A review by samanthanleroy
Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin

1.0

1.5 stars. In my review of the Inheritance Games, I said it read like fanfiction but in the best way possible. Serpent and Dove read like fanfiction but in a bad and disappointing way. Maybe I wouldn't feel this way if the world-building wasn't so incredibly lazy. It took me almost 100 pages to realize it wasn't set in real life France, but a French inspired other-world where for some reason Christianity still exists (which raises the question- does the Israel-Palestine conflict exist in this universe???!) and they speak just straight up French like normal French real French people speak. Not inspired by the French language and French culture and France itself, but it's just... French. The book feels like Mahurin saw the dynamic between Nina and Matthias in Six of Crows and said "I wanna do that!" and then just.... didn't edit. The romance is rushed and feels forced, none of the characters feel like real people, and the drama is contrived. I'm sorry this is a mean review but I expected better.