Review: Serpent & Dove

3.5/5 stars

Non-spoiler review: Serpent & Dove is Shelby Mahurin's Young Adult fantasy (I think?) debut, ranking #2 on the New York Times bestseller list. It is a book about magic, witches, witch hunters, and features a lot of mystery, love, friendship and hidden pasts. I can see where the love for this book comes from; the main character is funny, utterly ridiculous and extremely lovable. The enemies-to-lovers romance and the convenience-marriage were well executed. However, this is not a novel with a jaw-droppingly beautiful writing style or outstanding worldbuilding. Those are the two main aspects that could have used some improvement. Spoiler review: Serpent & Dove is a fun, quick read. Lou is incredibly lovable and inspiring, and she's one of the few instances where I enjoyed reading about her more than the male love interest. The female friendship between Lou and Coco was also very refreshing. Ugh, and Ansel. Ansel is the sweetest. And it also has to be said that the romance between Reid and Lou is adorable. Overall, this is an impressive debut.

However, this book didn't exactly blow me away where worldbuilding is concerned. Obviously, the author took inspiration from historical French culture, but seeing as it's still fantasy, it was a little confusing; I thought they were in 18th century Paris at some point in the beginning. So what is it, exactly? Historical fiction? Fantasy? Because it's not only the obvious French names (Louise, Jean Luc, Cosette, etc.) but also that some words were quite literally borrowed, like 'La Dame Blanche' and 'Soleil et Lune'. It's not something similar, it's literally French. Borrowing from existing cultures when writing fantasy cultures is very common, even encouraged, but simply copy-pasting seems a little lazy. Additionally, I think there was a missed opportunity where perspective is concerned. In the middle part of the book, we get a lot of Lou's perspective. Don't get me wrong, I love her perspective. But I think we needed more of Reid's perspective in there too, seeing as the dynamics between them subtly change throughout these chapters. One of the most memorable chapters from Reid's perspective is when he first marries Lou; he explains that he thinks she's a heathen and against everything he stands for, and he loathes her for it. But later we find out he has started falling for her. What was it that made him fall for her, exactly? Was there a turning point? I would've loved to read more about that. Moreover, I think the writing could use some improvement. It wasn't that bad; there isn't a lot of annoying, repeated focus on the male love interest's appearance, and the writing style was mostly pleasant. But at times, I noticed the writing was a little messy. Firstly, there was a lot of bile rising in the back of throats/mouths, and I would have liked to see more creative, less revolting wording to show disgust or fear. Secondly, there were quite a few cases of me not being able to tell which 'he' or 'she' the author was referring to. Thirdly, I read this book on my phone, so I don't know if the physical copy of the book inserted pauses whenever there was a time jump, but I definitely missed it in the e-book version. It felt messy and jarring whenever I kept on reading on the same page and suddenly a few hours had passed. A few blank lines, in my opinion, are always a more welcome indication between time jumps. Finally, I want to add that I would've enjoyed seeing more of a difference in writing style from the two perspectives, so I could have distinguished them a little better. Two different first-person perspectives means two different minds - I want to be able to tell them apart from the use of language. Lastly, I must say I'm not a fan of making out after throwing up. Please, let there be some mouth washing involved. The vomiting was also always immediately ignored after it happened, leaving me staring wide-eyed at the page thinking: so you're just going to have an intimate conversation now with this pool of vomit reeking next to you? Kind of ruins the mood. In conclusion, I'd say this was very a very enjoyable read, and I will definitely be picking up the second installment, but the writing and worldbuilding could've used some improvement. Since this book is the author's debut, I'll cut her some slack in that regard. Regardless, I'm very curious to learn if the author will take the opportunity to have Célie and Jean Luc feature in some interesting storylines in the sequel, as I think there is some definite potential there.