Something Wicked This Way Comes | “Witches of East End” Review (The Beauchamp Family, #1)

Cynthia Ayala ’16 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer
By: Melissa de la Crux
Published: June 21, 2011
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Series: The Beauchamp Family
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, (Young) Adult
The three Beauchamp women—Joanna and her daughters Freya and Ingrid—live in North Hampton, on the tip of Long Island. Their beautiful, mist-shrouded town seems stuck in time, and all three lead seemingly quiet and uneventful existences. But they are harboring a mighty secret—each is a powerful witch banned from using her magic.
Joanna can resurrect the dead and heal serious injuries; Ingrid, her bookish daughter, can predict the future and weave knots that solve anything from infertility to infidelity; and wild child Freya’s potions and charms can cure any heartache. For centuries, all three have been forced to suppress their abilities. However as their lives become complicated and as disastrous events occur in their little town, they dust off their wands in order to battle the dark forces working against them.
Melissa de la Crux usually hooks any reader. She establishes a plot with captivating characters and puts amazing detail into a story. Unfortunately, Witches lacked these efforts. Despite Cruz’s attempt to step away from the young adult genre, this particular novel is more juvenile than her famous Blue Bloods series.
Although the witches can be killed and have died before, girls are reborn to the same mother and father, both of whom are witches. Each of them age until the year that best reflects who they truly are. Freya remains a girl in her prime, exhibiting her free-spirited side when it comes to love. At one point, her mother calls her the Goddess of Love, and boy, does Cruz emphasize that, likening her sexuality to that of Aphrodite. Explicit and often gratuitous sex affairs are central to the plot, detracting from the story’s charm and putting it on the trashier side.
The prologue was captivating, mysterious, and thought-provoking, but the book subsequently falls short.  While Cruz stakes so much in the explicit scenes, she misses otherwise crucial specifics throughout. At one point the reader realizes that the couple is not alone, but rather that a crowd surrounds them, and then a sex scene immediately follows. In Cruz’s pitiful attempt to branch out, she has forgotten that impromptu sex scenes don’t make a story captivating, but rather that good characters and story do.
While the story sets up a mysterious magic poisoning their town, the ending falls flat. It’s an anti-climactic bore, and what follows comes off as a meager attempt at encouraging fans (if any) and readers to pick up the next book.  None of Cruz’s usual charm and skill shows in this piece, and for fans of her work, it’s a disappointing read.  ★★☆☆☆ (D)