Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin

Title: Serpent & Dove

Author: Shelby Mahurin
Genre: Paranormal, YA
Series: Serpent & Dove #1
Audiobook, Unabridged
Publication: September 3, 2019 by HarperAudio
Source: Personal Library
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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’ve been waiting for a good witch/witch hunter story for ages! Serpent and Dove sounded like the perfect remedy. The synopsis had me right off the bat; a witch marrying a witch hunter? Hell yes, sign me up A.S.A.P! The story started off very promising with the hustle and bustle of the city life as readers are introduced to Lou and Reid our main characters. But suddenly the story took a hard left leaving me lost and confused. It wasn’t till the very end that the story started to get better but honestly, it wasn’t enough to redeem itself from the haphazard middle/execution.

I’m going to start off with what I enjoyed. I liked that the story was centered only on the witches and chasseurs (witch hunter). There were no monsters, vampires, or werewolves to crowd the storyline, just two distinct factions. Although the witches were divided into specific covens, depending on their abilities. In Serpent & Dove, we were introduced to the Dame Blanc and Dame Rouge was briefly mentioned (which will be seen in-depth in the sequel). I also liked that there were many laugh-out-moments. Reid’s reactions to Lou’s outgoing, wild nature was priceless.

Unfortunately, the flaws outweighed the good. With so many amazing reviews, I was expecting to be blown away, or at least get buffy vibes. I got neither. The writing, world building and characters all fell short and left me feeling underwhelmed for most of the book. The writing left much to be desired, it didn’t flow nor have that captivating spark seen in most debut novels. I felt the writing needed more time to develop and given more time I’m sure it would’ve been better. The world building was a hot mess, or lack of a world building. While Mahurin never stated the time period, it isn’t too farfetched to assume that the story took place during the 16th century (time of the witch trials) or latest 17th or 18th century which is when the word, chasseurs was coined…or at least around those time frames. The descriptions of the setting also supported this assumption. Then there was the dialogue…things turned messier. Lou and Reid's vernacular kept bouncing back and forth to 16-17th century and present day. I’m pretty sure they didn’t have words like F*ck or B*tch back then. I could be wrong. I don’t have an issue with curse words, it’s all gravy. But my point was it didn’t sound right. Mahurin should have picked and stayed in one lane because the combination of the setting and language timeline/style was ridiculous and took me out of the story on more occasions than I can count. 

And finally, we have the characters. I’m not a fan of Lou or Reid as you can guess by now. Perhaps Mahurin was going for an independent feminist in Lou but Lou wasn’t likeable, period. She’s vulgar in the worst ways, the kind of girls you see drunk and belligerent at the bars. Which many can imagine, low-class (ironic, since she's the coven princess) trashy and annoying. Reid wasn’t any better. He was all about rules, rules and more rules. He had a stick so far up his ass, I was surprised he was able to run at a drop of a hat at the mention of a witch nearby. Reid apparently had no clue Lou was a witch till the very end. ZERO. I find that unbelievable, especially when it was said countless of times that witch magic gave off an unpleasant odor. And Reid and Lou got personal so many times, I lost count. Give me a break, I didn’t buy any of it.

Serpent & Dove fell way below expectations. The cover, while beautiful and eye-catching did not match with what was inside the book. And if you haven’t read this novel yet, avoid it, especially the audiobook. The audiobook had one of the most annoying narrators I’ve ever listened to. With that said, do yourself a favor and skip Serpent & Dove, this isn’t the witch story you’ve been waiting for.