Format: Hardcover, 544 pages
Release Date: September 1, 2020
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Library
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy /
Wizards & Witches
After narrowly escaping death at the hands of the Dames Blanches, Lou, Reid, Coco, and Ansel are on the run from coven, kingdom, and church—fugitives with nowhere to hide.
To elude the scores of witches and throngs of chasseurs at their heels, Lou and Reid need allies. Strong ones. But protection comes at a price, and the group is forced to embark on separate quests to build their forces. As Lou and Reid try to close the widening rift between them, the dastardly Morgane baits them in a lethal game of cat and mouse that threatens to destroy something worth more than any coven.
Blood and Honey, by author Shelby Mahurin, is the second installment in the authors Serpent and Dove series which essentially went from a duology to a trilogy. Picking up where the first novel left off, our heroes and heroines Louise Le Blanc, Reid Diggory, Cosette Monvoison, Helene LaBelle, Ansel Diggory and Beauregard Lynn are reeling from what happened at the Chateau after Reid
performed magic and saved Lou's life; killing the Archbishop and
revealing that men could be witches in the process. Lou and Reid's faces are plastered on wanted posters all over the land.
Lou as a witch is wanted dead of alive; Reid has been charged with murder and conspiracy but wanted alive. They continue to hide from the villain of the story, Morgane aka La Dame des Sorcières who uses the trees as spies, Reid's former Chasseurs under Jean Luc who have nearly caught them several times, King Auguste who wants all witches to burn quickly and painfully, while also waiting for word from Cosette's aunt whether her blood coven will help them or not. Meanwhile, Lou is on the verge of becoming crazy with magic like her mom and Reid is hell-bent on not embracing his magical side at all.
As Reid fights with his inner demons about magic and its usage, Lou may
be descending into a place that she can't return from. These "problems"
are a huge part of story and really bring these two to a whole new
level character wise. As someone who was raised to hunt witches, Reid's newfound
magic isn't an easy piece of his identity to come to terms with—plus
discovering his true parentage, and therefore spending time with Madame
LaBelle and Beau. There’s a lot of back and forth between Lou and Reid where they are
dealing with their own stress and emotions and rather than coming
together they remain two stubborn fools while the world whispers in
their ear how much better things would be if they gave up on each other.
The most interesting parts of this story is when the group tries to put together a coalition of the willing bring in Cosette's witches under Josephine Monvoisin, werewolves under the beast of Gevaudan who Reid once hunted, plus the mysterious Claud Deveraux and his mysterious troupe of performers, and a brief appearance by mermaids. Some of the new secondary characters are cute (Gabby), some of them are questionable (Josephine), and some of them are
downright strange (Nicholine). But each and every new character brought something
fun and unique to the story which leads to a bizarre fight scene under ground and an even more brutal cliffhanger ending that bridges the final book in this series.
i read a lot of books like this and it sounds like a good one to me. i like how the cover creativity
ReplyDeletesherry @ fundinmental