From the Bookshelf of Between The Pages…

Serpent & Dove (Serpent & Dove, #1)

Shelby Mahurin

Start date: February 1, 2021

Finish date: February 28, 2021

Discussion: Member’s BOTM Discussions

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What Members Thought

Feb 12, 2021 Zitong Ren rated it liked it

Shelves: 2021, action, adventure, contains-romance, fantasy, young-adult

Read with the Between the Pages book club for our Member’s BOTM for February.

Ugh... it was ok. There was nothing too special about this book and I have a sizeable list of problems that I had with this book. I did want to like it, but I think too often, YA fantasy is either a hit or a miss for me just because a lot of it is overly hyped based on its premise alone but then the book actually fails to deliver. And also, this book is really marketed as YA, but it really should be NA, which I know peo Read with the Between the Pages book club for our Member’s BOTM for February.

Ugh... it was ok. There was nothing too special about this book and I have a sizeable list of problems that I had with this book. I did want to like it, but I think too often, YA fantasy is either a hit or a miss for me just because a lot of it is overly hyped based on its premise alone but then the book actually fails to deliver. And also, this book is really marketed as YA, but it really should be NA, which I know people debate whether that is a thing or not, but still.

YA is meant to be for people between the ages of 12-18, and it’s sort of awkward I feel for a twelve year old to be reading this, considering there was a fairly explicit sex scene, where it wasn’t fade to black or anything. There’s also a lot of swearing and the like look, I’m hardly a prude or anything but there is certain content that a young teenager can’t handle.

Moving on. The worldbuilding. Or actually, what worldbuilding? It’s a five-hundred-page novel and it was so bare and empty. The world felt like it had one hundred people in it. Very few things are properly explained, and while yes, I generally prefer books to have lots of worldbuilding, I don’t mind if the lore and the world isn’t super fleshed out. In this case, there was really nothing at all to the point where I can hardly tell you anything about the world beyond the bare minimum. And there’s a bible and the church, but like, is it a carbon copy or Christianity, is it different, what are its values other than burning witches? I don’t know, it isn’t explained and that bothered me. It was like the world was just a second thought while there was so much more potential in my view.

What I can say is that the book is fairly fun, and the pacing isn’t too slow, even if the ending was not as climatic as I perhaps would have liked. I suppose in a sense that it’s a fun and maybe humorous novel with an enemies to lovers relationship, which I know is a trope people love. So, if that’s your thing, then you may very well enjoy it just for the fairly predictable way the relationship progressed. And look, the romance was fine, if not expected.

I just think that by the end when the plot twists started occurring, I was at a point where I just wasn’t invested enough with the world or the characters for it to have had a major impact on me emotionally, so I sort of just didn’t care at that point. I didn’t see some things coming for sure, even if they probably would have been obvious looking back at things. In terms of the plot actually moving along, it was somewhat slow during the middle section, but there were more character moments, particularly between Lou and Reid so I thought that was fine.

It seems like the author still has a lot of story to tell and that this book is likely just setting up the rest of the series in how it panned out. At this stage, I won’t be continuing with the rest of the series, simply because I didn’t adore this one unfortunately. It sort of just ended being an ok novel where there was nothing special about it to me, but I had a decent time nonetheless and I certainly didn’t hate it. 6/10 ...more

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Apr 12, 2021 Serena Books rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: paranormal-fantasía

'Si ella estaba destinada a arder en el infierno, ardería con ella'.

•Mi opinión puede contener Spoilers

•Esta destinada a ser un descargo personal no para que alguien más lea pero si lo haces y te ofende, me disculpo porque sé lo que es que te guste un libro y otros lo critiquen

La bruja blanca de Shelby Mahurin Serie Asesino de brujas libro 1

Argumento:

Unidos como uno para amarse, para honrarse o para arder.

Dos años atrás, Louise le Blanc huyó de su aquelarre y se refugió en la ciudad de ...more

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Dec 15, 2019 Bruna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

3.5/5

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Jul 03, 2021 Paige Beaudreault rated it liked it

Shelves: books-i-own

I’m going to be honest, I got my hopes up. I was so hyped for this book and I was so bummed out by it. I do like Lou though, she’s a cool main character. Strong but not too strong. She was someone who was worth following.

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