Blood and Honey by Shelby Mahurin
Blurb (on back of book): The hotly anticipated sequel to the New York Times and IndieBound bestseller Serpent & Dove—packed with even steamier romance and darker magic—is perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas.
After narrowly escaping death at the hands of the Dames Blanches, Lou, Reid, Coco, and Ansel are on the run from coven, kingdom, and church—fugitives with nowhere to hide.
To elude the scores of witches and throngs of chasseurs at their heels, Lou and Reid need allies. Strong ones. But protection comes at a price, and the group is forced to embark on separate quests to build their forces. As Lou and Reid try to close the widening rift between them, the dastardly Morgane baits them in a lethal game of cat and mouse that threatens to destroy something worth more than any coven.
MY OPINION: ***
I had such high expectations for this book but it ultimately ended up falling short of them. While the ending did sort of redeem itself and led to me bumping up the rating from two stars to three stars, I personally was not a fan of this book.
I think my biggest problem with it was that it felt like a filler novel in the series. This series could easily have been made a duology but I feel like with the rise of trilogies in YA, the publishers made the decision to extend it to three books. I think that resulted in a contrived novel with sparsely-implemented interesting details and boring plotlines that we could have done without.
We follow Lou and Reid on their journey to kill Morgane and gain justice for the witches just after the ending of the first book. Reid is shocked by the revelation that he's a male witch and tries to push away his magic, still stuck in his discriminatory mindset about witches and magic. I did like his character development throughout the book but I think it definitely was not important enough to merit a 537-page book.
Lou has not lost her spark and I liked her sarcastic, witty, humorous personality. However, I did not like her storyline in this book, as she starts to succumb to a dark side all of a sudden. It felt very random and disconnected from her character at the end of the first book and I would have liked to have seen more of the original Lou that we were introduced to. It felt very unnecessary and something that didn't need to be there. It honestly gave me Riverdale vibes; for those of you who watch that... questionable show, Betty Cooper starts to succumb to the "dark side" and I couldn't get that image out of my head when reading about Lou's journey to darkness.
Reid is not my favorite and I didn't like his regression into even more prejudiced beliefs about witches. Instead of accepting himself and using the fact that he's not evil to realize that not ALL witches are evil, he starts to hate himself and magic and even tries to control Lou from using her magic. I did not like this aspect about him because it felt very discriminatory and unfair and not something admirable in a love interest in a YA novel.
I LOVED Ansel. SPOILER I almost cried when he died. It was so sad and unnecessary and while we knew a death with coming, I was praying it wouldn't be him. END SPOILER He was such a sweetheart and so innocent and yet so brave. I hated how Lou treated him at the end, even though I understand why she said what she said, and I wish he had gotten some justice. He's not a bumbling, naive child like he's portrayed to be, and instead deserves so much better.
Coco and Beau were both characters who I could have potentially loved but weren't given enough screen-time (page-time?) to really make an impact on me. I would have loved to have seen more about both of them and their personalities, but instead they seemed like side tokens who were only mentioned when they were useful to whatever sticky situation our protagonists were in.
The plot stayed the same as the first book but was overly drawn-out and felt boring at times. I honestly wish that this book had just been skipped completely or have ended with a more definite finality, instead of making us read another 600-page book to see what we already know will happen.
However, I would like to point out that the writing itself is not awful. I loved the details and the intricacies of the story but I would have appreciated more world-building. If you're going to write a filler book, at least tell us what the lands look like! It's very character-driven.
I would recommend this book to readers looking for a YA fantasy series about witches and witch-hunters, and the enemies-to-lovers relationship between two of them.
Main Character: Lou, Reid
Sidekick(s): Ansel, Coco, Madam Labelle, Beau, etc
Villain(s): Morgane, prejudice, etc
Fantasy Elements: This book was based on imaginary plots, characters, and creatures.
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