I received an ARC from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
Release date: September 3, 2019
Rating: 4/5
To be honest, I’ve been debating between 3.5 and 4 stars. I’m rounding up because Serpent and Dove had my attention and I was enthralled with the romance. It has two of my favourite tropes: marriage of convenience and enemies to lovers.
Serpent and Dove is set in a fantasy kingdom called Belterra, which is essentially a fantasy version of historical France. The church and witches have been at war over this land for many years. Witches are being hunted by Chasseurs, a special brand of police enforcement sworn to the Church who dedicate their lives to hunting witches. Lou is a witch who has forsaken all her magic to protect herself from being hunted. Fate intervenes and Lou finds herself forced to marry Reid, Captain of the Chasseurs. Now she has to really make sure that her true identity is not revealed.
Serpent and Dove is a really good debut fantasy romance. As a romance, it has the perfect blend of chemistry, slow burn, angst, and humour. I personally wouldn’t consider this book as a YA novel — it’s new adult. As a fantasy, the world building felt weak in the beginning because we were only given bits and pieces of information so we could understand the immediate scene before us. I was fine with that, but it also left me with a lot of questions about the world. This didn’t bug me a lot, because the romance was the main priority in the story. And it all makes sense now: if the romance wasn’t built in all its slow burn glory, then the eventual climax and the characters’ actions wouldn’t have made sense. Also, the romance here benefits from dual POV in first person. So we get both the hero and heroine’s perspectives, which I LOVED.
The missing bits and pieces of information were eventually revealed at a very crucial point in the story — it was a learning experience for both the reader and the characters. To summarize: these missing pieces of information were used to propel the story and its twists. The thing is: if you’re the kind of reader that expects to understand everything about the world early on, then I’m not sure that this is the book for you. The world building here almost works as a puzzle, which isn’t complete until the climax starts building up. Even then, we are left with questions about certain revelations, but those will be explored further in the sequel.
I’m excited to see where the author takes the story in the next book. There were a lot of exciting revelations at the end of Serpent and Dove. The events from this book are definitely going to impact the characters as well. There is so much potential! I’m excited for the next book!
Romance Library 