Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz

So in the Blue Bloods series, Melissa de la Cruz created a world where vampires were actually angels of heaven who had fallen. In Witches of East End, she creates a world with witches and their origin stories aren’t revealed to near the end of the book. When I read their origin stories I was kind of shocked because I didn’t really see it coming.

Anyway, so in the town of East End there lives this family of witches; there’s Joanna, the mother, who’s power deals with life, Ingrid, one of Joanna’s daughters, who’s power deals with healing, and Freya, who’s power deals with love. When the book begins, it’s Freya’s engagement party. She’s marrying this guy named Bran Gardiner who met her at a party where she accidentally showed him her boobs. Freya is frantic because she’s met Bran’s brother, Killian, and there’s an attraction there that she can’t find in herself to deny. In fact at her engagement party she and Killian do the deed in the bathroom and that’s just the start of their affair.

Although I really wanted their relationship to be a major plot line in this book, it really isn’t. The major plot line has to deal with the witches and the power that they wield. Apparently, thanks to the Salem Witch Trials, the girls can’t practice their magic or else they will face consequences from the Council. But after centuries of not practicing, the girls start to anyway. Freya makes love potions. Ingrid has mini practice from her job at the library, where she removes silver colored tumors from women who can’t conceive, creates knots to keep men faithful, and anything else that her patients bring to her. Joanna can bring people back from the dead if she decides that it wasn’t their time to go yet.

But something odd is going on in East End. It starts with the silver masses that Ingrid takes out of her friend Tabitha, which somehow start showing up in the ocean. Then a customer that was served one of Freya’s potions goes missing, and the mayor of the town kills himself. All these things are apparently connected, and some begin to point fingers at the witches.

I won’t give away what happens, but whoa! Like I said at the beginning, I didn’t see the witches’ origin stories coming! I shouldn’t have expected anything less from this author though.

Final Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. There were some parts that dragged and the ending felt a little rushed, but otherwise, I really liked these characters – especially Killian – and I loved the cameo appearance by Mimi Force. Talk about a good tie in.

Bookshelf worthy? If only I had the room…