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A review by crosswarrior7
Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin
2.0
This book makes me sad. Really, really sad. Why? Because I genuinely wanted to love it. It's a book by someone who started off on Wattpad, and because of that, I so badly want to adore it and praise it and just lift it up as an example that just because someone started on Wattpad doesn't mean they should be held back.
But I can't. You know why? Because this didn't feel any better than the books I've read published by Wattpad Books, and I've only seen one of those I've liked. The other is a book I got really close to DNFing, and the others are ones I've read the free parts of on Wattpad and cringed myself away from buying.
I will start with the good. I did enjoy parts of this book. The romance had potential, what with a sarcastic-defense-mechanism brash witch with a reserved witch hunter who kept all of his emotions under control, and with her constantly shoving at every single one of his buttons.
I was really intrigued by the start of this book. It had a nice set-up, and the two characters and their struggles drew me in. Also, the witch x witch hunter just screamed Nina x Matthias, but it was definitely more problematic given Lou's obvious past troubles, which had me even extra intrigued.
I adored the magic system. Having to give up something for the magic? Chefs kiss! The witches and the side effect of their magic on others was terrifying, and I loved that. Creepy witches. Why do we not have more of these??? Like, seriously, I was so hyped when I saw that magic came with a price that could turn these guys into soulless monsters if they paid too much and got too greedy. I was here for that, and I was here for the part Lou played in all of that. Also the whole pattern thing of Blanches and the blood stuff of the Rogues. The magic system sold me.
Then... Then plot happened...
The heist part? Sure. The whole ring obtaining start was great. But then... Reid had to go to the theater where Lou has made the attic her home... And just... Then this started reading like a Wattpad book. Perhaps even a Wattpad fanfiction.
The order of events that has to happen for Lou to end up married to Reid is absolute ridiculous. It feels like the absolute nonsense insanity that would happen in a flipping dream. And I've had some pretty nonsense dreams, so...
From there, it just snowballs.
For one, this world's set up is just... Cringe. Like, everything was set up to be as misogynistic as possible purely for the sake of having a kick-butt feminist character. Like, I get that it always seemed to be that only females could be witches in the past, and I get this very well could have been how it was in the past... But this is a fantasy world, not set in real history, yet it was as absolutely anti-female as possible. Also, like, they keep using the Bible for plot points? In a fantasty world. There isn't even any indication that it is an alternative history thing because there's no reference to real places. Just... Randomly the real world Bible. And real world actions. In a high fantasy series. It just made no sense.
And it also tried to be very Old European with its style of living then went on and had extremely modern acting "strong" characters? Lou seriously sounded as if she'd been plucked from a contemporary fantasy and dropped into this story.
There's just no real investment in this world because it just can't decide what it wants to be except whatever is wanted from it. Which yeah, it's fiction, people can do whatevr they want, but... That doesn't make it *good.*
Speaking of inconsistent, have we spoke about the characters? Or the way they love doing absolute 180s throughout this entire book? Lou starts out as this untrusting, hurt girl doing anything to survive to suddenly the beacon of hope for a change in the way witches and witch hunters view each other? No transition for that whatsoever, just suddenly who she was.
Reid was at least mostly consistent in his conviction... But then he does something at the end that makes 0 sense whatsoever because "love" :D
And them falling in love? Hilarious, because it never happened, except somehow it did, because apparently between Lou doing everything she could to drive Reid away and him doing everything he could to force her to stay put... They suddenly learned they had a thing for someone failing to boss them around and failing to boss someone around? I. Do. Not. Know. Literally nothing to their interactions besides that. But suddenly, love, love so intense it makes Reid do the nonsense thing at the end.
Speaking of their romance, this book is not YA. It. Is. Not. Young. Adult. Young adult is advertised to 13-18, some argue 12-18. You do *not* show young teenagers *explicit, steamy sex scenes.* Literally, all it missed were the words of the anatomy. This is more a yell at the publishing world who refuses to acknowledge NA as a thing, but that almost made me quit the book because I was so enraged. The author probably knows what her true audience is, but I want to shove this book up the rear of whoatever keeps arguing it is YA and that NA shouldn't be a thing when literally 90% of popular Fantasy right now is NA :)))))
Outside of the romance that is utterly stupid, the plot was just... blah? Probably because the plot was the stupid romance for 2/3 of it. Then the protagonists just come off as completely idiotic with no understanding of logic (they are completely anti-woman but are all for an all-single-woman troupe??? Not that women should all be believed as dangerous, but seriously???). Then so many facepalm inducing parent revelations, Reid obviously being speshul which I could see coming miles away, witches powers are infinite until they need not to be, and just...
It's all a mess. It's all just "I want it to happen this way, so it shall" in terms of logic. And just... I hate it. I genuinely hated reading this and just wanted to be done. And it makes me so sad because I was so happy when I heard a really popular book had been published where it had technically started on wattpad.
Sadly, it feels like a Wattpad novel. So if you enjoy those, you'll love this most likely, but I have long since hated what Wattpad has done to the fantasy genre, so...
