on blog Presenting Lenore!