08 September 2011

THE WITCHES OF EAST END by MELISSA DE LA CRUZ





I finished this one on Tuesday. First, I have to say books about witches and magic in modern times really suck me in. I love them. This one was no different. The prologue intrigued me and got me interested right away. After the first 50 pages or so, though, I was afraid this was going to be more a paranormal romance book than urban fantasy, so I was a little apprehensive. I shouldn't have worried, though. The book was neither paranormal romance, nor your typical urban fantasy.

As for the characters, I think the three witches were my favorite characters, but I also really liked Hudson, Ingrid's friend at the library. In fact, my only complaint with the characters is that, other than the 5 really major characters, you really don't get to know any of the others that well. Some of the minor characters seemed like they would have interesting stories in and of themselves and I was a bit disappointed not to get to read more about them. I am hoping that changes in future books, as I am sure this is going to be the beginning of a series.

The story itself is not at all what I expected from the beginning of the book. There is a lot of Norse mythology contained in the story, which I really liked, and there are a couple of plot twists that I did not see coming. I really enjoyed those parts. In fact, I now want to read some Norse mythology to get some background on the information in this book. Any book that makes me want to read more about the subject gets high marks from me.

As for the ending, the epilogue makes it very likely that the author is setting things up for another book, so I figure this is going to be the first in a series. I am definitely looking forward to the next one.