serpent and dove – Hey Bookworms Editing

Madame Labelle annoyed me to high heaven.
I said what I said. I get that she is trying to protect her son, but he didn’t know that you were more than the owner of a brothel until five minutes ago, you cannot expect him to have some familial relationship in that time, and he had a relationship with Lou before you. Her constant need to try and undermine his relationship with Lou was exhausting.
I need more about the Blood Witch Coven and the Loup Garou.
Their history sounds interesting. I want to know more about Coco and her ties to the leadership of the Blood Witch Coven. She’s a princess, so I want to know about what her life is going to be like once La Voisin dies….if she ever dies because of the whole heart eating thing.

As for the Loup Garou, their culture is probably super interesting. What are their laws like? Do they have some tie to the moon? Can they always shift? I need answers.
Lou and Reid’s relationship. It pained my heart.
They were just kind of on different wavelengths it felt like. They worked so well together in the first book, but in this book they were each doing their own thing and not really focusing on making progress in their relationship. I really just wanted them to communicate with each other!

Madame Labelle did her part in trying to create doubt with Reid in regard to Lou. Like shouldn’t she want her son to be happy, shouldn’t she want to help Lou overcome her spiral? Lou had a tendency to martyr herself and once things started to go downhill at all, she sabotaged as much as she could and would say nasty things. Like I just want you guys to love eachother.
Celie and Jean Luc!?!? What
You loveeeeeeeeed Reid, but you hooked up with his ‘brother!?’ You also may have done so prior to Reid ending things? I cannot handle this. Jean Luc you’re supposed to have loved Reid with your whole being because he was basically your dang twin growing up, but you turned your back on him and slept with Celie because you were basically jealous of what Reid had. Ugh. Drama.

And thennnnnnn. After Lou saves her she gets all up on her high horse that Lou stole Reid and when she sees Reid she tries to hug and curl up with him. Helloooooooo Jean Luc is in the room too!?
My baby, Ansel.
I am distraught. Literally distraught. I think in my commentary about Serpent and Dove I literally said I would die if anything happened to poor baby Ansel.

That was so unnecessary!! He needed to be important, but not that important!

Anyways, I wish that Reid had explored his magic a little more. I am also interested to see how the twins’ magic works since it does not seem that they sacrifice anything for the magic to work, same with Reid. It just sort of happens. It also feels like they do not use patterns to work their magic.

This book didn’t quite succumb to the Second Book Syndrome curse, but it was almost there. It felt as though they kind of wandered around to see new places and people while Reid and Lou argued. I missed Coco and Beau’s comedic relief. Which, coming to that. The love triangle that was never necessary…..ugh. It was almost a freakin’ love square at one point because of Coco’s childhood love. bah.

Anyways, none of my annoyances will prevent me from reading Gods & Monsters, but for now, I’m onto From Blood and Ash.

See you after the next chapter, bookworms,

Cayla

I loved that this book was French inspired.
I took French in high school and literally have never used it, so this book gave me a reason to use all that French knowledge. But really, the names, the words, the love of sweet bread/sticky buns, the architecture even was just *Chef’s kiss.* To start, knowing that it was French inspired, I could totally see in my mind’s eye the way the theater that Lou stayed in looked and the way the town looked from the rooftop of the theater.
Lou and Reid were tense, passionate, and all consuming.
It’s no secret that I love enemies to lovers and when you have an arranged marriage on top of that, I’ll just be here fanning myself. I loved Lou literally running into Reid and then slipping away, only to stumble upon him once more and being forced into marrying him. She pushes his buttons in all the right ways, and he helps her to open her mind up to seeing the world from new perspectives. Their slow roll from hatred to love was a tumble that I am here for.
Reid was adorably naive, but he was a strong character.
Reid was an orphan raised by the Archbishop and because of that his worldview was extremely narrow. I loved that Mahurin kept true to that and allowed Reid to be a little closed minded before he met Lou. She kept him true to his vow and ensured that he was a little awkward with romance and didn’t know much about the world outside being a Chass. Reid was a definite strong character. He stuck to his values even when he probably didn’t want to, like when Celie wanted him to leave his wife or use derogatory language toward her. The best part about it though was that this was in line for his character as a whole and not a result of a budding romance with Lou.
The world was a little underdeveloped, but that is okay in this instance.
I am usually a big stickler in the fantasy genre about having good world building and fleshing out details of the magic systems and the culture. In this particular case, I am glad that we didn’t spend pages upon pages on how that works because it has slowly come out with the plot, and I kind of feel like we are in Reid’s shoes learning about magic and witches with him. It also allowed for Mahurin to keep the pace of the book at a steady chug without having sudden stops in the plot to allow for details to be dumped on you.
Ansel is a precious baby that must be protected at all costs.
You should know by now that I am also a lover of side characters. I get attached to them and their stories and I need to know more about precious Ansel. He seems like such an interesting character because he was very gung ho about catching witches, but he was also very open to Lou after he discovered what she was and how he figured out what she was.

I’m anxiously awaiting the next book as well as panicking because what if it doesn’t live up to my expectations!

See you after the next chapter, bookworms,

Cayla

Tag: serpent and dove

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