Book Review: SERPENT & DOVE by Shelby Mahurin

Title: Serpent & Dove

Author: Shelby Mahurin

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance

Publish Date: September 3, 2019

Publisher: HarperTeen

Number of Pages: 528

Stars: 5/5 ⭐️

Summary on the Inside Flap:

“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:

In Serpent & Dove, Louise “Lou” Le Blanc and Cosette “Coco” Monvoisin are both witches and best friends. After a small heist, they split ways not knowing when they will see each other again. After an altercation with the captain of the Chasseurs, witch hunters, who found Lou the next morning, Lou finds herself facing either imprisonment or marriage to the witch hunter in order to preserve his public image. Coco finds her way into the witch hunter tower where she and Lou, who avoided using her magic for two years, practice their magic so Lou will be stronger once she inevitably faces Morgane Le Blanc, her mother, once more. Over time, Lou lets herself get close to her husband though she knows that their romance will be doomed as soon as anyone finds out the truth about her past and who she is.

Reid Diggory was an orphan who was taken in by the Archbishop who helped Reid train to become a Chasseur when he was 16. Now, he is the captain of the Chasseurs, sworn to protect the kingdom from witches. When chasing after the thief from last night, he finds himself in a compromising situation. He either has to marry this heathen or his reputation will be ruined and he will have to resign from the Chasseurs which he spent his entire life working for. He starts out almost despising this crass heathen until he slowly gets to know her, eventually falling for her. He knows she is hiding a secret but he cannot figure out what it is.

I really loved this book! It had everything I am interested in: magic, great characters, and a good romance. The first time I read it, I could not put it down, it just drew me right in. The book was not very cliche, it had some unexpected plot twists that added a lot to the story.

The novel is in third person point of view, alternating between Reid and Lou. I appreciated this because you were able to see both sides of the fight. You were shown how and why each had certain beliefs.

In Serpent & Dove, there are two types of witches, the Dames Blanches and the Dames Rouges. The Dames Blanches see patterns for magic. Magic for them has balance, so they have to give something up that is equivalent to the magic they want to do. For example, they can diminish their own hearing so that others around them cannot hear a conversation they are having. Each witch sees different patterns. The Dames Rouges work with blood. They mix their blood with different ingredients to give it different effects. For example, a witch might mix her blood with lavender to make someone fall asleep.

I do have a question about the magic for the Dames Blanches, though. We know that the healers in the Tower for the Chasseurs are trying to undo the magic they have done to people, but are they able to undo the magic themselves? Lou gave up some memories to erase herself from Bas’ memory. Could she potentially reverse that and bring their memories back if she wanted?

I love Lou. She is very snarky and funny. Lou challenged some of the sexist ideas that the Chasseurs and the Archbishop tried to uphold, like the idea that as Reid’s wife, she was his property. Every time she sang the pub songs like “Big Willy Billy” or “Big Liddy Tiddy” I could not help but laugh. She used that to annoy Reid multiple times and the funniest time was during Mass. She refused to let people tell her what to do and aside from becoming more open-minded towards the Chasseurs, she refused to let people change her and take away her identity. She refused to become meek and obey her husband as they deemed a good wife should at the time. 

Reid, I am a little bit more iffy about. Reid was very into the idea of a perfect wife. It took him time to warm up to Lou, but for a while, he still preferred Célie who was everything the holy Chasseur would have expected of a wife. Lou was rambunctious and inappropriate compared to others. I liked him more when he was accepting and loving, and at the very end of the book. There were some points, however, in which I felt he could have been better to Lou. I also know though that those points added to the book’s climax, so it makes sense for him to act that way. 

Coco cared a lot about Lou and was very protective of her. I really liked her character and how she was there to remind Lou sometimes of what was important and what she needed to think about and remember. Ansel was another secondary character we meet and he is so adorable and sweet. He too cares for Lou and also for Reid who he grew up with. 

Some secondary characters I did not like are Archbishop and Jean Luc. The Archbishop was even more hypocritical than Lou had believed in the beginning. He was filled with an insatiable hunger to kill witches. He should have been trying to maintain peace instead of rousing bloodthirstiness in the general population. Jean Luc was way too envious. His best friend happened to be stronger and better than him and he grew to virtually resenting him. Reid refused to actually see Jean Luc’s true feelings about him, but others noticed. 

It took me some time, but I got around to loving Reid and Lou’s relationship. Her snarkiness matched how “priggish” he was. It took some time for them to properly warm up to each other. Before they did, their relationship was quite humorous. Lou knew how to push his buttons in all the right ways. Once they warmed up to each other, their relationship went from humorous to quite sweet. They genuinely started caring for each other and slowly showing each other more and more about themselves, letting the other in. 

The last part of the book was the most important part of the book as it exposed some truths about different characters and we got to see the way the rest reacted. Some of these truths were expected but some were surprising enough. 

I highly recommend this book especially if you are into fantasy and witches. This would also be a good book for anyone who likes watching characters grow and change over the course of the book.