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Serpent & Dove (Serpent & Dove, #1)

Shelby Mahurin

Start date: November 19, 2022

Finish date: December 19, 2022

Discussion: Buddy Reads 2022

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What Members Thought

Oct 10, 2019 Laura ☾ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy

Finished re-read on Audio - Still loved this! And while I liked the narration, I was disappointed that *that* song was not actually sung!

★★★★★5 stars!

I loved this so much - this was definitely one of my favourite books of the year! I'm surprised it actually lived up to the hype for me!

'There are some things that can’t be changed with words. Some things have to be seen. They have to be felt.‘

Serpent and dove is creepy, eerie and brilliant! Set in an alternate, French-inspired world, witches a Finished re-read on Audio - Still loved this! And while I liked the narration, I was disappointed that *that* song was not actually sung!

★★★★★5 stars!

I loved this so much - this was definitely one of my favourite books of the year! I'm surprised it actually lived up to the hype for me!

'There are some things that can’t be changed with words. Some things have to be seen. They have to be felt.‘

Serpent and dove is creepy, eerie and brilliant! Set in an alternate, French-inspired world, witches are portrayed as malicious , wicked, inflicting pain and death, divided into several covens such as Dames Blanches (who practice magic through threads and connections) and the Dames Rouges (blood witches). All of them are hunted by 'the Church', which also seems like a highly dogmatic, cultish organisation.

Best friends Lou (a Dame Blanche) and Coco (a Dame Rouge) are ‘former’ witches in hiding, who get by as thieves. Reid is a Chasseur , a ‘holy man’ who hunts witches. Through a heist gone wrong, Reid and Lou unwittingly end up married.

The language used is witty and crass, and took some getting used to in the beginning, however really grew on me throughout the book, and I absolutely adored the Banter between Lou and Reid! I've seen a lot of people compare them to Nina and Matthias, and it is so accurate! I also enjoyed that the POV switches between the two, so we really get into both their heads, and get to watch them both grow and develop!

While I loved both Lou and Reid, the secondary characters, such as Coco and Ansel really got to shine as well! Mahurin creates engaging characters, with believable relationships, emotions and character development! All the relationships had a nice build-up and development, they didn’t emerge out of nowhere like is often the case!

It's especially interesting watching especially Lou struggling to find her place, because she doesn't agree with the black and white ideas of cultish indoctrination and dogma promoted by the Covens and the Church respectively, and the prejudice and judgment that accompany the two!

Serpent and Dove's magical system is unique and complex, and unlike most I have read about (but don’t want to include spoilers here so I won't delve too far into that!). My one criticism of this book is that there could have been more world building!

The plot twists in this book were so brilliantly executed that they blindsided even me (and I usually guess what's going to happen before it does far before it happens in books)!

I NEED THE SEQUEL RIGHT NOW! ...more

55 likes · Like · see review

Apr 08, 2020 Jamie (TheRebelliousReader) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-on-my-kindle, completed-series, for-a-challenge, 3-stars, young-adult, was-expecting-more, e-book, fantasy, look-at-the-pretty-cover, romance

3 stars. This review ended up being longer than what I planned but here we are. No turning back now.

The beginning half of this was great and pulled me in immediately but then the entire middle section bored me to tears and I thought for sure this would end up being a book I wouldn’t enjoy but then the ending came around and saved it a little bit.

I like Mahurin’s writing. It’s impressive for a debut novel and the story itself is quite ambitious. I will say though that the way the characters spea 3 stars. This review ended up being longer than what I planned but here we are. No turning back now.

The beginning half of this was great and pulled me in immediately but then the entire middle section bored me to tears and I thought for sure this would end up being a book I wouldn’t enjoy but then the ending came around and saved it a little bit.

I like Mahurin’s writing. It’s impressive for a debut novel and the story itself is quite ambitious. I will say though that the way the characters speak and act is very modern and kept pulling me out of the story. It also doesn’t read like a fantasy but more like a contemporary which was kinda odd. This didn’t have to be placed in the 17th century because the author does nothing of significance with the era except for the witch burning thing but even that was lackluster. The world building and the magic system were pretty much nonexistent which made figuring out how everything worked a hassle. This book is 500 pages, definitely more than enough pages to flesh those things out but I get that the romance was the main focal point, not all of that other stuff.

