This is the sequel to : Serpent & Dove. The first book of this soon to be trilogy.
For those who don't know it is the romance between a witch and a witch-hunter whom fall in love when she (Lou) is hiding as a human. They get married and a bigger storyline and romance ensues. It is supposed to be set in a France historical inspired setting.
This book was fun and entertaining and it took me a while to truly figure out how I felt about it after I read it..., I loved Serpent & Dove it had truly taken me by surprise and made me happy and I fell in love with Lou & Reid's romance. I love their banter and how funny they are together, these books are also steamy and the best part of the story is definitely their romance. I also love the friendship between Coco and Lou, however we got a lot less of it in this installment, which disappointed me a lot.
START SPOILER:
we got to see Bas again, and it felt really anticlimactic to me. Okay so he loses his memories, chases them because hunting witches with a bounty is cool and then when he remembers we don't really get to see a real conversation between him and Lou even though she saved him from the tower in the first book and then got married to Reid to save Bas her lover ??? Understandably she has moved on and Reid is conflicted about the lie she had told him, but it just left me unemotional when it should've been this big reveal and scene, that he lost him memory to save Lou and Coco so the witch hunter would not find them and kill them.
END SPOILER
During this book, while the writing was beautiful, while it was a fun and easy read it was lacking the "je ne sais quoi" the first book had. Everything felt or perfect pace or spending too fast. The setting pace at the beginning was my favorite, I liked that she let the characters absorb and digest what they had lived through in the first book. Everything from the 120 pages mark felt like it was going slightly too fast..., there was these big cumulating events meant to add pressure and stress to the story that simply did not have enough time to give us the impact it tried to do. Reid almost dying so many times that only the last one really felt a little bit more emotional. So much could've been solved with communication in this book which is one of my pet peeves when I read a fantasy book, especially on the romance aspect. If they had just sat down and talked I feel the real important moments of the storyline would've had bigger impact in the story. Honestly I felt sadder at the 375 page than what was mean to be the real sad moment at the end. I would not recommend this book as a fantasy because of that, this is more of a romance with fantasy aspects to me.
I loved however the side-character we got to meet and his reveal at the end of the book, Claud Devereaux, I hope we get to learn more about him in the last book. I even would not mind a book or duology based on his story origins and all that. Also when he said "she could've been ours"... I also really enjoyed the caravan and the two brothers that were in it, there were a lot of great atmospheric scenes in this book.
A big part of the book I was mad at Reid and then at Lou, and back and forth. I liked that however, I liked that I could understand both of their own views on what was happening. I loved learning more about Reid's past, his memories and one of the things that made him feel so guilty. The werewolves were super interesting. I loved also Coco's family, the only thing about that that disappointed me on both accounts was again how fast the alliance came to be when the other parties were supposedly supposed to be soooo against it !
One of my favorite scene was when Lou was like we will lose them in three blocks max, and then she loses them in two and she's like "I always aim to please" in her thoughts.
A few of my favorite quotes:
"In truth, there had been no choice at all. There never had been. I loved her." -Reid
""I'll do anything for the ones I love, Reid. You know that."" -Lou
""You're never going to accept me."..."...You will always be a witch hunter. I'll always be a witch. And we'll always bring each other pain."" -Lou
"You will lose the one you love." -Coco
""... if given the choice, I never would've left you. I would've forsaken everything (...) to keep you."" -Madame Labelle
Overall the use of French was worse in this one than the first book.
4/5 stars Bookarina.
No comments:
Post a Comment