Blood & Honey Book Review (Serpent & Dove Series Book Two)

I’ve been waiting for Blood & Honey, a YA novel about a witch and former witch hunter trying to save the world from an evil blood witch, by Shelby Mahurin, since Serpent & Dove, book one, came out. (You can find that review here: https://gracenask.wixsite.com/books/post/serpent-dove.) As with the previous one, there is nudity and a sex scene inside.

Like the previous title, the name Blood & Honey is such a good sense of symbolism. It leads the reader to think that erratic Lou, the female protagonist, would be the blood associated with evil and stoic Reid, the male protagonist, would be the honey associated with purity. However, it is later revealed that blood mixed with honey--the good and bad mingled together--repairs serious wounds. Mahurin exemplifies this with her characterizations, having Lou and Reid spiral from bad to good to every shade in between.

As a reader, downward spirals of characters are engaging; as a writer, they’re a show of using tools wisely; as a person, they suck. I don’t want to be reminded that I can fall again after I pick myself back up. I want a good, happy story! But life is not good or happy or a story, so I appreciate the authenticity.

If Lou and Reid aren’t diverse enough characters, a plethora of others follow. From heart-aching Coco to pure yet determined Ansel to sassy Beau to disturbing Nicholina, everyone gets some sort of characterization.

That ending broke my heart (no spoilers, I promise). From a literary standpoint, it’s hard to make an ending that’s both a cliffhanger and resolved at the same time, but somehow Mahurin nails it.

“‘I suppose...I’m a snake. A liar. A deceiver. Cursed to crawl on my belly and eat dust all the days of my life.’ … ‘You are a snake. Shed your skin in it no longer serves you. Transform into something different. Something better.”’

Recommended for anyone who lives with regret.

--Grace Nask