**I received an advanced reader's copy of this book from Penguin Random House. This has not affected my review**
Title: Triple Moon
Author: Melissa de la Cruz
Pages: 368 pages
Published: November 10th, 2015
Genre: Fantasy, Magic
Source: ARC from Random House
From the New York Times bestselling author of Blue Bloods and Witches of East End
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 Ingrid to tame them over the summer, before the White Council exiles the girls to Limbo.
Trouble continues to bubble and boil when the girls meet the younger Gardiner boys, who are just as handsome as sexy as their older kin. But all is not as it seems. As Ingrid helps the girls learn to control their magical umpulses, Mardi and Molly have just summer to figure out how to grow up, how to love, and how to be a family.
Get it now!
Plot
We aren't getting enough of supernatural literature that portrays these beings in a serious and non ludicrous way. Every witch book I've read this year has either been too absurd for my liking or it just doesn't have the writing style I'm looking for. Triple Moon is the only exception. If you've never read Melissa de la Cruz's writing before, you should know that it's totally sarcastic and entertaining in a way that's not annoying. She's a masterful storyteller who also has a talent for weaving in several other twists and magical elements.
I took a particular liking to this book with the mention of twin witches, or what I like to call them, twitches. A brief summary of this book would perhaps go like this: Mardi and Molly Overbrook seek refuge in North Hampton with their "aunt" Ingrid after causing some major trouble back home and causing two kids to get hit by a train. The White Council is not happy with their behavior and is afraid that people will start linking the deaths to witchcraft. As Mardi and Molly waste their summers in North Hampton they, in the end, seek the answer they've been looking for that doesn't hold them responsible for the deaths of the two other students and find love in the same place. They may be witches who love to fool around, but they aren't murderers. A truly inspiring tale about how a sibling's bond is stronger than black magic at work. Her plot and synopsis set up for a really riveting story, which I found I couldn't stop reading at any time. I was always so eager to pick back up the book.
She brings deception and lies to a whole new level with characters that have ulterior motives and makes you start to ask yourself, "who can I really trust?"
Characters
I took the opportunity to compare the twins in this book with the actions and personalities of me and my sister because I am indeed a twin, for those who didn't know. It's hard to write about twins if you're not one yourself. I definitely think Melissa de la Cruz did a great job for someone who doesn't have personal experience with being a twin, but at the same time it didn't fit with me as much as it could've. I liked how there was a lot of bickering between Mardi and Molly. That has been established in every sibling relationship. But where is the love? Twins are supposed to share an unshakable bond, and even with all the fighting, they're supposed to get along more than half of the time.
I just didn't get enough of the love. I felt that 80% of the time they were always fighting or sneering and jeering at each other's comments. And it wasn't until the end or the middle that you finally saw the two understanding their bond and reconnecting more than they ever were.
Romance
Melissa's romance is flooding me with all the memories of Jennifer L Armentrout and Gena Showalter. If you're a sucker for Jen's romance, I can assure you that Melissa's is not that far off. She takes sexy to a whole new level with incredibly beautiful witches and mouthwatering male characters.
If you couldn't tell, I adored this book. It's definitely taught me to have a greater appreciation for books about the supernatural, especially because I haven't been taking a liking towards the genre lately. This book has everything you could want from a YA book, and I just hope I'll have the chance to get an advanced copy of the second book (if she so chooses to write one).
And now... a word from Melissa de la Cruz!
Prompt: You've written many books before including The Ring and the Crown, Blue Bloods, and The Witches of East End. How do you write so many books and yet make sure that all of them are unique in their own way? Do you take ideas from a past book you've written and put them in a new one?
Each book I write is a reflection of my current obsessions
and interests. No, I don’t take ideas from past books and put them in new ones.
Because when I’m done with a book, I’m also done with that idea already. I want
to try out new ones.
Some obsessions transform into other similar shapes – for
instance, I love the idea of twins, so I have a lot of twins in my books, from
Jack and Mimi Force to Mardi and Molly Overbrook.
The books are unique because my interests are varied and I
am curious about many things. For Triple Moon, I was interested in exploring a
competitive sisterhood that was different from Ingrid and Freya’s relationship
– with Mardi and Molly, they’re so close so they try to act very differently to
each other as a reaction to each other almost. Mardi is the “rebel” and Molly
is the “princess” but in truth, they’re very similar people. But who you are in
the family is a reaction to your other siblings. My sister and I are very
“different” in that a lot of who she was as a child was a reaction to the role
I already played. I find family dynamics fascinating.
It’s not hard to write many different books when you are
interested in many different things, I feel very lucky that I get to explore my
obsessions in many different books and genres. After writing Blue Bloods, I felt
like I had tapped out the ‘tragic love story’ ‘forbidden love story’ angle with
Jack and Sky, but when I wrote Witches of East End, I realized I had another
twist on it, with Freya and Killian.
As a writer, I totally believe in the idea of play, as
Elizabeth Gilbert describes in “Big Magic” – in that your work means everything
and nothing, and that it is all a game. That’s something I say to my writer
friends all the time “It’s all a game!” You can’t take it seriously. You have
to take your work lightly, in that while you put all your effort and life’s
blood into it, you also have to shrug and let it go.
I had a day job for nine years, I was a computer programmer
and a journalist and a fashion editor, flip-flopping between my steady gig in
corporate America and my freelance gigs in magazines and websites. When I sold
my first novel in 1999, it was the most validating experience in my life. But
after the book sold I was stymied for two years, paralyzed by what I would do
next. When your dreams come true, what happens after? Thankfully I got over it,
took any gig I could, and after two years of nothing I sold five book proposals
– two YA books, 2 nonfiction books and 1 adult novel. The YA career took off
and I published the fun non-fiction books, but I never did publish my second
adult novel that I had sold, I returned the advance and it took ten years to
return to the adult space, and when I did, it was with Witches of East End.
I’m happy to be back in that universe, it’s a fun one based
the time my husband and I had a house in Shelter Island. I hope you enjoy it!
Will you be picking up this book?
