By Melissa De La Cruz

Reviewed by Miranda Boyer

Like many other fans of Witches of East End television show I was super disappointed to hear that it hadn’t been picked up yet for another season. If it was going to end then it could have been wrapped up at the very least. Instead the show left us in a gripping moment, begging for more.

To help ease that sense of empty that now sits as I fruitlessly hope some by miracle my show will continue for a third season, I needed to fill the void. But how to do that?? Surprise!!!! Witches of East End is a book! The funny thing is that I actually owned it but hadn’t put two and two together yet. My copy was shuffled around behind a few other books and in my never-ending ‘to-read’ pile.

It should come as no great surprise that the show and the book are quite a bit different. The discrepancy list is long however I’m no stranger to this plight and am quite capable of appreciating each version individually.

The novel, Witches of East End, is about the Beauchamp family who live in a fictional East Hampton. Freya Beauchamp is the plucky wild younger sister of the family who has fallen in love very quickly with the new and powerful neighbor. Ingrid Beauchamp is the older sister, a little wiser, quieter, and a bit bookish. Joanna is their mother and these three powerful women are a force to be reckoned with. They are after all, thousands of years old witches. Their magic has been restricted for the last five hundred years or so, but that isn’t stopping them from having a little fun. Until too much fun, causes too much trouble, and people are dead (or maybe zombies?) and missing. Was it something they did? Was it Killian, the estranged brother of Freya’s fiancé? Was it some other dark powerful force come to haunt our witches after the gates to their home world closed? I suppose you’ll have to read it to find out.

All in all, I enjoyed this book. It was an easy read and because I knew the background via the television show, I wasn’t disappointed with the directions it took. I was quite surprised at the end. Without giving anything away the author takes the book to a place I hadn’t anticipated. There is sort of an old school mystery reveal all ending to the book. I don’t know that I liked that too much. I felt like the book could have continued a little longer instead of tying everything up with a bow in one last chapter. I am going to order the next book in this series, as I enjoyed it enough despite the ending. I still don’t feel like I’ve gotten my fill of Beauchamp women just yet.