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A review by the_ya_assassin
Blood & Honey by Shelby Mahurin
3.0
*3.5 stars*
This book was DEFINITELY different from Serpent & Dove. Is it because Mahurin wrote S&D without a publisher and editor constantly hovering behind her? Or is it just REALLY poor planning on her part? I don't know, but I did not enjoy this book as I much as I had hoped. All of the magic in S&D that made it one of my favorite reads of 2020 does NOT exist in this book.
First of all, the story seemed . . . out of it, if you know what I mean. Impersonal. It didn't feel like the same author, much less story, as S&D. Maybe it's because there was more Reid POV? Secondly, I didn't connect with it - it was boring and too long for nothing to happen in it at all. It's my worst fear: the filler 2nd book in a trilogy. Hardly any action & what little did happen, it felt like an afterthought and the conflict was resolved quickly. There was NO romance, not that I'll count anyway, and Reid and Lou were separated the majority of the book! Like WHY?!?! And when they were together, all they did was bickering, and it wasn't even GOOD bickering. This book was a whole lot of drama and filler versus what I expected from Mahurin. And even worse, Lou didn't feel like Lou to me! Reid was such a pain in the butt too, not the caring guy we met in the first S&D! And why WEREWOLVES?! Why couldn't it just stay witches and witch- hunters/ haters?!
That doesn't stop the fact that there are many questions I have for Gods & Monsters. Like now that Morgane isn't really a threat, who's going to be the new antagonist? Or is one of her "powerful pieces" on the board going to be played in her favor? If there is a new antagonist, would it be the King? And what about Madame Labelle? Will the crew save her?
The ending was my favorite part of the whole book. Mostly because I couldn't wait for the book to be over, but it was also a BIG cliffhanger. I NEED to know what happened exactly, besides the fact that Lou is being kidnapped and taken to the Chateau and she changed bodies with the freaky rat Blood Witch (forgot her name, sorry. That's how little I cared about this book).
Well . . . another year of waiting. I hope Mahurin writes G&M better than Blood and Honey - I'm worried it won't though because G&M comes out a full month before the other ones have, and that means a smaller amount of writing time, which means it could be worse. Hopefully the time crunch doesn't affect the writing too much.
This book was DEFINITELY different from Serpent & Dove. Is it because Mahurin wrote S&D without a publisher and editor constantly hovering behind her? Or is it just REALLY poor planning on her part? I don't know, but I did not enjoy this book as I much as I had hoped. All of the magic in S&D that made it one of my favorite reads of 2020 does NOT exist in this book.
First of all, the story seemed . . . out of it, if you know what I mean. Impersonal. It didn't feel like the same author, much less story, as S&D. Maybe it's because there was more Reid POV? Secondly, I didn't connect with it - it was boring and too long for nothing to happen in it at all. It's my worst fear: the filler 2nd book in a trilogy. Hardly any action & what little did happen, it felt like an afterthought and the conflict was resolved quickly. There was NO romance, not that I'll count anyway, and Reid and Lou were separated the majority of the book! Like WHY?!?! And when they were together, all they did was bickering, and it wasn't even GOOD bickering. This book was a whole lot of drama and filler versus what I expected from Mahurin. And even worse, Lou didn't feel like Lou to me! Reid was such a pain in the butt too, not the caring guy we met in the first S&D! And why WEREWOLVES?! Why couldn't it just stay witches and witch- hunters/ haters?!
That doesn't stop the fact that there are many questions I have for Gods & Monsters. Like now that Morgane isn't really a threat, who's going to be the new antagonist? Or is one of her "powerful pieces" on the board going to be played in her favor? If there is a new antagonist, would it be the King? And what about Madame Labelle? Will the crew save her?
The ending was my favorite part of the whole book. Mostly because I couldn't wait for the book to be over, but it was also a BIG cliffhanger. I NEED to know what happened exactly, besides the fact that Lou is being kidnapped and taken to the Chateau and she changed bodies with the freaky rat Blood Witch (forgot her name, sorry. That's how little I cared about this book).
Well . . . another year of waiting. I hope Mahurin writes G&M better than Blood and Honey - I'm worried it won't though because G&M comes out a full month before the other ones have, and that means a smaller amount of writing time, which means it could be worse. Hopefully the time crunch doesn't affect the writing too much.