Book Review: Gods and Monsters by Shelby Mahurin

Gods & Monsters by Shelby Mahurin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The end of an era for me. I’ve read the first book three times, the second and this book one time, and I have to say, I’ve never had so much fun reading these books and enjoying myself getting to know these characters and making them a part of my bookish family, because I really love this series so much.

Gods and Monsters has a bunch of action, romance, drama, magic and more. It brings in the mermaids and gods of old, and it has a character I was shocked and surprised to love so much after not liking her in the last two books. But she has grown on me, and she has became one of my favorite characters, right next to Lou and Reid. Even though it opened with a possession (Cool spell, still possession), from there it lead to a journey with twists and turns that I wasn’t even expecting.

Lou and Reid, my babies, were apart, then Reid did a thing that made me have a Come to Jesus meeting with him, but he got them back. I really liked how Lou fought back against Nicholina and saw through her past and the voices inside her. I thought she was Gollum for a long time because of the way she talks. I was waiting on her to do that “gollum, gollum” thing Gollum does, but Nicholina did not-instead she talked really weird and she made me want to pull my hair out each time she does that. Then when Reid told Lou that “I will make my way back to you” and pull the string that made him lose his memories, I was confused that I wanted to read on, because I didn’t need sleep, I needed answers for what he’d done.

The introduction of the melusines was pretty darn cool. I actually wanted to live there because of how cool their world was. I liked how they had other ocean animals as pets, and how they can switch from having two legs or having fins. Their leader was alright to me, nothing to run and tell mama about, TBH. But the one thing-or person-that surprised me was Celie Tremblay..who knew how to break into stuff and actually helped Lou break into the safe at Chateau le Blanc-SHOCKINGLY.

I really didn’t like Celie in book one and two. But in this book she grew on me as she was both a lady and also a knowable thief and how she helped Lou with the door. Yes, Lou is now La Dames des Sorcieres and can do some very powerful magic, but Celie is powerful herself, even helped Belterra’s people get to safety from the blood witches.

This is my favorite book of the series, and I’m so glad that I read and loved it.

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Book Review: Blood and Honey (Serpent and Dove #2) by Shelby Mahurin

Blood & Honey by Shelby Mahurin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book…caused me so much emotional damage that I was on the edge of my seat as I read it. This has so many twists and turns and surprises that I thought that I would fall out of my seat reading this book. And Loureid once again shocked me TO THE POINT that they had to split the party, which I said “Does…does anyone know NOT TO SPLIT THE PARTY?!”

But before I can get into all of that, let’s start with the elephant in the room, which is Morgane le Blanc, Louise’s mother. In the first book, Morgane actually killed Louise but Louise came back to life. Now she’s out here killing the king’s children, starting with the blood witches. Etienne was horribly killed, and Gabrielle was kidnapped. Morgane was going after people that either looked like Reid (which, it turned out, Etienne had red hair just like Reid). Lou wanted to stop her mother from doing all of this, and she tried, but it took Woodwose, who turned out to be a very charismatic man from a traveling troupe, to stop her. But after she was stopped, she turned around and killed Ansel (which pissed me off).

Reid, on the other hand, is trying his hardest not to use magic. He doesn’t want to see it, smell it, or even think about it. After finding out he’s a male witch, he’s been trying to suppress his magic and only use his hands and fists and logic to get out of things. But he did get the Beast of Gévaudan on his side to help find Morgane and stop her. He actually made a friend in Thierry, and he did use his magic on three people and a Chasseur he knew. When he, his mother, and Bastien got caught by King Auguste, it didn’t go well. Because King Auguste wanted Louise (turns out he’s an evil son of a bitch) and didn’t care how many women he slept with, he was going to have more kids (like bruh…Robert Baratheon did that. Look how he turned out). But thanks to his sisters Violette and Violetta, he escaped and had to leave his mother behind.

Now the thing that threw me a bit was the knife-throwing scene. Did it awaken something in me? Maybe. No one told me that was going to be in there-I went in there blind and I really liked that scene. I got scared that Reid was gonna hurt Lou, but he didn’t. But the ENDING. When La Voisin did that spell so Nicholina (whom I’m convinced that was based on Drusilia from BtVS) could possess Lou, in which I was like “Is she really gonna do-no…no, she did” and I don’t know if I’m ready to read Gods and Monsters, but I am and I can’t wait to read it.

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Book Review: Serpent and Dove by Shelby Mahurin

Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Serpent and Dove...a book that for some reason people don’t like and I have no idea why, but that is their opinion-this is mine, and I liked it, to tell you the truth.

I liked the story of a witch marrying a witch hunter, and trying to hide her past because of her mother-I’m writing a fanfic about something like that, all except it’s the father that scares the daughter (and has done terrible things to the couple). But as I read it more, I liked the magic system in the story, and even though the French part confuses me sometimes, I truly did enjoy this book.

I have to say that yes, I’ve fallen for Reid Diggory, and since he’s married, I’m going to look respectfully, because 1.) the man is tall 2.) he’s stiff as a damn board-like really, stiff as a board, but throughout the book you see him grow into a man who really cares for his wife, even when he finds out that she’s a witch and told her that she wasn’t his wife when she was revealed she was one (that one broke my heart when he said that, just...torn into little tiny pieces when he said that.

The sad part was throughout the book was Louise’s mother, Morgane, even though she came at the middle of the book, and holy hell that woman is giving me hella, hella crazy mama/Dahlia from The Originals season two, but good fucking god Dahlia wasn’t this fucking crazy. To stab your own daughter in the throat and then sacrifice her? The fuck, lady, the fuck.

I mean...I was so angry that I wanted??? To Scream??? Like what the hell?? Why U do that for??? But at least Reid was there to stop her (and also, press F in the chat for the Archbishop...that I don’t really like because he was an asshole, but he found out he was Lou’s father) but I have to say my favorite part of this book is when the witches attacked the Chassures and also when Reid and the others walk into the Dame Blanches’ home in those funny disguises. But the one thing that shocked me was when Reid could see a pattern and just acted on it, and it was revealed that he can see magic, and that he’s also a male witch, which I found exciting because it was so unexpected to see really.

But can we talk about sweet Ansel? Sweet, adorable Ansel, who didn’t trust Lou at first, but the more he was around her, the more I wanted to protect this boy. Even when Reid and Lou had a fight, he wanted to go after her (and he almost did) but after meeting up with Coco, Beau and Madame Labelle (Reid’s mama, by the by) and plotting to get Lou out of Chateau le Blanc and I loved it??? So much??? That I wanted more??? (Which I do have Blood and Honey, but I’m going to read it next year).

I cannot wait and see where this story goes and how Morgane survives, and if they beat her, because this was actually pretty damned good, if I say so myself.

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