5/5 stars
Two 5 ★ reads for me in a row! (The Last Girl Child was my last) I had high hopes going into Serpent & Dove and was not disappointed. Which is great, because before I read the book I had already ordered two copies and know it’s coming in a subscription box 🙈. Oh, and I had also already bought tickets to the Epic Reads Meetup fall tour to meet her, so there was a lot of hype for this book to live up to and it absolutely did.
Serpent and Dove is a dual-POV YA fantasy debut from Shelby Mahurin. There are so many things I loved about this novel I just made a list. Also, I’m super busy this week at work and my kids are back to baseball this week so I have to make it shorter.
- strong women
- excellent enemies to friends love story (my favvv)
- witches! And a unique take on how they cast spells
- flawed characters – I love this especially. Please don’t give me a Mary Sue. I’m not interested.
- swearing. Why is this on the list? Because I’m a sailor and I love to swear. Characters who swear are instantly more relate-able to me. Mahurin uses real swear words too (fuck, shit, etc.) Made up swear words are tiresome.
- sexy. The sex isn’t explicit and no parts are actually named, but the sex scenes are really well done. The fade-to-black gets annoying sometimes so I’m glad to see authors writing about loving consensual sexual relationships. Shelby tweeted about this earlier (see below).
- lots of action, but also strong character development. It was like the perfect combo for me and I never once got bored or wanted to fast forward the audio. Seeing the characters grow and develop was something I really enjoyed, and I am normally much more of a story-driven reader.
- super funny -the witty banter between Lou and Reid was 10/10
- well-built story arc. No plot holes (that I found) and a satisfying ending. Of course I still have questions because this is a series, but that’s to be expected.
- piggybacking off the one above – the REVEALS. I loved the way the story unfolded and how major surprises were revealed. They felt natural.
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsIt’s YA! There is one on the page sex scene, but some teens have sex. I wanted to write that reality in what I hope is a respectful way. Consent is discussed. No bits are named. Of course, some will disagree that sex is ever appropriate in YA. Your mileage may vary! https://t.co/GnZEk14F08
— Shelby Mahurin is on IG (@shelbymahurin) September 8, 2019
The absolute worst thing about this book is that I can’t read what happens next until 2020. ugh.
“Chanda Reads Books” is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. This is at no cost to the readers of this blog.
Chanda Reads 
3 thoughts on “Book Review: Serpent and Dove by Shelby Mahurin”