Triple Moon Review

TITLE: Triple Moon (Summer on East End)
AUTHOR: Melissa de la Cruz
PUBLISHER: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
PUBLISHING DATE: November 10, 2015

FROM GOODREADS: After they cause a terrible accident at their old high school, twin witches Mardi and Molly Overbrook are sent to live with their "Aunt" Ingrid Beauchamp in North Hampton, on Long Island's mist-shrouded East End.  Because the twins cannot control their powers, their father begs Infrid to tame them over the summer, before the White Council exiles the girls to Limbo.

Trouble begins to bubble and boil when the girls meet the younger Gardiner boys, who are just as handsome and sexy as their older kin.  But all is not as it seems.  As Ingrid helps the girls learn to control their magical impulses, Molly and Mardi have just this summer to figure out how to grow up, how to love, and how to be a family.

MY THOUGHTS:  I have read the first Witches of East End book and really enjoyed it.  I planned on continuing with the remainder of the series, but time passed and I never got around to it.  However, I did catch the 2 years Lifetime carried the series and thought it was a pretty good adaptation. Needless to say, I was sorry it was abruptly canceled.  When I saw Cruz was releasing a young adult book in the same world, I jumped at the chance to read it.  I was afraid that it would be a difficult transition, but it really wasn't and this book made me realize how much I missed the atmosphere and the witches who inhabit the quaint little town of East End.

Mardi and Mandy Overbrook are the twin daughters of Thor.  They attend private school in New York and use their witchy powers to play tricks and wreck all kinds of havoc.  When two classmates end up dead, Mardi and Molly are suspected and are sent away to East End for the summer in the hopes that the White Council will not decide to shut down all witch activities around the world due to their actions.  While on East End, the twins stay with Ingrid and Freya Beauchamp, family friends of Thor.

I really liked the mystery elements of this novel and felt it was very well written.  The characters are well developed and it was nice to see some familiar faces.  As always, the small town is pertinent to the things which take place in the book and Cruz has a way of making you remember what you didn't realize you were missing,  While this was a young adult book, I believe it could easily be enjoyed by adults as well as the plot and interaction was complex and captivating.  I will have to admit that at times I felt Mardi and Molly were quite annoying, especially Molly.  Although both quite different, they had a severe sense of entitlement and I really can't describe Molly in any other terms other than
"bratty."  Luckily, the book alternated between Mardi and Molly's perspectives which made the book easier for me to read and like.  Also, Freya and Ingrid played the voices of reason from time to time, and anyone who knows anything about Freya, knows how shocking that sentence alone is.

If you have ever visited the town if East End, whether it be in books or on TV, this book is a good transition back into that world.  As a bonus, there is a short story at the end which wraps up neatly the huge cliffhangers left by the TV series.  I was not aware of this going in, but was pleasantly surprised to stumble upon it at the end.  Witches are one of my favorite supernatural creatures and this book did not disappoint.

Thanks to Penguin First to Read for my ARC.  I received it in exchange for an honest review.

RATING: 4 PAWS