{"id":776,"date":"2021-02-09T23:57:40","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T21:57:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/?p=776"},"modified":"2021-02-09T23:57:42","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T21:57:42","slug":"serpent-dove","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/?p=776","title":{"rendered":"Serpent & Dove"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Shelby Mahurin<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this book we follow Lou who is a witch in hiding, and Reid who\u2019s a witch hunter desperate to make his mentor proud.\u00a0

Lou is living from day to day, hiding and stealing to get away from a past she doesn\u2019t want to remember or speak of. Together with her friend Coco, a blood witch, she\u2019s seeking to steal a piece of jewelry called Angelica\u2019s Ring. It\u2019s a magical piece who\u2019ll help Lou hide from those who seek to find and kill her.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019ll burn her without question if they knew what she is. At the same time, there\u2019s probably no safer place to hide from those she\u2019s hiding from. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I tried my best to share what the book was about here, but I found it surprisingly difficult. I\u2019m not sure why, but I couldn\u2019t 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\u2019t that. It\u2019s 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\u2019s not as relevant. At the beginning we\u2019re set up for this big plot of Lou\u2019s secrets and a powerful enemy searching for her. At the end, we get the battle we were promised, but in between there\u2019s nothing, just love story. 

It wasn\u2019t what I expected, but it wasn\u2019t 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\u2019s like two books in one, I feel like. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opening made me regret picking up the book. I couldn\u2019t 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019t been for the name being mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, I wouldn\u2019t have known who\u2019s POV it was a lot of the times. Their dialogue was different, but their inner thoughts didn\u2019t match. Specifically, Reid\u2019s inner thoughts sounded like Lou\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 <\/em>instead of just hot chocolate. It was a bit random. 

Overall, it was a good book, I enjoyed it. I can\u2019t really say more than that. Read it if you like love stories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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by Shelby Mahurin\u00a0 In this book we follow Lou who is a witch in hiding, and Reid who\u2019s a witch hunter desperate to make his mentor proud.\u00a0 Lou is living from day to day, hiding and stealing to get away from a past she doesn\u2019t want to remember or speak of. Together with her friend Coco, a blood witch, she\u2019s seeking to steal a piece of jewelry called Angelica\u2019s Ring. It\u2019s a magical piece who\u2019ll help Lou hide from those who seek to find and kill her.\u00a0 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\u2019ll burn her without question if they knew what she is. At the same time, there\u2019s probably no safer place to hide from those she\u2019s hiding from.  So, I tried my best to share what the book was about here, but I found it surprisingly difficult. I\u2019m not sure why, but I couldn\u2019t 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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[4],"wppr_data":{"cwp_meta_box_check":"Yes","cwp_rev_product_name":"Serpent & Dove","_wppr_review_template":"default","cwp_rev_product_image":"http:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/serpentanddove.jpg","cwp_image_link":"image","wppr_links":[],"cwp_rev_price":"","wppr_pros":["Great characters","Intriguing world","Good love story","Good ending"],"wppr_cons":["Hard to get into","A bit unfocused plot","POVs too similar"],"wppr_rating":"80.00","wppr_options":{"1":{"name":"Overall","value":"80"},"2":{"name":"Plot","value":"70"},"3":{"name":"Characters","value":"85"},"4":{"name":"Writing","value":"80"},"5":{"name":"Ending","value":"85"}},"wppr_review_type":"Product","wppr_review_custom_fields":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":778,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions\/778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}