Winds of Salem

July 1, 2013
A family of witches travels through time to rescue one of their own in the third novel in the Witches of East End series. In 1692 Salem, Mass., witch Freya Beauchamp wakes up with no memory of who (or what) she is. While working as a maid, Freya begins to piece together her memories and explore her supernatural powers, as she is wooed by dashing Salem newcomer Nathaniel Brooks. Meanwhile, in present-day North Hampton, Long Island, Freya’s mother, sister, brother, and boyfriend are searching for a way to rescue her from Salem, where they know she has been sent to die at the hands of a witch hunt. In an adventure that takes the Beauchamps across centuries and to the underworld and back, Freya and her family fight to save one another from malevolent forces, facing challenges and sacrifice along the way. De la Cruz taps into a confusing web of mythologies to populate this follow-up to Witches of East End and Serpent’s Kiss, and the book’s compelling Salem scenes are bright spots amid a disorganized larger narrative. Bursts of action are sometimes lost in a muddle of superfluous backstory, and between these two extremes, de la Cruz struggles to find her footing. Agent: Richard Abate, 3Arts Entertainment.

July 1, 2013
In the third installment of de la Cruz's Witches of East End series, the Beauchamp family must rescue one of their number from being hanged as a witch--again. When we last left the Beauchamps, who are not only witches, but also Norse deities, the escape of Joanna Beauchamp's long-lost son Freddie (Fryr) from limbo was causing all manner of repercussions, not least the whisking of daughter Freya (goddess of love) back to Salem just in time for the notorious witch trials. When Freya awakens in 1692 Salem, she has no memory of her past (or future). An apparent orphan, she is taken as an indentured servant into the household of Thomas Putnam, the sanctimonious and scheming farmer who was the prime mover of the witch trials. Freya soon discovers she has magical powers, very helpful in getting the endless round of Puritan women's work done. Freya's eternal beloved, Killian (the god Balder), appears in the guise of an eligible bachelor, whose good looks have also attracted Freya's fellow servant and fickle friend, Mercy. Crazed by jealousy, Mercy reveals that she witnessed Freya causing cows to milk themselves and potatoes to self-harvest. Then Mercy joins the attention-seeking teenage girls whose feigned mass hysteria dooms so many accused Salem witches. Meanwhile, in the present, Freya's family works feverishly to find a way to interrupt the witch hunt. Her parents, Joanna (Earth goddess Skadi) and Nord, aka Norman, were warned by an Oracle that although Freya, along with her sister Ingrid (hearth goddess Erda), was reincarnated after being hanged at Salem, Freya will not return to Midgard (Earth) if executed a second time. Though an introductory summary and a family tree help to keep these complex relationships, worlds and dual identities straight, too many subplots and characters, not to mention the increasingly impenetrable Norse arcana, draw focus away from the more coherent and compelling Salem plotline. Some readers may struggle to pay attention.

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