Series Review: Serpent and Dove Trilogy

“Bound as one to love, honor, or burn.

Two years ago, Louise le Blanc fled her coven and took shelter in the city of Cesarine, forsaking all magic and living off whatever she could steal. There, witches like Lou are hunted. They are feared. And they are burned.
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Sworn to the Church as a Chasseur, Reid Diggory has lived his life by one principle: thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. His path was never meant to cross with Lou's, but a wicked stunt forces them into an impossible union—holy matrimony.

The war between witches and Church is an ancient one, and Lou's most dangerous enemies bring a fate worse than fire. Unable to ignore her growing feelings, yet powerless to change what she is, a choice must be made.

And love makes fools of us all.”

Ok, is this predictable? Yes. Did I read the series anyway? Also yes. I wrote down my thoughts as I was reading and wanted to share with you about what I thought of this series. 

​Serpent & dove
The plot was what you would expect and gave plenty of hints where you could guess what was going to happen next. There was one sexy scene also so be warned if you don’t do the spice. The ending was actually pretty good, and has a few “twists” in there that made me want to read the next book to see if what I predict is going to happen. ​

One thing I think is interesting is the different types of witches. Lou is a Dame Blanche which, first of all, is supposed to be a sacrifice for all witches but she avoids that while her mom Morgane (the all-powerful aka Dame des Sorières) is trying to murder her.  But anyway, the Dame Blanches, look for patterns to use their magic and because it has a balance they have to trade something of hers for magic *hint major foreshadow here* and Coco (her bestie) is a Dames Rouge and uses blood for her magic mixed with other ingredients. 

I still can’t figure out the setting to be honest. French, with medieval themes, traveling circus and performers being common, the church basically rules the state. Maybe I’ll figure it out more in the next one but so far it’s a little confusing although interesting. 

​Blood & Honey 
Okay, Reid annoyed me a lot in this book. I don’t mind moral compass in characters, and although it sticks true to his character, he still irritated me.

It gets better halfway through and the whole group gets back together after they separate but I do find the situation with Ansel a little weird.  In the first book I thought it was kind of odd that they had a 16 year old just hanging out with them but I was like well, depending on the time period it might not matter. But, of course he is in love with Coco and there is a scene with some major heartbreak. I couldn't even be sad about it because it was just kind of odd and am still trying to figure out what they mean by talking about him being ever young - Deveraux mentions it before the Coco Ansel scene and calls him “La jeunesse éternelle” and said he will remain eternally young. 

Of course the book ended on a cliff hanger and truth be told I didn’t really want to keep reading the series because it just wasn’t as captivating as I thought it would be but of course I couldn’t only read two books of the series so I snagged the third copy. 

Gods and Monsters
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Honestly I was just over it and wanted to finish this book. Lou was “gone” in the beginning and they had to save her. But then of course Reid had to save her and it basically turned into the first book of them falling in love over again. The story just became too chaotic, so much was going on and then the ending was kind of weird, they don’t tell you who Madame Sauvage is although I have a pretty good guess because of how it occurred. 

In all honesty the books weren’t that bad but I didn’t think they were as good as I thought they would be.  I don’t foresee reading these again but they could be good for teenagers. I'm still a little bummed because I had high hopes and thought it might be similar to ACOTR series where I would love to read again, but alas, this one was not a hit for me.  Have you read it?  What do you think about it?