Sony Luvs Books

I first became entranced with the Beauchamp witches after Witches of East End though witches aren’t my preferred fictional entity. I did like Freya for her in your face ways and Ingrid who was the total opposite, and reminded me a little of myself. Joanna the mother read like the kind of mother most girls wish to have, but didn’t. So right way three reason for me to read Serpent’s Kiss other then the awesome sauce of a cover. That suggested intrigue and promised much good reading.Where to start? Okay how about the plot there are lot of threads in the story leading to different places. Freya and her twin Freddie who just broke out of god jail, limbo accusing her lover of framing him. Right there conflict. Ingrid falls for a mortal and sabotages herself every chance she gets we see heartache and the motions of first love, Romance. Then there are all the strange occurrences and the uneasy sense that something is not right, Intrigue. This should be the happiest time in the women’s lives the restriction on magic has been lifted. Love for both daughters old and new and even mama, Joanne is getting in on a piece of the action. So why does everything feel like it could fall apart any second. I loved all those elements of the plot. I think that captures the best essence of Serpent’s Kiss.Moving on to characters. Well there is some character development though not much. Freya is still Freya and Ingrid has made small steps to live more by taking a chance with human detective Matt Noble, but she still reverts back to old hermit habits. The new faces such as Freddie, the guardians, the pixies and so on is welcomed flavor. But my only complaint with Freddie’s story arc is I wish to see Freddie do more activity, than just veg-ging out playing video games and hooking up with college girls. But doing some skulking in the shadows looking for evidence to prove his innocence he keeps professing. Instead of basically threatening Freya into to helping him. I wanted to see some glimpses of their twin connection that they once shared understandably atrophied by five thousand years in limbo.The story as a whole just didn’t come together fully formed there were cracks that fissured through out the story. For instance the mash up of POV of the characters. From chapter to chapter would have been a nice element if the transitions was better. When I first started reading my reaction was I thought I missed something, not a god sign. Off putting at first but not a deal breaker you get use to POV swap as you continue to read. Some action sequences seemed to written for the sake of it that didn’t serve a real purpose. E.g Joanne going off to limbo and nothing happens. And the “oh I just remembered something” syndrome just when it was convenient for the story only works twice at the most anymore and you’re insulting the readers intelligence. So that when a revaluation was made it felt cheap and unearned.Writers are suppose to show you. In this case why Freddie is suppose to be so powerful everyone believes he destroyed the bridge he must have the juice for it or else why would the believe. Telling doesn’t convey as well as showing and if you’ve read or taken any courses on writing you’ll understand that term. Would you believe someone if he tells you something e.g. “hey baby I can rock your world” what’s your first reaction–disbelief right. Until he shows you he can rock your world, and does. Sorry writer de la Cruz there’s more telling than showing in Serpent’s Kiss so a lot of belief in the characters and the story gets lost. Which in turn equals to a lost of interest in story itself and reading the book.I can not describe in words how much I wanted to fall in love and gush gush about Serpent’s Kiss. I really really wanted to be blown away.I wanted to feel that excitement you know what I’m talking about. When you get so caught up in a book that you read it while crossing the street (true story I have done that I don’t recommend it). I was hoping to feel some of that while reading Serpent’s Kiss, but it was missing that kick in the pants readers experience when a book is so good they just can’t put down until the end. Save for only the call of nature (bathroom break) could tear them away. For me, that was the most disappointing. The let down because I guess I had my expectations too high, which I don’t normally do. Serpent’s Kiss has been on my TBR for awhile now. Still for all the flaws and the good I gave Serpent’s Kiss a three and half out of five.