Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Serpent & Dove

Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin

45 reviews

bluebreex's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

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

3.0

It definitely did not live up to the hype for me and I didn't really love the romance in this book: it felt a bit forced and rushed. But, I did find the portrayal of witches and magic really interesting! The magical aspect was the main thing that kept me invested, as for me I did not get that invested in the plot until around Act 3.

I found Lou being the character I liked the most all in all - however that doesn't count for much in the end due to how I found almost all of the men in this book to be perverted and creepy. (Whether that was intentional or not).

Not sure if I will continue with this series or not.

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selestre's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious 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

5.0

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justcallmeemily's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny sad 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? Yes

4.0

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bzliz'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
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Can a witch and a witch hunter fall in love? Louise aka Lou has been on the run for a few years, doing whatever it takes to survive, though she never could have dreamed her survival meant marrying someone hellbent on destroying her and her kin. Reid was raised to believe in the wickedness of witches and to bring about their destruction above all else. His sense of righteousness leads him into a marriage with Lou despite his condemnation of her criminal ways.

The book is well paced and establishes stakes early on while continuing to drop bits of lore along the way to keep readers hooked. Lou is an endearing scamp and Reid is a very good boy learning that the world isn’t necessarily what he thought. They both grow to understand each other’s point of view as their relationship develops. A very fun read despite one of my least favorite tropes- closing out the book with a lead-in to the next which the audience has no context for but it feels like it’s supposed to be a mic drop moment.

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kimmag92's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.75

I went into Serpent & Dove not knowing much about the plot and I was pleasantly surprised. I wasn't expecting a vaguely 1700s French witch hunting book that is also a critique of Christian ideology but I'm here for it. Overall, I enjoyed this book especially Lou and Coco. I would have liked to see more build up to the romantic portion of Lou and Reid's relationship. I knew as soon as Reid was introduced he was our love interest but the shift from Lou and Reid barely tolerating each other to "I love you" still felt sudden and not well explained.

I do think Serpent & Dove falls into the category of YA that is written for adults and not teens as the characters late teen ages don't matter to the story. For much of the book they read much older and I think had the author aged up the characters to their mid-20s and marketed it as adult fantasy the story would have worked much better.

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what_karla_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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karelidz's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? No

4.0

It was... quite unexpected, in a nice suprise type of way.
I bought this back in November and basically just knew it had an arranged marriage trope, so I went into it kinda blind, which was nice, and I really quite enjoyed it.
It took me a while to really understand and differentiate between both pov's, but once I got it, I was good to go. I really liked Lou's pov's a bit better.

Also, judging by the cover and title I kinda expected it to be spicy, but it actually wasn't? I'm not mad about it tho, I really enjoyed the plot without it.
This is one of those books where I want to keep being inside the world even after I finished it, so I'll read the next one, but I'm a bit scared to see where the plot goes, idk where it'll go but I guess I'll find out.

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