by Shelby Mahurin
In this book we follow Lou who is a witch in hiding, and Reid who’s a witch hunter desperate to make his mentor proud.
Lou is living from day to day, hiding and stealing to get away from a past she doesn’t want to remember or speak of. Together with her friend Coco, a blood witch, she’s seeking to steal a piece of jewelry called Angelica’s Ring. It’s a magical piece who’ll help Lou hide from those who seek to find and kill her.
But when the mission takes un unfortunate turn, Lou and Reid is forced to marry to avoid a scandal. Now Lou is trapped in a tower crowded by witch hunters who’ll burn her without question if they knew what she is. At the same time, there’s probably no safer place to hide from those she’s hiding from.
So, I tried my best to share what the book was about here, but I found it surprisingly difficult. I’m not sure why, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what the book is about.
I thought this would be a riveting story of a war between witches and the church, of battle and enemies falling in love and hard choices. But, to be honest, it wasn’t that. It’s a love story more than anything. Most of the book revolves around the relationship between Reid and Lou and how they learn to love each other.
Of course, there are more there, too, but that’s not as relevant. At the beginning we’re set up for this big plot of Lou’s secrets and a powerful enemy searching for her. At the end, we get the battle we were promised, but in between there’s nothing, just love story.
It wasn’t what I expected, but it wasn’t bad, far from it. I liked the love story, it felt real up until the last 10%. It was a fairly easy read, and I enjoyed the book.
The plot is, well, not there, really, but still it is, in a way. The way it was written was both confusing and overcomplicated, and then at times simple and easy to read. It’s like two books in one, I feel like.
The opening made me regret picking up the book. I couldn’t wrap my head around what I was reading. It was complicated and unfocused and just strange (and not in a good way). But I stuck with it, and a couple of chapters in, around the time when the two main characters were forced into marriage, the story changed. This is where it became easy to read and the language was completely different.
The characters were interesting and well developed, and I enjoyed them all. I do find that the two POVs were a little too similar, though. It was Lou and Reid, and if it hadn’t been for the name being mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, I wouldn’t have known who’s POV it was a lot of the times. Their dialogue was different, but their inner thoughts didn’t match. Specifically, Reid’s inner thoughts sounded like Lou’s.
The worldbuilding was also done well. I could argue that this whole French inspired thing was a bit unnecessary, but I kind of got used to them tossing in French words out of the blue here and there. I mean, they were drinking chocolat chaud instead of just hot chocolate. It was a bit random.
Overall, it was a good book, I enjoyed it. I can’t really say more than that. Read it if you like love stories.
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