The Serpent's Kiss ~ Review

Title: The Serpent's Kiss (The Beauchamp Family #2)      
Author: Melissa de la Cruz
Source: Library


Goodreads Summary:

Just as things have settled down in the off-the-map Long Island town of North Hampton for the magical Beauchamp family, everything gets turned upside down once more when Freya's twin brother Fryr, or "Freddie" as he's called now, returns from Limbo with shocking news - that it was none other than Freya's fiancé, Killian Gardiner, who set up his downfall.
He begs Freya to keep his presence a secret, even from their own family, but somehow the irascible Freddie is still able to conduct many affairs with the town's young lovelies from his self-imposed exile. Until he falls for the wrong girl.

While Freya tries to keep her brother from exacting revenge on the man she loves, Ingrid has her own problems. Her human boyfriend, Matt Noble, becomes entangled in a complicated investigation, and when the magical creatures at the center of it come to Ingrid for help, she has a difficult choice to make.

To top it off, a dead spirit is trying to make contact with Joanna - but does it mean to harm or warn the witches? All hell breaks loose at the family reunion over Thanksgiving, and much mayhem ensues, but when the culprit behind Freddie's imprisonment is finally revealed, it may already be too late to staunch the poison that's been released by the serpent's kiss. The spells cast by the bestselling Witches of East End continue in this bewitching follow-up that Melissa de la Cruz's many fans won't want to miss.

My thoughts:

This is one of those books you read, and while you are reading it, you enjoy it, but then when its over you don't think about it that much.  It was light and fluffy, a welcome break from any stress.

The book started off poorly in my mind - it was all about sex, and the characters sexual relationships.  I found myself thinking back to the first book and trying to remember if it was as borderline raunchy.  Around the middle of the book, the actual plot began to pick up - but at first I didn't even realize that it was the plot, I guess because the focus in the beginning was off a bit.

We meet up with Joanna, Freya, and Ingrid pretty much where the first book ended. Freya is sleeping with Killian and says she loves him, but yet she doubts him quite a bit. Joanna seems really absentminded and scatty, and Ingrid, my favorite in the first book, was written as frigid.  Then we meet their long lost brother Freddie.  He had been in limbo jail for the crime of destroying the rainbow bridge.  In this book he has escaped from limbo, and is living in a sunken hotel.  I really tried to like his character, but he seemed so stupid!! He is supposed to be a Norse god, but he just seems so dumb. And his mother Joanna is creepily obsessed with him. Ingrid is working on her relationship with Matt the whole book, and dealing with pixies, who were really one of the best parts of the story. Freya's storyline was probably the most complex, but the one I cared the least about.

There were parts I liked though. There was a part where Freya went back in time, and I really liked that part, actually. I like Ingrid, although she was written really strangely.  I think the central mystery was interesting too - I just think it needed to be more prominent and more developed.


I think this is a set up for her next book, which is called The Winds of Salem, and I think if it focuses on the main plot more than relationships, I will probably like it better. This was a fun easy read, but it is not a book I will revisit.