I probably have more complaints I could think up, but I'll just stop it at this. Two stars. A very painful two stars that is only that because I did love the idea of the magic. I hate giving up on series, but I'm not sure I'll force myself through anymore.
But I can't. You know why? Because this didn't feel any better than the books I've read published by Wattpad Books, and I've only seen one of those I've liked. The other is a book I got really close to DNFing, and the others are ones I've read the free parts of on Wattpad and cringed myself away from buying.
I will start with the good. I did enjoy parts of this book. The romance had potential, what with a sarcastic-defense-mechanism brash witch with a reserved witch hunter who kept all of his emotions under control, and with her constantly shoving at every single one of his buttons.
I was really intrigued by the start of this book. It had a nice set-up, and the two characters and their struggles drew me in. Also, the witch x witch hunter just screamed Nina x Matthias, but it was definitely more problematic given Lou's obvious past troubles, which had me even extra intrigued.
I adored the magic system. Having to give up something for the magic? Chefs kiss! The witches and the side effect of their magic on others was terrifying, and I loved that. Creepy witches. Why do we not have more of these??? Like, seriously, I was so hyped when I saw that magic came with a price that could turn these guys into soulless monsters if they paid too much and got too greedy. I was here for that, and I was here for the part Lou played in all of that. Also the whole pattern thing of Blanches and the blood stuff of the Rogues. The magic system sold me.
Then... Then plot happened...
The heist part? Sure. The whole ring obtaining start was great. But then... Reid had to go to the theater where Lou has made the attic her home... And just... Then this started reading like a Wattpad book. Perhaps even a Wattpad fanfiction.
The order of events that has to happen for Lou to end up married to Reid is absolute ridiculous. It feels like the absolute nonsense insanity that would happen in a flipping dream. And I've had some pretty nonsense dreams, so...
From there, it just snowballs.
For one, this world's set up is just... Cringe. Like, everything was set up to be as misogynistic as possible purely for the sake of having a kick-butt feminist character. Like, I get that it always seemed to be that only females could be witches in the past, and I get this very well could have been how it was in the past... But this is a fantasy world, not set in real history, yet it was as absolutely anti-female as possible. Also, like, they keep using the Bible for plot points? In a fantasty world. There isn't even any indication that it is an alternative history thing because there's no reference to real places. Just... Randomly the real world Bible. And real world actions. In a high fantasy series. It just made no sense.
And it also tried to be very Old European with its style of living then went on and had extremely modern acting "strong" characters? Lou seriously sounded as if she'd been plucked from a contemporary fantasy and dropped into this story.
There's just no real investment in this world because it just can't decide what it wants to be except whatever is wanted from it. Which yeah, it's fiction, people can do whatevr they want, but... That doesn't make it *good.*
Speaking of inconsistent, have we spoke about the characters? Or the way they love doing absolute 180s throughout this entire book? Lou starts out as this untrusting, hurt girl doing anything to survive to suddenly the beacon of hope for a change in the way witches and witch hunters view each other? No transition for that whatsoever, just suddenly who she was.
Reid was at least mostly consistent in his conviction... But then he does something at the end that makes 0 sense whatsoever because "love" :D
And them falling in love? Hilarious, because it never happened, except somehow it did, because apparently between Lou doing everything she could to drive Reid away and him doing everything he could to force her to stay put... They suddenly learned they had a thing for someone failing to boss them around and failing to boss someone around? I. Do. Not. Know. Literally nothing to their interactions besides that. But suddenly, love, love so intense it makes Reid do the nonsense thing at the end.
Speaking of their romance, this book is not YA. It. Is. Not. Young. Adult. Young adult is advertised to 13-18, some argue 12-18. You do *not* show young teenagers *explicit, steamy sex scenes.* Literally, all it missed were the words of the anatomy. This is more a yell at the publishing world who refuses to acknowledge NA as a thing, but that almost made me quit the book because I was so enraged. The author probably knows what her true audience is, but I want to shove this book up the rear of whoatever keeps arguing it is YA and that NA shouldn't be a thing when literally 90% of popular Fantasy right now is NA :)))))
Outside of the romance that is utterly stupid, the plot was just... blah? Probably because the plot was the stupid romance for 2/3 of it. Then the protagonists just come off as completely idiotic with no understanding of logic (they are completely anti-woman but are all for an all-single-woman troupe??? Not that women should all be believed as dangerous, but seriously???). Then so many facepalm inducing parent revelations, Reid obviously being speshul which I could see coming miles away, witches powers are infinite until they need not to be, and just...
It's all a mess. It's all just "I want it to happen this way, so it shall" in terms of logic. And just... I hate it. I genuinely hated reading this and just wanted to be done. And it makes me so sad because I was so happy when I heard a really popular book had been published where it had technically started on wattpad.
Sadly, it feels like a Wattpad novel. So if you enjoy those, you'll love this most likely, but I have long since hated what Wattpad has done to the fantasy genre, so...
I probably have more complaints I could think up, but I'll just stop it at this. Two stars. A very painful two stars that is only that because I did love the idea of the magic. I hate giving up on series, but I'm not sure I'll force myself through anymore.