Book Review: Serpent and Dove by Shelby Mahurin

Rating 10/10

“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”
― Shelby Mahurin, Serpent & Dove

Book Dragons gather round, 

I thought I would try a different greeting today. I’m not sure how I feel about it but I think it was worth a shot. How are you all? Hanging on? The weather where I am has taken an abrupt turn to fall and I love it. Granted I am writing this with gloves on because my hands are cold. But otherwise, we are great. I have also gone mad and now only refer to us in the royal we. that’s not true.  

Anyhow, today I am discussing Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin. I love this book so much. I first read it last year. I could not resist. I don’t love reading books right after release especially if I don’t know when the sequel is coming out. I don’t like doing it b3cause I have a long wait to go through. I had a long wait for the sequel. And now I have read the sequel too and have a long wait for the third book in the trilogy. It’s fine. Luckily everyone is releasing art for this series so maybe I will survive the year. But this is a review of the first book, so I should focus on that instead of rambling. 

“Wicked are the ways of women—and especially a witch. Their guile knows no bounds.”
― Shelby Mahurin, Serpent & Dove

If you don’t know this book takes place in a fantasy world, many people think it’s in real life France but that is not the case. The world is inspired by France, but it is completely fictional. I am desperate to go visit it, as the bakery our main character is obsessed with sounds perfect. Feed me all the sticky buns. Lou’s obsession and devotion to dessert are the things I most related to about her. I mainly picked this book up because of the tag line. I had to know what would happen to the witch and the witch hunter joined together in unholy matrimony. The answer is a lot of things. Most of them bad. I don’t want to say too much in this pre spoiler section. I like knowing very little about the book I am about to read. I like the vague idea and that is all. If you have not read this book please read it. It is amazing. You get attached to the characters so quickly and the world feels so vivid. Go read it.

Now we are heading to SPOILER LAND. I always say to STAY OUT OF SPOILER LAND. I am serious. Stay out. It is for your good, not mine. I already read the book. I have nothing to lose. You have a lot to lose if you have not read the book.

First things first. We open the book in a brothel. I thought it was very apropos and demonstrated the two very different worlds that Lou and Reid inhabit. Lou had to make her way after abandoning her old life and she did the best she could. Sometimes that means you have to go to a brothel and eavesdrop on people. That’s just life. I immediately loved the friendship between Lou and Coco. they are so devoted to each other. Even when they disagree, or fight, it is still done with love. I wish I could get more friendships like this in books. Believe me, a friendship takes nothing away from a romantic relationship, and in fact can make it better because you have experience in being loyal, caring, and commitment. You also have someone who will hit you over the head when you are being stupid or get angry with you when someone else is being stupid. Friendship has many benefits. Lou and Coco were one of my favorite relationships in this book. They just worked.

Reid grew so much as a character throughout the novel. He started rather unyielding and morally uptight. He couldn’t let himself believe that the world was not as simple as he had been thought it was. I think in many ways he had to believe that to stay sane. While I understood where he was coming from I still wanted to shake him. Lou was good for him. She made him uncomfortable, but she also made him laugh and just enjoy himself. I loved that he was secretly reading romance novels. And hiding them from everyone. And he shared them with Lou. Couples who discuss romance novels are meant to be. I don’t care how many outside obstacles the relationship has, they are on the right path. His relationship with Jean Luc fascinated me. There is so much there. They are so messed up. Watching them slowly fall apart was a little painful, but not too much. It was obvious from the start that Jean Luc had serious jealousy happening, in addition to an inadequacy complex. But back to Lou and Raid. When they went out on the town and played in the snow and ate sticky buns my heart became a puddle of goo. I like slow-burn romances, and this book gave me that. They hated each other at the beginning and slowly grew into love. This relationship progression is much more interesting and realistic than insta-love. Don’t get me wrong, there are some cases where insta-love can work but they are limited. Whereas slow burn is just perfect every time. That scene on the rooftop still has me reaching for a fan. It wasn’t extremely explicit but it came after a build-up of sexual tension. We were given a gift. 

