Reviews with content warning for Violence - Heks & jager

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Heks & jager by Shelby Mahurin, Sandra Hessels

103 reviews

beckyyreadss's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I wanted to read this book because I had seen this book all over bookstagram and booktok and wanted to read more new authors this year. My first sort of thoughts is that I wanted more from this book, and I didn’t get it.

Two years ago, Louise le Blanc fled her coven and took shelter in the city of Cesarine, forsaking all magic and living off whatever she could steal. There, witches like Lou are hunted. They are feared. And they get burned. As a huntsman of the Church, Reid Diggory has lived his life by one principle: Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. But when Lou pulls a wicked stunt, the two are forced into an impossible situation – marriage. Lou, unable to ignore her growing feelings, yet powerless to change what she is, must make a choice. And love makes fools of us all. This is a young adult romance fantasy novel.

Okay, Ansel and Coco saved this book. I love Ansel. If he was the main character – this book would have been so much bloody better. Coco is a badass protective friend and I want her in my life. But that was about it that I liked. They saved the book. The storyline took me a while to get into as it was quite weak and I was hoping it was a bit of darker romance even with YA but it just barely felt like YA or NA and just felt . . . average. Reid really annoyed the crap out of me and as the main character he just wasn’t “OH MY GOD I WANT HIM TO SAVE ME!” It was just a bizarre and strange read. There wasn’t any slow burn either. It went from we hate each other to we would die for each other in the space of like three chapters.

I really struggled with this book and hopefully now I’m understanding the characters and the world, hopefully I will be able to enjoy the next book.

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michelerr55's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-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? Yes

4.25

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renettereads's review against another edition

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adventurous funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

“A witch and a witch hunter bound in holy matrimony. There was only one way such a story could end – a stake and a match.”

Lou is a witch on the run, but when she let’s her paranoia get the better of her, she finds herself in a precarious situation with a witch hunter. Forced into marriage, Lou must navigate her new life, hiding her true self from her husband as well as the witch out to sacrifice her.

I absolutely adored this book. Lou is insufferable, but in the best kind of way and her chemistry with Reid, her husband and witch hunter, is spot on. Other than the delightful tension and yearning between the two, I enjoyed Lou’s strength as an individual, as well as sidekick Coco.

Good magic systems, in my opinion anyway, relies on an equal measure of give and take, and Serpent & Dove nails that balance really well, and in a way that, I thought, felt original.

This was a real page turner for me and although I don’t really like anything that relies to heavily on religious themes, I think this struck a balance and the commentary on the hypocrisy of the church was really interesting. The character growth was another strength of this book and I also though plot, pace, and prose were all enjoyable. A couple of twists later, I’m really excited to see where book 2 takes us.

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gimmiiie's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

3.0

🐍: 3.0/5.0

My initial thoughts were that it was a 4.0. But the more I thought about it I think it's a 3.0. Reflection has pinpointed some things I didn't enjoy.

~~~SPOILERS BELOW~~~

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What I enjoyed:
-The growth that both Lou and Reid went through. They were able to work through their biases and see who they had dehumanized as human (Reid more so and he still needs to grow).
-Cosette is my favorite character. I wish she had more time in the book. Though I loathed how the nickname the author gave her "Coco".
-The Enemies to Lovers trope. One of my favorite tropes and I will read nearly any book with this.
-I appreciate that the book didn't end with a betrayal. I'm sick of reading fantasy books where the love interest betrays the MC.

What I didn't like:
-How Ansel was treated by adults. He's such a sweet and innocent character. The 2 main female MCs flirted with him and he's a minor. And that's never okay.
-I wish this was a standalone book. I'm not too interested in continuing the story.

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rosies_book_shelf's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

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

3.5

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rinku's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

When I started reading Serpent & Dove, I was convinced that I would give it two or even one star. The beginning was so cliché and ridiculous, the characters unlikable, and the world flat. This first impression changed while reading and towards the end, I started to enjoy this novel.

Other reviews mention this as well, but the set-up for the story is so ridiculous. The witch Lou and the witch hunter Reid are forced to married because of an absurd moment: Reid is trying to catch Lou after she stole something in a theatre. Of course, it comes to a fight, and they fall in front of the curtain and the whole theatre, half-naked. For Reid to restore his honour, he’s forced by the bishop to marry Lou, just how she’s forced to this if she wants to live. There were some other moments in the story that were just over the top like this.

Other things especially annoyed me, like this overdone twist that

certain characters are secretly related to each other. This is the case with Lou being the child of the witch queen(?) and the bishop and Reid being the child of Madame Labelle and the king. I really hate this kind of plot twist

. I was frustrated as well by this “characters get interrupted before they can tell important things”-cliché.

But like I’ve mentioned, the story gets way more interesting and dramatic towards the end, since the fantasy aspect starts to play a bigger role:

Lou’s mom is able to kidnap her daughter and wants to sacrifice her, leaving Reid and his friends with no other choice than saving her. The finale was so dramatic with Lou almost dying, Madame Labelle actually dying and the reveal that Reid can use magic as well

I furthermore had some problems with the world. Christianity plays a huge part in the world which is a bit weird considering that this is a high fantasy novel? Besides this, there was barely any world building that we get the name of the city that the story takes place only after the first half. I generally liked the French influences in the settings, but those are rarely described, just like the magic system.

The writing style was okay, I guess. It tried too much to be “adult” aka using many swear words and making sexual references all the time but in comparison, the humour is so juvenile. This is apparently often the case with these novels that are marketed as YA but are NA in reality – looking at you, From Blood and Ash. Capslock is also used for screaming which I never like.

Talking about sexual references, those are constantly only made between men and women. It was annoying how much alleged differences between men and women are emphasized and how they say about Lou that she “fights like a man” or that she has “a name of a man”. The story acts like it’s against patriarchy but stuff like this keeps the patriarchy alive. Of course, there are only male witch hunters as well.

It took me some time to get warm with the characters, even though they are quite vividly described. Lou annoyed me at the beginning, and I hated Reid, his anger issues and possessiveness towards Lou. Later, the characters changed positively changed, and I even started to like the shipping since the romance is written well, besides this cliché question-answer-thing to get to know each other. It’s funny how she doesn’t care what others think of her, but he does so a lot. What bothered me though was this implied crush of Coco on Ansel who’s still underage.

I’m really curious to read the next book in the Serpent & Dove series because from what I’ve seen, it’s supposedly worse than the first book.

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sealbrecht's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny 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? Yes

3.0

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politicsofpages's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

ABSOLUTE BANGER OF A BOOK

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draculagirl's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I’ll use this as a lesson to try not to buy/read books that are more than 500 pages and check too see if it’s even remotely good.

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lorenasanz's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

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

2.0

Este libro falla con la inexistente construcción del mundo, el desarrollo del personaje y tiene grandes problemas entre la protagonista (Lou) y sus amigos.

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