Witches of East End

April 25, 2011
De la Cruz leaves Manhattan and her popular YA Blue Bloods series to start fresh on Long Island. Freya Beauchamp, a 19-year-old bartender engaged to a Hamptons society beau but in love with his brother; her sister, Ingrid, a single librarian; and their mother, Joanna Beauchamp, are all witches living together in relative harmony, as they have for several centuries. They have significant powersâraising the dead, flyingâall of which they have been forbidden to use by the White Council after a debacle in 17th-century Massachusetts. As compensation they have gained immortality, but as the story opens, the restrictions placed on them have begun to fray, and they are all "leaking" magic, prompting them to rebel and live true to their natures. The citizens of East End find themselves cured of writer's block, infertility, and skin infections, and generally profiting from the benevolent attentions of the Beauchamps. Then small disturbances become large ones, otherworldly creatures show up, and humans disappear. De la Cruz is a formidable storyteller with a narrative voice strong enough to handle the fruits of her imagination. Even readers who generally avoid witches and whatnot stand to be won over by the time the cliffhanger-with-a-twist-ending hits.

May 1, 2011

First in de la Cruz's debut adult series about the adventures of a family of Long Island witches.

The author, known for her Blue Bloods YA series featuring undead Manhattan debutantes, again does not have to stretch for likely settings—the Hamptons are the ideal home base for the Beauchamps, a mother and two daughters, longtime residents. Quite a longtime in fact—ever since Salem witch hunters hanged the two daughters, Ingrid and Freya, who were later reborn to their mother, Joanna. After Salem, witchly higher-ups restricted the open deployment of magical powers. The Beauchamps are so deep undercover that the community they inhabit, "North Hampton," does not appear on any map. This Hampton is refreshingly devoid of rich people until two brothers, Bran and Killian, arrive to restore Fair Haven, their ancestral mansion. Freya, a bartender, recognizes an ancient soul mate in Bran, and they announce their engagement at a lavish Fair Haven party. Nevertheless, she can't resist shagging preternaturally handsome Killian in the bathroom during the party. Public librarian Ingrid is chafing at the magic ban—with a simple incantation, she could easily cure a distraught co-worker's infertility. Soon Ingrid is exchanging salutary spells for contributions to the library fund. When she's not torn between two lovers, Freya lapses back into her own peculiar brand of magic—her aphrodisiac cocktails perform as advertised. Most daringly of all, Joanna raises a local artist from the dead. But once unleashed, the white magic provokes dark retribution: An undersea miasma is killing off fish and wild life, children are contracting a deadly influenza, vampires (vacationing Blue Bloods?) are infiltrating and the police are "liking" the witches for homicide. But this is secular 21st-century New York, not puritan colonial Massachusetts. Things have changed—haven't they? A decidedly weird mishmash of mythologies, a serpentine plot and a thicket of back stories intertwine as de la Cruz sets up the continuing saga, but it all gels magnificently.

Fantasy for well-read adults.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

June 1, 2011
In YA novelist de la Cruz's adult debut, the Beauchamp family witchesmother Joanna and daughters Freya and Ingridhave lived in the coastal North Hampton, Long Island, for centuries, forbidden to practice magic. Tired of hiding their true natures, all three eventually slip. Freya magically spikes a cocktail to save a marriage, Ingrid does a spell to help a friend conceive, and Joanna makes toys come alive to entertain her housekeeper's child. Soon they're practicing magic as in the old days. When dead animals, missing people, unexplained sickness, and toxic ocean sludge beset their town, however, they face judgment as in the old days, too, unless they discover how the evil is linked to the Gardiner brothers, Bran and Killian. De la Cruz combines witches, vampires, zombies, and Norse mythology in a twisting, fast-paced urban fantasy. Necessary parts of the Beauchamp family's backstory come too late, making some elements of the timeline confusing, but de la Cruz knots the myriad elements together in time to successfully set up what should be a popular series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)