Also, Lou and Reid are some of the least interesting characters I’ve come across lately. My goodness. Lou was the typical YA heroine and Reid was just there. He existed but his personality was about as interesting as a root canal. The romance was enemies to lovers but they jump from one to the other pretty quickly and it feels so empty. I felt nothing for their romance and I didn’t get why they were attracted to each other so suddenly. The one sex scene was pretty decent in this though so there’s that I guess.

I was way more interested in the side characters because I feel they had a lot more going on than our hero and heroine. The ending was cool though and I’ll probably read the second book when it comes out but I really hope we get a more developed world and characters. It was entertaining enough though especially the beginning.

Overall, I’d recommend it if YA fantasy is your jam but sadly for me it’s a genre that I’ve fallen out of love with (with the exception of my favorite series ofc and a few gems). 3 stars for the solid start.

Also, if Mahurin could get rid of the cringe worthy song, ‘Big Titty Liddy’ that Lou loves to sing so much in the second book I would send her a wine basket because big yikes.

{Challenges completed:
✔All Challenges All the Time: The Big Bang Theory Challenge
✔The Lost Challenges: Most Iconic Album Covers Challenge
✔The Lost Challenges: The Best Snack Food From Every State Challenge (Book 8 out of 100)} ...more

16 likes · Like · see review

Oct 11, 2021 Ashley W rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 0part-of-a-series, 501-600-pages, genre-fantasy

⇘Quotes⇙
→His daughter's death had been a warning: one did not exploit the witches without consequences.
→You are wildly outmatched and woefully inadequate in the face of these women. Death is the kindest of their torments - a gift bestowed only to those who have earned it.

⇘Just the Archbishop creating his only army of incels⇙
→But witches didn't always smell evil. Only when they'd been practicing. The Archbishop had been clear in our training - every woman was a potential threat.
→"Once she is you ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Oct 23, 2019 Kerri rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobook

I'm having a hard time formulating my thoughts on this book. This book was an amazingly quick read because it was just exciting! We start off meeting Lou, a non-practicing witch who is living her life on the streets of a France-like country as a thief. But, beyond that, she is on the run from a past she barely survived. When we meet Lou, she is dressed as a man and in the midst of gathering intel on her next target: a witch artifact that she would like to acquire to help keep her past in the pas I'm having a hard time formulating my thoughts on this book. This book was an amazingly quick read because it was just exciting! We start off meeting Lou, a non-practicing witch who is living her life on the streets of a France-like country as a thief. But, beyond that, she is on the run from a past she barely survived. When we meet Lou, she is dressed as a man and in the midst of gathering intel on her next target: a witch artifact that she would like to acquire to help keep her past in the past.

Then we meet Reid, a Chassuer (read: witch hunter) who has dedicated his life to ridding the world of witches since he was rescued from an orphanage by the Archbishop himself. Reid is a very black and white kind of guy, but his principles also make him incredibly honorable. When the woman he loves rejects him so that he may focus on his career, he decides to do just that. Witch hunting is his passion and he is particularly good at it. When an attack happens early on in the book, he is the hero that saves the day.

But fate contrives to have Lou and Reid come together, though neither of them want anything to do with the other. Through a strange twist, they are forced to marry and the sparks fly from there. And I mean that in more ways than one.

This story had everything! Interesting characters, thrilling concept, and plenty of action. I sped through it and thoroughly enjoyed myself during the experience.

So why am I having a hard time formulating my thoughts on this book?

I think it’s because, after I finished the book, gave it a star rating, and actually sat and thought about it some more, I began to notice some problematic elements that my brain glossed over while I was reading. And one of those was one of the major plot points of the story: the forced marriage. It just… didn’t make sense! I remember thinking as I was reading the book that it didn’t make sense, but I was so engrossed in the story that I just didn’t care. Looking back, though, the incident that precipitated the marriage didn’t seem like it could be solved with a simple wedding…

But, then again, the patriarchy is STRONG in this book. Which is another thing that, upon further inspection, rubbed me the wrong way. I understand it as a sign of the time period that the author was trying to write, but it still felt incredibly… icky. And like it could have been handled better? I don’t know, I just wasn’t a fan. But, again, it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book!

Maybe that’s the problem. I had issues with elements of the book, but I still really enjoyed it and my brain is trying to make that work, lol.

Final thoughts: I guess, in the end, this was a fun bit of escapism. I did enjoy the romance and the plot, though there were things that didn’t make sense. I am planning on checking out the sequel, though! ...more

1 like · Like · see review