Serpent & Dove Kindle Edition

Quick Stats:Overall: 5/5 StarsCharacters: 5/5Setting: 5/5Writing: 5/5Plot and Themes: 5/5Awesomeness Factor: 5/5Review in a Nutshell: From the characters to the setting, everything was well crafted and absolutely addictive.“A witch and a witch hunter bound in holy matrimony. There was only one way such a story could end–a stake and a match.”// Content Warning: Violence, Death, Assault, Mature Content, Suicide Mention, Self Harm (for magic), Rape Mention, Murder, Illness //“They might’ve all been hypocrites, but I was the biggest of all.”Release Date: 9/3/2019Publisher: HarperTeenPage Count: 528Premise:Serpent and Dove follows Louise la Blanc, a witch who fled her coven, and Reid Diggory, a witch hunter. After a chaotic second meeting, Lou and Reid must marry to save his reputation, and Lou would rather face the pyre than the enemies chasing her. However, when feelings grow, what was first a simple arrangement becomes infinitely more complicated.“There are some things that can't be changed with words. Some things have to be seen. They have to be felt."- Writing & Setting-Historical novels, or fantasy books heavily influenced by history, intimidate me. While I do love them, a lot of times the story feels bogged down by world-building. So naturally, I was a little scared when starting this book. I had no reason to be. The writing in this book is so easy to immerse yourself into. The dialogue is funny and witty, the inner thoughts of the two protagonists are painfully relatable, and the world felt fleshed out without heavy exposition dumps! Speaking of the world- I love this magic system. It’s well written, with plenty of specifics so you’re never left confused, yet vague in certain areas so you can be surprised. This is one of the few fantasy magic systems that I feel I truly understand, and what makes me really happy is that no one seems overpowered, and there are things in place so no one can become overpowered.“It doesn’t end in death. It ends in hope. Hope. A hope they would never see, would never feel, would never touch. As elusive as smoke. As flickering flames.”- Plot -Serpent and Dove is written in a way where you don’t realize how fast the pages are going by until three hours have passed and you’re halfway through the book. Speaking from experience. I had to physically put the book far away from me so I wouldn’t finish it in one day. Why didn’t I want to finish it in one day? It was too fun and I knew the second I was done, I wouldn’t be able to read anything else because I would just want more of this book. (I was right, by the way).The plot is fast-paced, with plenty of action, magic, and drama. The romance plotline definitely plays a huge part in this book, but there is still a lot happening outside of it. There are great themes discussed, plenty of action, and no unnecessary drama.“Witches and people alike. One and the same. All innocent. All guilty. All dead. But not me.”- Characters -I would read 100 pages of these characters just sitting in a room together. There are four main characters, with two POV characters, and they all interact really well. Each one of them has a well-defined personality and felt grounded and realistic. They also had amazing interactions and bounced off each other well. Even the side characters were multi-faceted and compelling, no matter how few pages they were on. There’s not a single character in this book who I wouldn’t want to know more about.But back to our main protagonists, Lou and Reid. I love them so much. Seriously. Their opposing personalities lead to some great banter, but even on their own, they are strong and fascinating main characters. Lou is a strong female protagonist, but she sets herself apart from the other strong female protagonists in YA fantasy by not being perfect and having weaknesses and flaws that ground her. Speaking of flaws- Reid. Reid has the best character development I’ve seen in a while. He’s a fascinating character from start to finish, and I can’t wait to see where this series takes his journey!“The future is inevitable. We might as well be proactive”- Conclusion -Pros- awesome characters, absolutely amazing romance, great magic system, and settingCons- I don’t know how I can move on after this book. It ruined me for all other booksOverall- 5/5 stars.Serpent and Dove is a must-read 2019 release. This book reminded me exactly why I love fantasy. I started to reread it the second I put it down.

In this book we follow Lou who is a witch in hiding, and Reid who’s a witch hunter desperate to make his mentor proud.Lou is living from day to day, hiding and stealing to get away from a past she doesn’t want to remember or speak of. Together with her friend Coco, a blood witch, she’s seeking to steal a piece of jewelry called Angelica’s Ring. It’s a magical piece who’ll help Lou hide from those who seek to find and kill her.But when the mission takes un unfortunate turn, Lou and Reid is forced to marry to avoid a scandal. Now Lou is trapped in a tower crowded by witch hunters who’ll burn her without question if they knew what she is. At the same time, there’s probably no safer place to hide from those she’s hiding from.So, I tried my best to share what the book was about here, but I found it surprisingly difficult. I’m not sure why, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what the book is about.I thought this would be a riveting story of a war between witches and the church, of battle and enemies falling in love and hard choices. But, to be honest, it wasn’t that. It’s a love story more than anything. Most of the book revolves around the relationship between Reid and Lou and how they learn to love each other.Of course, there are more there, too, but that’s not as relevant. At the beginning we’re set up for this big plot of Lou’s secrets and a powerful enemy searching for her. At the end, we get the battle we were promised, but in between there’s nothing, just love story.It wasn’t what I expected, but it wasn’t bad, far from it. I liked the love story, it felt real up until the last 10%. It was a fairly easy read, and I enjoyed the book.The plot is, well, not there, really, but still it is, in a way. The way it was written was both confusing and overcomplicated, and then at times simple and easy to read. It’s like two books in one, I feel like.The opening made me regret picking up the book. I couldn’t wrap my head around what I was reading. It was complicated and unfocused and just strange (and not in a good way). But I stuck with it, and a couple of chapters in, around the time when the two main characters were forced into marriage, the story changed. This is where it became easy to read and the language was completely different.The characters were interesting and well developed, and I enjoyed them all. I do find that the two POVs were a little too similar, though. It was Lou and Reid, and if it hadn’t been for the name being mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, I wouldn’t have known who’s POV it was a lot of the times. Their dialogue was different, but their inner thoughts didn’t match. Specifically, Reid’s inner thoughts sounded like Lou’s.The worldbuilding was also done well. I could argue that this whole French inspired thing was a bit unnecessary, but I kind of got used to them tossing in French words out of the blue here and there. I mean, they were drinking chocolat chaud instead of just hot chocolate. It was a bit random.Overall, it was a good book, I enjoyed it. I can’t really say more than that. Read it if you like love stories.