“Love makes fools of us all, darling.”
― Shelby Mahurin, Serpent & Dove

When raid said Lou was not his wife after finding out she was a witch I needed to put the book down for a minute. It hurt. I didn’t cry because I have a cold dead heart, but I needed a moment. When Lou gets captured and brought back to her mother I was getting so anxious. What do you have to go through to make you think sacrificing someone is okay? What do you have to go through to make you think sacrificing someone to kill about fifty other people is okay? These witches are not psychopaths like Morgane, most of them are just people. I guess watching their bitterness about Lou running away to live instead of lying down to die as they wanted her to shows just how desperate they are. What makes people do horrible things? Desperation. Morgane is a whole other ball game. She disturbs me. She knew exactly what she was doing. She decided to seduce her greatest enemy, have a child with him, and then kill that child. What warps your mind like that? 

There were a couple of things in this book that had me draping my jaw. The first was the fact that Madame Labelle was a witch. The second was that she was Reid’s mother, the third was that the archbishop was Lou’s father. The fourth was that Raid had magic. I’m sorry what? To all of that. Just what? That’s why I love this book so much. So many surprises. The magic system was a little tricky for me, but I think we will get to understand it better as the books go on. Lou herself does not understand it perfectly, and Reid does not understand it.  Coco is the closes to understanding her magic, but her magic is different. This was a book for the characters and the relationship between Lou and Raid. you can’t always fit everything into one book. I also had questions about Angelica’s ring. At the end of the book, Morgane takes it from Lou and so it is unlikely we will know what it does. Morgane doesn’t like sharing information. Hopefully, Lou gets it back. I’ll be happy if she pries it off Morgane’s cold dead hand. 

“There are some things that can't be changed with words. Some things have to be seen. They have to be felt.”
― Shelby Mahurin, Serpent & Dove

I know I am skipping around a lot but when the witch burned and Lou took her pain I was a devastating mess. Burns terrify me. They always have. So imagining what I would feel like to be burned at the stake is a personal nightmare for me. Lou is not perfect. But she is a fantastic character. While she was enjoying her life away from her childhood home and friends she still felt guilty for leaving instead of dying. She saved her own life by letting Reid capture the witch (well letting is not the right word for what happened. It was more that she didn’t have a choice. If Raid did not capture the witch Lou would be dead and Lou acted in self-defense. Raid is more complicated. He was trained to turn witches over to his superiors, and he did. They tortured her and murdered her, and it was horrible. But what were any of them supposed to do in these circumstances? 

A quick note on Ansel before I skip around again, he is such a cinnamon roll. That boy somehow ended up in the wrong line of training. He is not meant to be a chasseur. He has compassion for everyone. It’s a great quality to have, but under the circumstances, it isn’t serving him well. That poor baby just gets dragged along on all the adventures. I was so proud of him when he chewed Raid out though. Raid was shocked that Ansel of all people was mad at him about what he said to Lou. I mean it needed to be said. Ansel was speaking or all of us. 

Some more quick notes. What do you mean Raid’s father is the king? What? Excuse me? Holy shit Raid just stabbed the Archbishop! Holy… well actually no. no holy anything. I screamed when that happened. Full out screamed. I read this book the first time last year and it was an emotional rollercoaster. The second time around I was calmer and could focus on the details more. Like that  Lou found the archbishop eating a sticky bun in the middle of the night. What a thing to inherit. I am still not sure how Beau ended up in the woods with the rest of the crew because I mean.. It just happened. Either he’s madly in love with Coco and just won’t admit it or he’s desperate to get to know his newly discovered brother. Not that Reid and Beau talk about it. I mean he says he’s there to ensure his family survives, but there are other ways for that. So my previous theories stand. If he was just ensuring survival he could have called the Chasseurs over and double-crossed everyone. I want to try those sticky buns. They sound fantastic. 

“Death couldn't take him away from me. He was me. Our souls were bound.”
― Shelby Mahurin, Serpent & Dove

Alrighty, Book Dragons I am wrapping this up. Per usual the review is a hot mess, but we must stay on brand. We are OUT OF SPOILER LAND.Out of SPOILER LAND. 

Welcome back, non-spoiler people. Have you gone and gotten the book yet? If not I am telling you to go get it. Seriously. I had a great time reading it. I got attached to the characters. I got invested in the relationships. It did all the things an amazing book should do. It pulled me in and kept me reading. I had a blast talking about this book. I wish people would come to talk to me about it. When I love a book it is a pleasure to write a review for it. 

I will see you all next time. I have a lot of reading to do this week but the schedule says I will see you all again on Wednesday. We might have to break the schedule again but hopefully, I stay organized enough that it is not necessary. 

Goodbye now,

Anna