Serpent & Dove : Serpent & Dove #1 by Shelby Mahurin - Book Review

Book description-

"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."

2 stars. ⭐⭐

I did not know books without a plot could exist.

⚠️ Warning: this review contains a lot of rhetorical questions

For the first three-quarters of the book, the story was going absolutely nowhere. It was just Lou, first running around with Coco, then with Reid, and I could not see anything she was working towards. Of course, there was the constant threat of 'her' being on her way to find Lou, but it was pretty apparent who the 'her' was.

The characters were mostly bland. The only one I liked was Lou, but by the end, I was bored of her too. Her sass was fun to read about, and it was nice when she put others in their place. But later she was sick for most of the time, and she started getting emotionally attached to Reid and the other guys. Her softness was not appreciated. Through all their time in the forest, Reid was carrying her around, and she did barely anything on her own.

And her not-like-the-others-ness was- *shudders* STOP. JUST STOP.

Reid got on my nerves. His blind faith in the Archbishop was said to be excusable because of his father-figure-ness in Reid's life, but that trust was broken in a moment with one short play staged by witches. At least his wrath was portrayed as an issue and not something that 'made him who he was' or whatever other reason is popular in the market. But I could not discern whether he liked Ansel (if that was indeed his name) or Jean Luc, or even Lou because he kept turning on them so easily.

Coming to the part that annoyed me the most: world-building. I cannot, for the life of me, comprehend their world. What century was it supposed to be? Was it France or was it not? I did not understand the relationship between the Archbishop and the King or the witches' lands and the cities.

They somehow wrote to each other using quills and parchment, but they had newspapers? I mean, how much brains does it require to print newspapers without print and get the paper to write on? (Since they evidently do not realise that they can write directly on paper.) And their world was old-fashioned in every way, but they had popcorn? I was just very confused throughout. The French added a nice touch to the book, but apart from their language, and pastries, there weren't many similarities between them and France.

The book also had its flaws. If the mAgIc sword of the Chasseurs protects them against the witches, why not just give the mAgIc in the swords to the entire kingdom? And if it is expensive or rare, just give the swords to the royal family and you negate the requirement for Chasseurs? Literally how hard is it to figure out that the thing that prevents witches' magic from working should be given to the people who are to be protected from it?

The whole thing to do with eye colours was a big mess. Somebody please tell Lou that emerald is green, while turquoise is a shade of blue. It was also annoying how she was said to have blue-green eyes, just because her mother had green eyes and her father had blue. Maybe that is how it works, but it's more likely that she would have normal green eyes.

Also, the whole marriage thing was the most unnecessary part of this whole book filled with unnecessary happenings. Lou is a thief, and Reid is a Chasseur, trying to protect their land from the likes of her. So basically a policeman chasing a robber. Now, by some fantastical twists in the fantastical tale, they happen to fall onto a stage, with him on top of her, and her face covered with bruises. To prevent (keyword PREVENT) any misunderstandings from spreading among the crowd and to save Reid's reputation, the Archbishop announces that they are married? I mean, wouldn't it be easier to tell them the truth? The dude was doing his silly job?

And even if he did make that announcement, it was not like anyone followed up. If Lou had been sent to prison afterwards, nobody would have cared. After a few more pages, everybody seemed to have forgotten that Reid had a wife.

But nooooo. Marriage.
Sure. That was absolutely the only way.
*sigh*

I wanted to rant about many things, but honestly, this book was so immemorable that they all slipped my mind.

Oh yes, that brings me to the predictability. The you're-my-daughter/son-and-I'm-your-long-lost mother/father fiasco? Didn't everyone already know about that? I mean there were plenty of hints before they "revealed" it? And that was the only plot twist this book had to offer?

And please don't get me started about the "smell of magic" thing.

Oh, too late.

Not a single one of the Chasseurs were smart enough to understand when somebody used magic. What happened to the cloying smell of it when Lou used it? All she had to do was fill the room with smoke and somehow the "overpowering" smell went away. At one point she walks into the room with the smell pouring off her, and Reid does not suspect a thing. A single thing. Guy, you had one job.

And can we talk about how Anel was so incompetent? Everyone kept flirting with him and talking about how kind and cool he was, but he was just a sixteen-year-old little guy who knew nothing about what he'd signed up for.

If Coco and Reid were supposed to be in their mid-twenties, their personalities were falling short of it. All Reid ever was, was the tallest, most handsome person in all the land (naturally) who took orders from the Archbishop, and made it the goal of his life to not question anything he was taught. I think Lou was supposed to be eighteen? Oh, and of course she was very short and very thin so that the tallest dude in the world could tower over her. I'm fed up with these books.

The chap should get an award for using the maximum possible vowels in his names, real and false. I just pronounce Reid as 'reed'. And isn't Raoul the same as Raul?

Regardless, I'm going to be reading the next book because this series is too popular to not. Let's hope the rest of the series is better 🤞🏻

Thank you for reading my review!