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athousandlives's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-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? Yes
4.5
When I read the blurb of Serpent & Dove, and the raving reviews on bookstagram, I thought: this could be a 5-stars book. I finally settled on 4,5, because overall I had a good time, but I didn't like it enough for it to reach the very select 5-stars club.
I was over the moon at the beginning of the "arranged marriage" trope. It was fun, the characters were perfect for an enemies-to-lovers trope, and those two tropes mixed together and sprinkled with witch lore, were the perfect recipe for something I would love.
And it worked, for a while: I watched Reid and Lou's feelings for each other grow, while they were both (okay, mostly Lou) questioning their beliefs, and I liked their character growth. Also the constant bickering was all I was living for.
But the ending was... meh. I don't really know why, but I wasn't very interested in what was gonna happen. I didn't feel like the stakes were that high, while really they were, but somehow I wasn't quite into it.
Spoilery part of the review : Maybe that's because Lou gave up at the end, while I would have loved more drama about the fact that if she dies, so does Reid.
Maybe because there were too much plot twists about our lovebirds's parentage. "Omg the Archbishop is Lou's father! AND Mme Labelle is Reid's mother! AND the king is his father!" Though all these new parameters made for interesting new dynamics between these characters, it felt like an escalating of reveals that was just too much. Because of that, I felt like anything could happen by the mean of another plot-twist, and maybe that's why the stakes didn't feel high at the end.
And then the ultimate plot-twist happened: Reid can do magic. For me, it was too much. Not only Reid, who has been raised to hate witches and kill them, discovers that his long-lost mum AND his one true love are witches BUT he also discovers he is a witch himself? While it's not even something known to exist in this world? Nah. I didn't enjoy it.
What I did enjoy was Reid's reaction to finding out Lou is a witch: how his first instinct is to defend her and let her use him as a weapon, then he rejects her without any tact because she lied and she's, you know, evil, and then he comes to understand that he loves her no matter what, and that maybe all witches aren't evil (thanks to Ansel, my babe <3 <3). I thought it flowed well and was a good character development.
One strength of the book was the characters. They are fleshed out, they interact well, they are funny and lovable, and I enjoyed meeting them.
Lou was a nice main character. She was hilarious, with her unapologetic cursing and her constant banter with Reid or Ansel. Her questionings about loyalty, right, and wrong were touching.
I would have loved to read much about Reid. He didn't have as many own-voice chapters as Lou, and I would have liked to be more in his head, to explore how Jean-Luc's behaviour made him feel like, how his relationship to the Archbishop evolved, etc.
Ansel was the best secondary character. I loved that while everybody treats him as a child because he's the youngest of the cast, he stood up to defend what he tought was right, even against people who impressed him or meant a lot to him. I didn't expect to like him so much when I first read about him, but he became one of my favs along the way.
And I can't wait to read more about Coco in Blood & Honey, the blood witches got me intrigued!
Also, one last thought about this book... The use of French was hilarious as a native speaker. Some expressions (mostly the curses) were meant to sound authentic but were subtlely off-key, and it was very funny. I don't really understand why so many French words were used. I supposed it was part of an aesthetic?
Overall, it was a nice book, I loved all the lore about witches, Dames blanches and Dames Rouges, and the characters, but the plot lacked something to reach that 5th star.
I was over the moon at the beginning of the "arranged marriage" trope. It was fun, the characters were perfect for an enemies-to-lovers trope, and those two tropes mixed together and sprinkled with witch lore, were the perfect recipe for something I would love.
And it worked, for a while: I watched Reid and Lou's feelings for each other grow, while they were both (okay, mostly Lou) questioning their beliefs, and I liked their character growth. Also the constant bickering was all I was living for.
But the ending was... meh. I don't really know why, but I wasn't very interested in what was gonna happen. I didn't feel like the stakes were that high, while really they were, but somehow I wasn't quite into it.
Spoilery part of the review : Maybe that's because Lou gave up at the end, while I would have loved more drama about the fact that if she dies, so does Reid.
Maybe because there were too much plot twists about our lovebirds's parentage. "Omg the Archbishop is Lou's father! AND Mme Labelle is Reid's mother! AND the king is his father!" Though all these new parameters made for interesting new dynamics between these characters, it felt like an escalating of reveals that was just too much. Because of that, I felt like anything could happen by the mean of another plot-twist, and maybe that's why the stakes didn't feel high at the end.
And then the ultimate plot-twist happened: Reid can do magic. For me, it was too much. Not only Reid, who has been raised to hate witches and kill them, discovers that his long-lost mum AND his one true love are witches BUT he also discovers he is a witch himself? While it's not even something known to exist in this world? Nah. I didn't enjoy it.
What I did enjoy was Reid's reaction to finding out Lou is a witch: how his first instinct is to defend her and let her use him as a weapon, then he rejects her without any tact because she lied and she's, you know, evil, and then he comes to understand that he loves her no matter what, and that maybe all witches aren't evil (thanks to Ansel, my babe <3 <3). I thought it flowed well and was a good character development.
One strength of the book was the characters. They are fleshed out, they interact well, they are funny and lovable, and I enjoyed meeting them.
Lou was a nice main character. She was hilarious, with her unapologetic cursing and her constant banter with Reid or Ansel. Her questionings about loyalty, right, and wrong were touching.
I would have loved to read much about Reid. He didn't have as many own-voice chapters as Lou, and I would have liked to be more in his head, to explore how Jean-Luc's behaviour made him feel like, how his relationship to the Archbishop evolved, etc.
Ansel was the best secondary character. I loved that while everybody treats him as a child because he's the youngest of the cast, he stood up to defend what he tought was right, even against people who impressed him or meant a lot to him. I didn't expect to like him so much when I first read about him, but he became one of my favs along the way.
And I can't wait to read more about Coco in Blood & Honey, the blood witches got me intrigued!
Also, one last thought about this book... The use of French was hilarious as a native speaker. Some expressions (mostly the curses) were meant to sound authentic but were subtlely off-key, and it was very funny. I don't really understand why so many French words were used. I supposed it was part of an aesthetic?
Overall, it was a nice book, I loved all the lore about witches, Dames blanches and Dames Rouges, and the characters, but the plot lacked something to reach that 5th star.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child death, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, and Misogyny
Moderate: Emotional abuse and Murder
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