An Unsuccessful Serpent's Kiss

Freya, Ingrid, and Joanna are more than just mother and daughters. In fact, they are more than just witches. In the lands that Melissa de la Cruz creates, nothing is ever as it seems. And as the lives of the Witches of East End continues in Serpent's Kiss, it is clear there is more going on than meets the eye.

Joanna is struggling to keep her home together while trying to deal with a budding relationship. Unfortunately, there is something mysterious going on in her house; everything is moved around and things start to go missing. When she finally realizes this may be the act of ghosts seeking her help with cheating death, she knows she must get to the bottom of the message the spirit has let her. The best resource, however, is her ex-husband, who is still pining for her.

Freya has found herself in the middle of her long-lost and recently returned brother and the man she loves and hopes she knows. When her brother Freddie escaped from limbo, he insisted he had been framed for ruining the sacred bridge. He also insisted Killian, Freya's boyfriend, was responsible for his being framed, but that information Freya isn't as anxious to believe. But Freddie insists on revenge, and as gods and goddesses, revenge becomes a much larger issue.

And poor Ingrid, the eternal innocent, has finally found a man she thinks she could open herself up to and love, but nothing seems to go right for her. First a group of pixies kidnap her and insist upon her help. Then she learns her new cop boyfriend doesn't believe in magic. And finally, when everything comes to a head, it looks to be like Ingrid is doomed to repeat the same old cycle she has lived for an eternity.

Together these three women are witches, they are Norse Goddesses, but most importantly, they are a mother and her daughters. Can they come together to solve their problems, or will their problems continue to drive them apart?

I am a little sad to say that I did not like this story as much as I liked the first one. I really liked the story of three witches in a sleepy Long Island beach town, but when the Norse Mythology was injected, it felt like de la Cruz was trying to stuff too much into the story so she didn't really have to focus on doing well with the original premise: the witches. I was sad to see these strange and convoluted story lines taking over this story and crowding out the most interesting part of the series- the three women. And frankly, the whole Freddie thing and this girl he was obsessed with that he met online was just plain silly and distracting. I am sad this series has taken such a wrong turn because I really liked the Blue Bloods series. Still, I will most likely read the last book to see how it ends... and hopefully that road is much more successful than this one was!