Shelby Mahurin
Blood & Honey by Shelby Mahurin
Released: September 1, 2020
Pages: 532
Publisher: HarperTeen
Overall: 3/5 Plot: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Setting & World-building: 4/5
Emotional Investment: 2/5
"The world didn't end in a scream.
It ended in a gasp."
Sequel syndrome is a real thing, and I, unfortunately, felt bits of it in this book, the sequel to Serpent & Dove.
Quick Summary: After the near-death situations in the last book, Lou, Reid, Coco, Beau, and Ansel are on the run from literally everybody (the king, the witches, and the church). To even out the future war against Morgane, Lou's mother, the gang are on a mission to gain allies. Through this tumultuous journey, Lou and Reid confront many issues that make be causing tension between them, understand how to love one another, and even become closer with their friends. But as much as a cat and mouse game with Morgane seems fun, isn't it true, the cat almost always wins?
So this story picks up exactly where the last one ends off at. Immediately the relationships within the group are established and it only gets tenser from there. Reid is having the biggest identity crisis of his life. He has found out he is a witch (not a spoiler in the last book) and suddenly his religious belief system discriminating against witches immediately becomes obvious and causes major issues between him and Lou. I can totally understand how the ideologies you grew up with impact you, but Reid kind of had an "if I ignore it will go away" mentality. That annoyed me quite a bit. He was way more aloof in this book and it made him a distracting character to read. He did have some redeeming moments, like his character growth. Despite me hating a lot of his ideas he had a really good evolvement in this book, starting from stuck-up witch hater and eventually getting to still stuck-up but witch lover.
Lou on the other hand was a character I kind of despised the entire time. She was an incredibly strong heroine, who stuck up for everyone she loved. But... she would sometimes use that idea to justify her hurting innocent people. The entire werewolf scene where she literally broke the rules and then got mad at the werewolf alpha, made me so mad. Like the alpha lost his child because of the Chausseurs and now you are going to harm his other son in ways to get an alliance? Please calm down. I also didn't understand how other Dames Blanches witches weren't going crazy from using magic, but Lou was. This was a big conflict in the entire book because Lou kept trying to save people, causing her to go deeper into the darkness. I did feel pain for her because her mother was crap and her sole purpose in the world was to die, but just some of her actions annoyed me so much.
Now, something I loved was the secondary characters. Beau literally has my entire heart. He might be cocky and a little pompous, he clearly cares for the people he loves and I really wished I got chapters from his pov. Or literally, just a chapter or two of him existing. His relationship with his sister was the most beautiful thing ever. He is the best older brother - protective, funny, and discipline. Coco (who I kind of hope gets with Beau because like power couple) is my favorite witch. She literally cuts herself to conduct magic and she never backs down. She is everything I want to be and more. The only thing I didn't like is how she always said Lou's actions were fine. She never called her out and was like "bro you have to stop." Ansel is my literal child. He is strong and determined and so committed. He finally got a family in this book and it made me tear up a bit because honestly, he deserves the world. I also hated how everyone treated him like he was incapable of everything. They always demolished his spirits and internally I was like you guys are only like two years older than him.
Plot-wise this story took a bit of time to pick up because the first half is them just discussing how they should proceed. But after that, it got better and it was entertaining to read. There were a lot of characters introduced and I think they were ingrained into the plot in a really good way because I could actually remember most of them this time. But can I just point out Lou and Reid have so many possible last names? Like there are just so many and I was like wow imagine having the choice.
Despite this still being a decent book, sequel syndrome definitely occurred and it was evident through my decreasing attention span in this book. The details were there but at some point at I thought there was too much and that made me confused. Lou and Reid's love was strong in this book, but they really sucked at communication. And that made some parts feel over the top. My last only critique is that the conversations with the secondary characters and main characters almost always felt pointless. It didn't feel further the plot and that made the secondary characters feel more like random characters we weren't supposed to care about.
Now, as much as this didn't live it up to the first book, I am pretty excited to read the next book because the ending of Blood & Honey, is kind of crazy. So I would recommend this to people, to just understand more about Louise and Reid's world.
Quotes
"Closing your eyes will not make it so the monsters can't see you. It will only make you blind."
"If you are unafraid to lool, darling, you are unafraid to find."
"There are very few choices in life, that can't be unmade."
"Though a secret is a lie in pretty clothing, some secrets must be kept."
"Sometimes it hurts to remember the dead as who they were, rather than who we wanted them to be."
"She wore secrets like armor, and she shed them for no one."
"Love. The most elusive of mistresses."
"The king wants my actual head? How... barbaric. Are you sure you won't consider taking me to La Dame de Sorcieres instead? I'm suddenly quite sympathetic to her cause."
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