The Little Book Spy: Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin

Happy Friday! Today, I’ll be reviewing Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin. I'd seen a ton of reviews for Serpent & Dove ever since it was released in November and it was on my radar for quite a while. After seeing several raving reviews, I knew I had to read this book for myself!

About the Book:
Title: Serpent & Dove
Author: Shelby Mahurin
Release Date: November 5, 2019
Series: Serpent & Dove #1
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 518

My Rating: 5/5 ⭐️

Summary:
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.

As a huntsman of the Church, Reid Diggory has lived his life by one principle: Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. But when Lou pulls a wicked stunt, the two are forced into an impossible situation—marriage.

Lou, unable to ignore her growing feelings, yet powerless to change what she is, must make a choice. And love makes fools of us all.

My Thoughts:
I don't even know how to collect my thoughts on this book coherently (it’s taken me a month to write this review). This book was amazing and I immediately fell in love with it! The detail, the characters, the romance, the unpredictable and ironic situations, the plot twists, and of course the magic. Everything about this story was perfect. I loved the idea of a witch and witch hunter getting into a sticky situation, which ended up involving an arranged marriage after a certain situation unfolded early on in the story. The story flowed really well and pace of the story was amazing, it wasn’t too fast or slow. The detail and world building in the story was fantastic, I could easily and vividly see everything unfolding around the characters as they told their story.

Lou is everything that I ever wanted in a character and more. She's smart, knows how to push buttons, but she will do anything and everything for the people she loves. I found Lou's magic very interesting and a unique. It was interesting to see that her powers came at a cost for something of equal value, every ounce of magic used demanded balance. Reid was very strict character when it came to following the rules and being the best witch hunter. I liked how he grew and evolved throughout the story. I loved how easily you could see the subtle changes that both Lou and Reid encountered in the story, their enemy to lovers and slow burn romance was one of my many favorite parts! Their banter in the story was extremely funny at times and I couldn’t help but laugh at that one horribly, funny and crude song Lou continuously tried to sing just to redirect a situation.

The plot twists in this story were honestly the most shocking! I was blown away by them, it was like one after another. Once I finished understanding one plot twist and started to add up all of the pieces of this large web of events, another twist was immediately there adding to my shock! Overall, I loved this book so much. If you haven’t picked up Serpent & Dove yet, I definitely suggest adding it to you TBR as soon as possible.

If you’re interested in checking out Shelby’s pages, the links are below along with places you can get Serpent & Dove.