Reviews with content warning for War - Gods & Monsters

I recently have no luck with last books of book series (see Locklands or A Sky Beyond the Storm), and Gods & Monsters fits perfectly in this trend, sadly. This book was just too long and slow and didn’t make sense at many moments. It had some amazing scenes though which is the reason why I gave it still two stars.

The story takes place right after Blood & Honey: Our characters still have to deal with what happened at the end of this novel, while also figuring out how they can defeat Morgane and her allies. Lou additionally behaves weirdly, and we learn that she’s

possessed by Nicholina for some reason. I believe this was hinted at at the ending of the last book, but I can’t remember

. I first found this idea intriguing and kinda creepy, but it later only annoyed me since it almost takes one third of the story until

she’s normal again

Sadly, this is basically everything relevant happening in Gods & Monsters. We have so much random side-questing that barely makes any sense and just consists of our characters searching for other characters or some random objects. Scenes that were interesting and important, like

when Lou goes in these holy waters to cast out Nicholina’s spirit

, took too much time as well. I was hoping that we would now get more Reid x Lou after all those things, but then

Reid randomly loses his memories which was one of the stupidest things I’ve read in a book in a long time and annoyed the hell out of me. This was just a lazy way to create the same dynamic between Reid and Lou from the first book where they hated each other and wanted to kill each other, but this time it’s just Reid hating Lou. I hated everything about since it stretched the plot unnecessarily and led to Reid just being annoying; it didn’t add anything worthwhile to the story

Besides this, many things simply didn’t make sense and I didn’t understand what was happening. Characters randomly appear without many explanations, like

Morgane when Lou is at the holy waters, or Coco’s mother which is a mermaid for some reasons

? On a similar note, many mythical creatures are randomly introduced, like dragons or mermaids, which was just a bit too much and felt too much like 2010s YA fantasy where many creatures are often lumped together as well. Other things that I didn’t understand were

how Lou became the new Dame or why she wouldn’t tell Reid from the beginning how he could get his memories back

But the last 15% aka the finale got randomly so amazing, and I wish the whole book would’ve been like this:

Reid finally gets his memories back, right before Lou and him are captured and almost killed – their plan was bound to fail in the first place, but okay. It was such an epic moment how they were saved last minute and how the final fight then starts. This final fight was amazing as well and the scene where Lou and Célie together kill Morgane was so powerful

Looking on the characters, I still like our main squad quite a lot, even though they all annoyed me at some points in the story. It was nice that Célie joined them (and that she gets her own story told in The Scarlet Veil), and that

everyone’s alive in the end

but the pairings especially annoyed me here. Coco x Beau came a bit out of the blue and they don’t really match in my opinion. Furthermore, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Reid x Lou here, since there was barely any romance between them. This is mainly caused by this stupid

memory loss of Reid

which causes all the chemistry between them to just disappear. Only in the last chapters,

Lou and Reid are both back to their normal self, but this was just way too late

All things considered, I honestly don’t know if the Serpent & Dove series is worth it or not. Like many other reviewers note, three books were not necessary and just dragged the story; a duology would’ve been fine but not a trilogy. Seprent & Dove perfectly works as a standalone and I probably would recommend reading it and then deciding if one is enough invested in the world and characters to continue with it – because otherwise, the second and third book are not interesting at all. This is all so sad since I think that the general setting and story had so much more potential.

Content Warnings

golden_like_dior's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad medium-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

4.0

Content Warnings

nadiaherondale's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

A satisfying end to the saga, although I have to admit I was a bit bored at the middle of the book as Iwasn't a big fan of the amnesia. Nevertheless the final battle was amazing and I really loved how they gave some side characters a bigger role like Celie or Angelica

Content Warnings

alyssasaurus's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad medium-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

5.0

Content Warnings

leedolee's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

This series has easily stolen a place in my heart and these characters will truly remain favorites of my mine.

The world, the magic, the action, the drama, the twists, the relationships, and the plot were outstanding! Yes, my least favorite trope was found in this book but I enjoyed the novel regardless.

Lou and Reid will be one of my favorite ships. Always.

Content Warnings

khloereads86's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

powellki's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful fast-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? Yes

4.5

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