Reviews with content warning for Death - Blood & Honey

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Blood & Honey, by Shelby Mahurin

49 reviews

beckyyreadss's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I honestly need to find a way to stop reading a series if I lose interest in this. I didn’t find the first book all that interesting and was sort of waiting for it to end and instead of going, I don’t think I'm going to like this series, I went and read the second one and oh my god, it was so slow.

This book picks up where it left off in the first book, Lou, Reid, Coco and Ansel are on the run from covens, kingdom and the church after narrowly escaping death at the hands of the Dames Blanches. To elude the scores of witches and throngs of chasseurs at their heels, Lou and Reid need allies. Strong ones, but protection always comes with a price, and the group is forced to embrace on separate quests to build their forces, as Lou and Reid try to close the widening rift between them, the dastardly Morgane baits them into a lethal game of cat and mouse that threatens to destroy them.

Okay, you know this book is bad when you are rooting for the villain to kill the MCs. The only one I liked out of this whole book was Ansel and well, we all saw what happened there. I just felt like this book was building and building for something to happen that never did. If someone was to ask me what this book was about tomorrow, I would have no clue whatsoever. I didn’t feel like there was any character development or progress between the couples that were formed in the first book. I didn’t understand or care for the plot again because both MCs drove me nuts. Expect for Lou and Reid, I remember two characters and that because they carried the book being Coco and Ansel. I felt like I was getting whiplash with both going against their word every chapter. I wanted them to each love each other and stick together or try and kill each other and again, the miscommunication trope drove this book into the dirt. This book could have been 100 pages long and it would have more plot that the 500-page book I've just finished.

The only reason this didn’t get one star is because of the dual POV.

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kat1105's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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kdickin3's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I would say not as good as the first book. The first 3/4 of the book seemed a bit slow and kind of frustrating. However the last quarter of the book more than makes up for it.

Hoping the last book is good to finish out the trilogy.

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rinku's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Looking at the average rating, it’s clear that Blood & Honey is the least popular book of the Serpent & Dove series, but I actually liked it more than the first book, so I gave it 3.5 stars. I can’t even really say why, probably because I got more attached to the characters and the world.

After the events of the last book, Lou and her friends are fleeing from Morgane and realize that they need strong allies to defeat her. For this, Lou, and Reid part ways to convince different groups to join an alliance which I wasn’t the biggest fan of. I still had the feeling that a lot of things happened, even though not everything furthered the main plot or was fully understandable; I definitely wanted to know what would happen next. Nevertheless, there were some story elements I didn’t like as much, like the werewolves, but some that I enjoyed quite a lot, like Lou’s

Spoiler

corruption arc

Of course, we need a silly third arc conflict between Reid and Lou that is then replaced by a more serious conflict where

Spoiler

Morgane kidnaps Célie and our squad needs to come for her rescue. It was quite obvious that Ansel would follow them and die at the end, so his death had not the impact on me it probably supposed to had

. But all in all, I really liked the dramatic finale, even though there was a deus ex machina towards the end, which was a bit unsatisfying, just like the fact that

Spoiler

Morgane escaped again

In general, I enjoy the magic system and the fact that they have to give something in exchange to use the magic. The circus setting introduced in this book was nice as well. The world building though is not perfect, since too often, there are terms used from our world, like “month” or the like. Besides this, I had some problems with the writing; some of the similes used are a bit weird and the humour is too childish in parts as well.

Looking at the characters, I still like both Reid and Lou. In some moments, Lou is actually funny, and Reid is cute, especially how awkward he is with the circus people. Of course, there’s a random reason why they’re not allowed to get closer to each other and there’s quite some miscommunication between them, but I liked them. The rest of the squad was nice as well, besides Claud, who just annoyed me. I also really like Beau and Célie and I’m quite happy that

Spoiler

Ansel x Coco didn’t become a thing since he’s underage

. Besides them though, I mixed up some of the characters since they’re not too individual.

Like I’ve written at the beginning, Blood & Honey wasn’t for me as bad as many people make it out to be which surprised me. There are still likable characters and a general intriguing world and story. I hope that the story will come to a satisfying conclusion with Gods & Monsters.

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elizafiedler's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Not sure what I think about the ending; it's rather bleak. Not sure what I think about the magical infection of the soul that's going on, either, or how manipulative every. single. character. is. But oh boy, it's still a very compelling story.

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koistyfishy's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

I did. not. like. this. book.

This book starts off immediately after the first book ends. From page one it’s tense, threatening, there is action, and stuff going on. But none of this is grasping and it’s feels like the entirety of the book we are just trudging through the trenches to get through to the next book.

I was under the expectation that book two would go more into explaining the vague magic system, but besides the mention of “magic take balance” it’s not really elaborated on at all and I still don’t know how it works!

I did not like the split POV in this book. In book 1 because of the main distinction between Lou and Reid you could easily determine who’s head and POV you were in. This book muddled the lines of internal monologue. They blurred together and often times I had to reread sentences because I was unsure if the chapter was from Lou or Reid’s perspective.

I also have no idea what the actual fuck was going on with their relationship in this book. I really wish sometimes that I had the ability to knock some sense into characters. It bothered me at the start that these two who didn’t know each other really long are this devoted and obsessed with each other… it almost borders on “instant lovey/infatuation vibes” and that type of love does not resonate with me at all! I missed the sassy banter between the two from book one… then a third into the book some sick twist happens and for basically the rest of the book these two basically despise each other due to their judgemental and selfish thoughts and ideals. It’s immature and annoying and the animosity between the two drove me insane.

By page 150 I was wishing for this torture to be over… I need a break before starting book 3 cause I don’t think I can step right into it.

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