Rating: 3/5 stars

Category: Fantasy, YA, Romance, Action, Adventure

Publisher: Harper Teen

Pages: 1,657

Trigger: Murder

Hello Readers, welcome back to my blog.

It is almost the end of the year now, so how are your reading goals coming along? Almost done or still got a long way to go? I have completed my reading goals but I didn’t set a high reading goal for this year because I knew at the start of the year that I was gonna be too busy to keep up and I was right, thank God for insight. Here is a review of the three books that helped me complete my reading goal this year.

Serpent and Dove

SYNOPSIS

Bound as one to love, honor, or burn.

Two years ago, Louise le Blanc fled her coven and took shelter in the city of Cesarine, forsaking all magic and living off whatever she could steal. There, witches like Lou are hunted. They are feared. And they are burned.

Sworn to the Church as a Chasseur, Reid Diggory has lived his life by one principle: thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. His path was never meant to cross with Lou’s, but a wicked stunt forces them into an impossible union—holy matrimony.

The war between witches and Church is an ancient one, and Lou’s most dangerous enemies bring a fate worse than fire. Unable to ignore her growing feelings, yet powerless to change what she is, a choice must be made.

And love makes fools of us all.

Review

Serpent and dove is divided into parts and rather than chapter titles or number, we have different scene names and we read from the POV of the main male and female characters. The first part is about the incidents that necessitated the arranged marriage of the main characters which was just hilarious and thrilling to read. In the second part, we see the relationship between the characters grow from mutual hate to fascination and love but how can love last when there are devastating secrets between them.

Witches against the church and of course some of the biblical doctrines are used but they are not geared toward Christianity itself, this is clearly fiction and anyone reading should remember that whilst it has elements of truth there are still parts that are made up or not explained in details. I gave 4 out of 5 stars purely for the romance.

Blood and Honey

SYNOPSIS

After narrowly escaping death at the hands of the Dames Blanches, Lou, Reid, Coco, and Ansel are on the run from coven, kingdom, and church—fugitives with nowhere to hide.

To elude the scores of witches and throngs of chasseurs at their heels, Lou and Reid need allies. Strong ones. But protection comes at a price, and the group is forced to embark on separate quests to build their forces. As Lou and Reid try to close the widening rift between them, the dastardly Morgane baits them in a lethal game of cat and mouse that threatens to destroy something worth more than any coven.

Review

Part one of the story picks up where Serpent and Dove ends. Louise and her band of rebels are hiding in the woods from the witches, the chasseurs and the King’s men who will kill them all on sight. Reid had to come to terms with the fact that he has magic and the woman he loves is a witch and so is the mother who abandoned him at birth. Reid is surrounded by magic which he has been brought up to hate. By part two, the relationships that were rocky initially now have a little stability and the emotions are so heart breakingly real. The third part is where everything really takes place for me, without it this book would have remained a 3 star but I gave 4 out of 5 stars even though the last paragraph of the book confused me a lot, I couldn’t wait to read the last instalment of the trilogy.

Gods and Monsters

SYNOPSIS

Evil always seeks a foothold. We must not give it one.

After a heartbreaking loss, Lou, Reid, Beau, and Coco are bent on vengeance more than ever before—and none more so than Lou.

But this is no longer the Lou they thought they knew. No longer the Lou that captured a chasseur’s heart. A darkness has settled over her, and this time it will take more than love to drive it out.

Review

The sentence structures of the trilogy are simple and conversational so they are easy to follow, this makes for a nice flow when reading. The characters are very likeable, even the Prince and Jean Luc who seem like annoying character grow on the reader as you get to know them better. The question Louise asks herself in page 376 made me laugh because it was ludicrous. “Why did every plan I ever made go to complete and total shit?” She never makes any real plans, yet she wonders why things go wrong.

This story was 3 out of 5 stars, the fourth part of the story is the best and I loved the happy ending because I am a sucker for those. The trilogy overall was a 3 out of 5 stars for me because I felt that it was unnecessarily long, every detail felt dragged and while it wasn’t tedious to read, I found myself waiting impatiently for things to pick up.

Favourite quote

“I reached out, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. ‘Only God can judge us. Only God can read the depths of our soul. And I think he understands the power of circumstance – of fear’. I dropped my hand and cleared my throat and forced the words out before I could change my mind. ‘I think there are few absolutes in this world. Just because the church believes Monsieur Bernard will suffer eternally for his mental illness . . . doesn’t mean he will’.”

Serpent and Dove was my favourite in the trilogy. I hope you enjoyed my intake on the trilogy, you can now decide if you want to delve in or not.  

Thank you for reading

Have a great week and God bless