"Witches of East End": The Rare Time the Adaptation is Better than the Original

I honestly stumbled on this book by accident, since, if you've been following me, I've been reviewing quite a few books that have been giveaways. However, I am on a Netflix kick right now and, wouldn't you know it? The complete 2 season run of Witches of East End was on there. 

And I got hooked. 

And it ended on a damn cliffhanger.

And it's cancelled. 

So, the next logical thing to do was to start another show on Netflix to fill the void and to see if the books would bring me the same enjoyment as the series did. 

If you can believe it...I actually like the show more than I like the books. Granted, I watched the series first, but still. The book is good, but, like any adaptation, parts of the book are drastically different than that of the series. The plot in the book was interesting, but I just felt like the show did a better job of giving the audience a story to latch on to. 

In addition, the progression of the book was extremely weird. I can't exactly put my finger on it, but it was as if the author was pulling ideas and explanations out of thin air and just having the characters accept it. There was no real foreshadowing or anything. As the reader you were just like "oh okay, that makes sense" and moving along. It happened way too often which is why it was a red flag to me. 

There's also a thing about where these witches come from that throws you off. You initially believe "oh hey, they're witches" because the book is called WITCHES of East End but they touch on the fact that they might, in fact, be something else. They flip flop between the two so much that I wonder how the characters can even be classified as witches. I don't know, there's no good way to describe it without giving things away. All I know is that I was not this conflicted with the show's explanation. 

If I had to choose between reading the books and watching the show, I recommend just bypassing the novel and going headfirst into the show. The novel just fell flat for me compared to the live adaptation, which drew me in and had me invest in characters (which is why I'm still upset that it got cancelled). However, if you finished the show and still need a witch fix, you should check out this novel. 

This Book is Seriously "Toxic"

*I won this through Goodread's First Read Giveaway*

I should have known to stay away from erotic novels. They're not exactly my cup of tea to begin with, but, what the hell, I thought. Let's delve into this genre. 

Ughhhhhh.

Honestly, it could have been good, but there were entirely too many flaws. Like, for instance, the main two characters are the two must frustrating characters I have ever read in my life. They constantly jump to conclusions and fight and claim that they can't live without the other one blah blah blah. I get enough of this bs in YA novels, I don't want them in my adult novels too. 

The rest of the characters (which there a LOT of) are about as useful as a cardboard cutout. They literally only tell the main character, Phoebe, what she wants to hear and, when they actually tell her useful information, Phoebe blatantly ignores it. 

So...what's the point of these people then? 

The sex scenes were pretty descriptive, but I wouldn't have minded them if they were more realistic. Like they were just going at it the whole time and didn't do anything that would represent a real relationship. Once in a while, Phoebe and Jeremy would have a cute and touching moment but those were few and far between. And then they were getting in their epic fights so it was hard for me to actual WANT them to be together. Friends with benefits? Okay. Boyfriend and Girlfriend? Hell no. 

From a nitpicky standpoint, the paragraph structure was extremely rough. It honestly was mostly single line paragraphs with such unnecessary information that I wondered why the hell it was included in the first place. Like, I do NOT need to read the conversation between Jeremy and the waiter ("What would you like to drink today?" "A coke" "Do you want to see the specials?"). *Not exact quotes but you get the gist. It's annoying.

Overall, the book is only okay. I'm not going to read it again, but if this seems like your thing, more power to you.