Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Serpent & Dove

Goddamn, that final cliffhanger is delicious. I first read Serpent & Dove in 2020, so this is my re-read, and I had forgotten how spectacular the ending was!

I may not share Lou's excessive swearing, at least not aloud, but I sure as hell share her love for cinnamon rolls and buns! 🥐 I remember it was one of my favorite traits of her when I first read the book; so relatable. The descriptions of smells and such are magnificent.

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sfdogmom's review

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3.5

Good! I recommend it. Just won’t be re-reading it. Spice level 0.5

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jkneebone's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

Whooo boy. I really did not enjoy this read, but in the interest of not rambling on with complaints too long, I'm going to try to contain myself.

Serpent & Dove takes place in a proto-fantasy-France called Belterra, a land that used to be the domain of witches until the royal family Lyon took it over and began a campaign to burn any witches they could find. Louise, aka Lou, is a witch who ran away from her kin and swore off magic to avoid detection by other witches or by witch-hunters. She makes her living as a thief, and at the opening of the book, she has her sights set on a specific magical ring which will make it even harder for other witches to track her. Reid is a Captain of the witch-hunters, called Chasseurs, which are a weird hybrid between a religious order and law enforcement. He hates witches and anything to do with witches, especially since the older sister of the woman he was courting was murdered by witches, causing his sweetheart to end their relationship. Reid is an orphan but a favorite of the Archbishop, who is the head of the church (which isn't called so but is basically the Catholic church) and of the Chasseurs.

After a run-in on the street, and another during a robbery, Lou and Reid have an unfortunate altercation in public. To avoid the negative PR from a Chasseur seemingly attacking an innocent woman, the Archbishop declares that Reid and Lou must marry, since if Lou is his wife, it's okay for Reid to be rude to her in public? Or something?

My first issue with this book is how flimsy the reasoning for their forced marriage is. It started off promising, with Lou and her friend (and fellow witch) Coco sneaking around and planning a heist, but the set-up of the forced marriage made no sense. If it had ended up working for the plot or the romance arc, I might have been able to overlook the flimsy foundation, but most of this book was a mess.

The pacing of the plot was wildly inconsistent, and for most of the book it was unclear what the characters' motivations were, or what they were working towards. At the beginning, at least Lou seemed to have a goal, but after Lou and Reid were married, the plot devolved into them "bonding" (at least I assume that's what the author was going for). Then, in the last 100 pages, suddenly a lot of things started happening again, a ton of new information (that came out of nowhere) was revealed, and all the various plot threads had to be wrapped up (with questionable success).

If the romance arc/development had been done better, I might have been able to overlook some of the lack of plot in favor of Lou and Reid domesticity. But the Lou and Reid relationship arc was extremely unbelievable. It went from them hating each other to being In Love extremely quickly, with very little development. I didn't buy into or care about their relationship, and it seemed like things were happening because those were the beats the author needed to hit, rather than actually being believable in the story of these two characters. (Also, there was a multi-page sex scene that was pretty explicit for YA.)

Reid as a character was also very confusing and unlikable. At the beginning, his POV was uncomfortable because he clearly hated women, but then his views seemed to change - except sometimes his negativity towards witches would still crop up. The author was trying to show that he struggled with anger, but it was done in such a clumsy way that it made no sense and was weird to read about. It's also a pet peeve of mine when a dual-POV book is way heavier in one POV than the other, so I disliked that Reid's POV was so much less frequent than Lou's - in that case just make it her POV entirely!

The magic and world-building was lacking, too much important information was dropped on the reader at the last second, and the pacing was super inconsistent. This was a promising premise, and I was even interested in some later revelations

e.g. the fact that Lou's mother wants to kill her to save all witches - that's an interesting moral dilemma to explore!

but the ideas were handled poorly. Too many wild plot twists at the end that there was no way to see coming left the book feeling unbalanced and me shaking my head at the fact that the last few chapters managed to make this book even more ridiculous.

Finally, I suspect that Serpent & Dove was initially written as (new) adult paranormal romance, and somewhere along the way someone suggested to the author that they make it YA instead, which the author then did in a very slapdash way. Lou is supposed to be 18, and we don't even know how old Reid is supposed to be, but both of them behave like they are in their mid-20s. They think about a 16-year-old side character as an immature child, Lou is implied to have had several past sexual/romantic relationships, and Reid has achieved not only the position of Chasseur (which we find out late in the book he had to compete for and is very difficult to do), but he has been made a Captain. It would have made more sense if the characters had been older, but in lieu of that, I at least wish that the author had been more thoughtful about making them teenagers - teenagers acting like adults in YA fantasy certainly can be done successfully, it just wasn't done so here.

Unfortunately I can't recommend Serpent & Dove. I'm sure some teenage readers can get caught up in the drama and romance, but for me it feel completely flat. It was poorly written, confusingly plotted, and poorly paced. The only reason I didn't DNF it was so I could feel completely justified in writing this one-star review!

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smuttymcbookface's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Shelby Mahurin created a beautiful, dark world with clashing Christianity and magic within Serpent & Dove. The plot developed wonderfully, with small hints and clues as time went on as to what secrets the characters were holding.

The characters themselves were well-written, both nuanced and flawed, and we were clearly able to see their struggles and trials as they developed into more understanding versions of themselves.

The only reason I've not given this 5* was that I found it to be a little too simplistic/YA at times, with some plots neatly lining up with one another, or ridiculously convenient plans (such as Coco being part of the infirmary and just happening to be able to take ownership of Lou).

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beccawasshort's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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mia_dt13's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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zia_c's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I think I'm in love with the fmc. Must be her "i-don't-give-a-fuck" attitude toward everything. As for the mmc, he's sweet but aside from that i don't see no personality.

The plot is good but it's kinda confusing for me. There's no time reference and not much detail about the world. I don't even know the mmc's age.. lol.

Either way, I enjoyed reading it. The ending wasn't satisfactory nor was the 3rd part of the book but anyway. I'm rating this book on fmc alone.

It's been a very long time since I've found a fmc with a spine and a impressive mouth( not like that).

I don't know if I'll continue the series. I've got what I wanted and I can kinda see where the story's going so imma put in down for now. Reason is the YA writing style. The writing is beautiful and engaging, no doubt, but I still kinda not completely connect with it.

The story is good and I think those who enjoy YA will really like it.

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zias's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.5

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