Reviews with content warning for Sexism - Șarpe și porumbel

A really great read! There were a few things that bothered me (sometimes Lou's dialogue would feel a little too real-world and modern in an effort to make her seem vulgar and it would break the immersion a little bit) but otherwise I really enjoyed it.

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ehmannky's review against another edition

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emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I quite enjoyed this book of witches facing off against Definitely Not the Catholic Church in Fantasy France. I enjoyed it even more because neither the witches nor the Church are portrayed as uniformly good or bad, and there are scenes that draw a sharp parallel that the blind devotion to any religious ideology is dangerous and likely to get innocent people killed. It's also a fantasy world where people get to say fuck and the main female character sings bawdy songs and it's just a generally fun world to inhabit. The characters make the book, and I do hope that book 2 allows for more time with Coco, because she just ruled.

I also love a good "falling in love with my spouse and somehow this makes my wanting them more complicated" trope. And both Lou and Reid hit all of the best notes of the potential of this trope. Their angst in learning to trust each other and falling in love in spite of themselves was just delicious. Their relationship moves fast, especially since Reid is theoretically in love with someone else at the beginning, but it's not as fast as some romances I've read, and I forgive it because I just loved Reid and Lou so much.

God, I hope in the next book Ansel and Coco and Beau can find their way into the throuple of my dreams while.

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eve_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional lighthearted sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Overall Thoughts:
⁕ The characters in the book are very archetypal and common in YA fantasy, BUT Mahurin backs up their portrayals really well.

⁕ The main romance is one of the better enemies to lovers I’ve read. It doesn’t feel rushed, and even after the characters develop feelings there’s still lots of uncertainty between them.

⁕ The magical system in this one is really interesting. Forget the whole “spells require energy” thing! Mahurin makes her characters sacrifice things of equal value to the spells they cast — but it’s all up to their interpretation of what that means.

⁕ I was disappointed by how this book approaches gender. It takes a very binary perspective and ties womanhood to reproduction, which is super exclusionary.

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