Hello there, and welcome to what might very well be my last review of this 2020… And could I conclude this year without catching up with the latest installment in the Serpent & Dove trilogy? Of course not! Actually, I’m still trying to figure out why I haven’t picked Blood & Honey before.
First of all:
Some info about the book
Title: Blood & Honey
Author: Shelby Mahurin
Publication Date: September 1, 2020 (in Italia arriva il 25 febbraio!)
Publishing House: Harper Collins
Page Count: 532
ISBN: 978-0062878052
Target: Young-adult (more like New Adult in my opinion)
Genre: fantasy, romance
My Review:
If you know me well, you know that Serpent & Dove (Shelby Mahurin’s debut paranormal fantasy novel) was in my 2019 top tier list. I remember reading an advance reading copy of it and feeling so blessed (pun intended?) by this hilarious, feel-good, steamy love story between a witch and a witch hunter. The thing is: as its sequel — Blood and Honey — got out in the world I was occupied with a different book, and in the meantime people started talking about it: someone positively, someone really negatively . And then I started to worry, because S&D had become a favorite, and I didn’t want to be disappointed by this trilogy.
So: did Blood & Honey disappoint me? Let’s find this out!
‼️There may be some spoilers, so BEWARE ‼️
WORLD-BUILDING:
Let’s start from the world-building. The world in Serpent & Dove was limited to the city of Cesarine — and some other places that were just outlined. One would expect the second installment to explore more of this French-inspired reign: unfortunately, we pass from a very sketchy world-building to one that was taken a bit for granted. New places and folks are introduced in this book, but they are treated as if the reader knows what they’re like, when they had never been mentioned before. That’s not something I give much value in a book where the romance part is clearly the focus, but it still bothered me at times, because some of the new characters — like the loup garoux — were awesome, and I believe that, if better handled, they really could enrich the world in a serious way. The effort to create something more complex in this book is clear, but not always achieved at its best: the new entries had great potential, but their exploration felt rushed if not incomplete and lacking coherence at times.
Apart from this, the atmospheres were incredibly immersive: La Forêt Des Yeux was enchanting to me, and this magic system is always a pleasure to witness. As I said in the first review, the theme of balance in magic is something that really intrigued me about this story, and in this volume it was explored even better: we find out more about the white witches’ patterns and the red witches‘ magic, and especially their consequences. I loved it!
The whole mood is darker in this book–someone didn’t like this aspect, but I found the change in atmosphere really smooth and coherent to the various situations the characters were living. The scenes at the circus made me dream with open eyes and brought a little cheer, the scenes at the red witches’ camp got me chills, but let’s not forget that the premises in this installment are very different from what they were at the beginning of the story, so it’s not weird for the atmosphere to change.
PLOT:
As a lot of people already pointed out, not much happens in this second installment–at least plot-wise: it’s basically journeying in the hope to find some allies while being wanted by the whole kingdom.
I was so afraid that this could somehow affect my involvement in the story, but it thankfully didn’t happen: even though this book may suffer from the ‘second volume syndrome‘, I almost never felt bored while reading, and on the contrary, I devoured both the first and third part in a few hours. If it is a filler book (and trust me, it is) I believe that it has been filled quite good. The only thing that bothered me about the main plot is the lack of a plan: these characters just roam randomly, and even when they say they have a plan, it proves to be incredibly silly.
However, I believe my main problem with this book lies in its second part: there I found more inconsistencies, some minor plot-hole and something that I didn’t quite like in some character arcs. It also felt a bit repetitive and empty.
Nonetheless, I don’t think this book was unnecessary: yeah, right, some may say that the situation at the end of the book is almost the same as it was at the beginning, but I believe that this installment provided some micro-changes in the protagonists that are definitely important for what’s about to come. And let’s not forget that some important characters have been introduced.
There are few plot-twists in this volume, but they all left me gasping. The last two were pretty predictable if one thinks about it, but I found them somehow important to bring the plot to the next installment. It has come to my mind that this trilogy follows the same scheme for every book, always building up to the last 100 pages or so for the “big event”. I don’t know how to feel about this: on one end I really like the order that it conveys, but on the other hand, I think that shaking things up a bit wouldn’t be that bad!
CHARACTERS:
This book was definitely character-driven. If not much happens plot-wise, quite a lot goes on in Lou and Reid’s heads. Where do I even start? I was fascinated by their introspection, by the way they react to the traumas they underwent in the previous book: let’s not forget that they are seventeen, and while their reactions felt a bit childish at times, I found them completely comprehensible. Once I would have rolled my eyes at Reid‘s obstinacy to not want to approach magic, but witnessing where it came from — shiz, that was hard, and so I couldn’t blame him. I do blame him for his jealousy and protectiveness though. Both Lou and Reid undergo so much suffering, and while in Serpent & Dove I probably preferred Lou’s pov, here I think I loved Reid’s more, because it explores so much of his mind and past, especially related to his approach to magic and his idea of family. BUT THE SHIP. THE SHIP. I had forgotten how much this woman is able to make me ship! As I already said in Serpent & Dove, I believe that Shelby is a mastermind in terms of ships. Everything else may also be lacking, but the construction of characters and their relationships will always be my favorite thing about this series. The whole situation in which Reid tries to use magic but then something terrible happens and so he returns to his close-mindedness and Lou suffers because of this and they become more and more distant, accumulating more and more resentment was GOLDEN. Chef’s kiss. I found it so interesting to witness, but above all SO REAL. How many times do we get miles apart from the ones we love due to many micro-factors? I loved how Shelby built all these micro-traumas for the characters and how this shaped their relationship. And how do we pass from this to the resolution? YASSS, gimme angst and arguments and all that comes later when they make peace 😂. But honestly, the dialogue they have when they finally indeed make it up brought me to tears. I will always marvel at the way these two characters interact. And how they seem so real, so relatable in their relationship is so rare. Damn, I will miss them.
