Review: Serpent's Kiss by Melissa De La Cruz

Summary/Cover Image from Author's Website:

The intriguing Beauchamp family, introduced in the New York Times bestselling Witches of East End, returns in Serpent’s Kiss, with dizzying plot twists and spellbinding magic.

Joanna and her daughters, bookish Ingrid and wild-child Freya, are just settling into the newfound peace that has been cast over their small, off-the map town of North Hampton. With the centuries-old restriction against practicing magic lifted, casting spells, mixing potions, and curing troubled souls has never felt so good for the three witches. That is, until everything gets turned upside down--from Joanna’s organized kitchen to Ingrid’s previously nonexistent love life to Freya’s once unshakeable faith in her sexy soul mate, Killian Gardiner.

When Freya’s twin brother, Freddie, suddenly returns, escaped from Limbo and professing innocence on a long-ago crime, Freya should be ecstatic. The golden boy can do no wrong. Or can he? Freddie blames no other than her fiancé Killian for his downfall, and enlists Freya’s help to prove it. Now Freya doesn’t know who to believe or trust.

And for the first time in--well, forever, really--Ingrid is also busy in love. Matt Noble, the handsome and charming police detective, has won her heart. But can romance work between a virgin witch and a mortal who doesn’t believe in magic? Things get even more complicated when it appears Ingrid is harboring the prime suspects in Matt’s police investigation.

To add to the chaos, a dead spirit is attempting to make contact with Joanna--but does it mean to bring harm or help? Joanna asks her sort-of ex-husband Norman to help figure it out, only to accidentally invite him to a Thanksgiving dinner with a dapper gentleman she’s recently begun dating.

As the witches pull together to discover the serpent within their midst and the culprit behind Freddie’s imprisonment, everything is thrown into peril. Will the discovery come too late to save those they love most?

Melissa de la Cruz weaves all this and more in a blockbuster sequel that is not to be missed by her fans, and one that is sure to enchant new readers of the series.

Review:

After reading and adoring Witches of East End, the prequel to the Serpent's Kiss, I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next to Freya, Joanna, and Ingrid. Therefore, when the chance finally arose to read Serpent's Kiss, I jumped at it. However, while I did enjoy Serpent's Kiss well enough, it didn't hold the same charm and intrigue that its prequel did unfortunately.

The topic of witches and magic are one of my favorite paranormal subjects, which makes the fact that there's so little books and series about them all the more sad. However, with this series, Melissa De La Cruz always offers up some fun magic filled drama, and that rang true for Serpent's Kiss. It was exciting to see Freya, Joanna, and Ingrid using their magic once again even though it often spelled trouble for most people involved. I also enjoyed seeing more development into the world in which they lived. New characters were introduced (my favorite being the pixies...they were so sly and funny!) and new plot twists involving the present as well as the past were addressed. The way Melissa incorporated the Salem Witch Trials into the book was also well done, and I especially liked how I learned some new things in the process.

The characters, however, is one place where this novel fell a little flat. Don't get me wrong, I like Ingrid, Joanna, and Freya, but for some reason, I just had the hardest of times connecting to them in this book. I don't know if it was the third person viewpoints used (which didn't bother me at all in the first book) or how naive they were at times, but something was array for most of the book, in my opinion. However, as the novel progressed, everything started to get a little better in that area, so hopefully, I won't have this problem with the next book.

The other part of this novel I had problems with was the slow set up. A big portion of the book was just set up for the second half, and it oftentimes caused me to lose interest in what I was reading. I just wanted to get to the action. Plus, a lack of action was often caused by the characters unwillingness to work with the others, which annoyed me to no end. However, everything started to turn around in the end, as the tension built and the big finale occurred. I was happy about this, but at the same time, it was just a little too late.

In all, while Serpent's Kiss did have it's problems, it was still a decent book. However, I'm hoping the next book (Winds of Salem) will restore the charm and promise the first book held.

Grade: B- 

Serpent's Kiss (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads) is now out!

Source: finished copy provided by publicity firm for review