Review: Serpent and Dove by Shelby Mahurin

If she was destined to burn in Hell, I would burn with her.

Shelby Mahurin, Serpent and Dove

Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Year: 2019
Page Count: 513
Format: Hardcover
Rating: 4 stars

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.

I had absolutely no intentions of reading this book until a few weeks ago, when a book club I am apart of decided this would be our September pick. I wasn’t super excited, because I heard such polarizing reviews, and many people who have the same taste in books as me didn’t love it.

I understand why people wouldn’t like this book. I’ll be honest, I was very tempted to DNF it in the first half. However, around the halfway point, I became obsessed.

The general premise of this book and all I knew going into it was that the romance involves a witch, Lou, who is forced to marry a witch hunter, Reid, who doesn’t know she is a witch. Lou and Reid’s relationship was the slow burn that I was looking for. I love the enemies to lovers trope, and this was not disappointing. Lou and Reid are complete polar opposites. Lou is crazy and free-spirited, while Reid is very conservative and does everything by the book. Their relationship doesn’t seem like it would work, yet it does. It was so much fun watching the couple going from hating each other to embracing their marriage. Reid was so sweet and romantic, and Lou was the less sappy one, giving the perfect balance.

As for the plot, it was slow at first. However, once it started to pick up I could not put the book down. There were so many plot twists that I did not see coming that left my 1 a.m. brain in shock.

There were a couple things I struggled with in the beginning of the novel that made me not able to give this book a full 5 stars. It took me quite a long time to understand the world these characters were in. There were a lot of characters who weren’t really explained until the last 150 pages or so, and so it was hard to keep track of what everyone’s role was.

I also was not the hugest fan of how the dual perspective was done in this book. The first 75% or so rely very heavily on Lou’s perspective and little on Reid’s. Especially in the beginning, I really wanted to read more about Reid and get to know him and his role as a chasseur. Instead of the perspectives being 50/50, it was probably closer to 75/25, which was frustrating because I felt like I knew Lou so much better than Reid until the ending.

All that being said, I still obviously very much enjoyed this story. If you are on the fence, I would definitely recommend it! I can’t wait to pick up Blood & Honey soon!

What were your opinions on this book? Leave them in the comments below!