But let’s talk about Lou. Lou was so fragile in this installment. No, I don’t think she was out of character: it’s easy to say that when you have only seen one side of her in the first book. Now she’s finally called go confront all the shit that was thrown at her, and so she crumbles, and she crumbles so easily–and that’s the beauty of fragility. I also really appreciated the fact that this book shows us the ways in which she is similar to her mother, and the effects it has on both Lou and Reid. What I did think deserved a better treatment was her “descent into the dark side”. That was such an interesting theme to explore, expecially given where she comes from, but in my opinion it could have been handled way better, because it felt so rushed and random in certain scenes, almost absurd in others. As for the rest of the group… I was expecting to see much more of Beau. I WAS THERE FOR HIM. I wanted to see him grow… But nothing really happens to Beau in this book, except for being the comic relief. Such a waste☹️. My hopes are all for book 3, now.
There’s something about Coco and the weird triangle that I didn’t quite liked in her arc: why choose to make her queer (without exploring the theme of her sexuality, just randomly) WHEN YOU HAD ANSEL. YOU COULD DO THAT WITH ANSEL AND IT WOULD HAVE BEEN PERFECT. PERFECT. PEOPLE WHERE ACTUALLY EXPECTING THAT. But no. Ok. I liked the little confrontation she had with Ansel, and THANK GOD they didn’t end up together, they had less than zero chemistry!
Oh, Ansel. My sweet, precious child. How brave he was in this book. He felt so left out. His arc was a bit predictable in my opinion, but I liked it, and it will definitely shape the future of the story (at least I hope). Of course he didn’t deserve what came upon him, but I’m not mad and I don’t think it was unnecessary. I can see why the author went for this choice. Have I already mentioned I like books that make me suffer?
I would have loved a further exploration of Morgaine‘s character. I think she’s such an interesting villain. The hint at the similarity between mother and daughter in this book gave me chills–it holds such a great potential, I hope it doesn’t go to waste! I love that her plan is always subtle and that she basically plays with her daughter from behind the scenes. And that last scene of hers was powerful. But again, I want to know more about her! I want to know more of the humanity she sacrificed.
Same goes for the king and his relationship with madame Labelle and his children. Gimme more!
Madame Labelle started out as a really annoying character in this book but proved to be the sweetest mom.
But now… Let me fangirl a little about the one and only star of this installment: Claud Deveraux! I KNEW he had to be important, I felt that right from the beginning! Yaaass! And he made me unexpectedly cry? How dare him? Like… All that discourse on how snakes shed their skin… I FELT THAT. Like, attacked. Wow. Thanks, Shelby, for gifting us this man.
And finally… The Dames Rouges. I loved the atmosphere they evoked. Especially Nicholina. And shame on me to have forgotten what kind of characters they were. Shelby managed to foul me one more time!
STYLE:
As I started reading this book, I instantly felt how much I had missed Shelby’s writing style — the Cauldron bless it. It flows so easily that I devoured more than fifty pages in one sitting and that may be little for you, but to me… It didn’t happen in a long time. And I love the way it genuinely makes me laugh. And this time it also made me cry? Like how dare you?
This time, however, I really noticed how similar it is to SJM‘s.
FEELS:
You know it, this book wins for the feels. This book wins for the ship. I can complain about everything else, but if a book makes me cry–it has my heart. And this one made me cry more than once. Perhaps even more than twice. It made me realize how attached I am to those characters. From next book I expect them to become a real squad though, with all those “found family” vibes that would perfectly go with the story of each character.
So… Was I disappointed?
Perhaps by certain aspects, even if I never expected this book to be perfect — I mean, Come on guys, it’s a paranormal romance, and it doesn’t want to be the next nobel prize winner. The thing I’m expecting from this kind of books is entertainment, and from this perspective it hasn’t disappointed a bit–indeed, it even surprised me, and made me ask myself WHY didn’t I start this sooner.
Is it better than the first one? Probably not, if only for the lack of action. But it was so much better than I expected given that my expectations were pretty low. So I can’t say that it was as bad as some reviews pictured it. I can see why some people hated it, but fortunately I didn’t (and I feel super blessed, it would have hurt so much otherwise!)
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk to my last review for 2020! Sorry for messing up with words (you know, English is not my mother tongue and I’m having more difficulties lately since I’m currently prepping both a French and a German exam, so my mind decided to cancel English.) I hope I was clear enough, and if not, please excuse me!
See you next year, my readers, I hope it is a better one for everyone. ♥️
Debs' Court Of Dreams 