Blood & Honey by Shelby Mahurin Series: Serpent & Dove #2
Published by HarperCollins ISBN: 9780062878106
on September 1, 2020
Genres: Fantasy, Wizards & Witches, Romance
Pages: 544
Read it as: Hardcover
Source: Purchased
My rating:
Check it out in Goodreads
Synopsis
Lou, Reid, Coco, and Ansel are on the run from coven, kingdom, and church—fugitives with nowhere to hide.
To survive, they need allies. Strong ones. But as Lou becomes increasingly desperate to save those she loves, she turns to a darker side of magic that may cost Reid the one thing he can’t bear to lose. Bound to her always, his vows were clear: where Lou goes, he will go; and where she stays, he will stay.
Until death do they part.
I didn’t expect the struggle that it was to get through this book. I’m so incredibly disappointed and honestly saddened that the experience wasn’t how I thought it would go.
According to Goodreads, I began reading Blood & Honey on November 30rd 2020, and gave up on it on January 7th 2021. I think I made it to 30% or maybe even 40% into the book when I finally threw the towel.
I want to point out that I don’t DNF lightly. Abandoning a book doesn’t come easy to me unless it legit makes me mad. This one, like I said, just made me sad. I absolutely loved the first book, I loved it so much I got a signed edition of Blood & Honey. So, yeah of course I’m sad.
When I dislike a book I usually believe there are readers who will love it, who that book was written for. With Blood & Honey, unfortunately, I think technical problems were what ruined the experience for those who would have otherwise greatly enjoyed it.
The beginning never ends
There are some serious pacing problems here, and it was the main issue I had with the book. I kept turning pages but somehow the story seemed stuck in place. I kept waiting for it to get started but the characters were still fumbling around wondering what’s next.
I needed some conflict, some decisions, some actual motion.
Instead, the story is stagnant for quite a while. I was wading through dialogue that did nothing to move the plot along, struggling to stay invested in what was happening when nothing was happening.
I hate that they made this a trilogy
Yes, I went there.
And I’m relieved I’m not the only one who thinks so. After deciding to stop reading B&H, a friend reached out to me who did finish the book but had had the same struggles I did. We talked and agreed that it would have been so much better if it had been left alone as a duology, like it originally was.
Maybe I’m biased because I’m more partial to duologies rather than longer series now, but this is definitely second book syndrome. Aka, when the second book of a series is merely a bridge to the next volume instead of a story in its own.
When Shelby announced it was going to be a trilogy, I wasn’t very excited. Getting physical books in english is tricky for me, so the less books in a series, the better. But you know what? Alright. I had faith.
However, I’m pretty sure what happened was the author tried to extend the story to make it fit three books, but ended up sacrificing a more engaging pace.
Just give me more of the Lou and Reid from the first book
Okay, I know I’m being all kinds of negative here, but the thing is, I believe in this story. I want it to be awesome.
And recapturing the magic from Book 1 is a must to make it awesome. Pacing issues aside, I am 100% sure that I would have at least finished the book and rated it no less than 3,5 stars if the romance between the main leads had been more prominent.
The first book’s beginning was also a bit slow, but I got through it because I was so excited to see the characters meeting each other, and interacting and falling in love. We didn’t get a lot of that here, so of course the book suffered because of it.
Maybe it gets better towards the end, but I’ll never know because the beginning is so hard to get through.
I probably shouldn’t, but I have faith in Book 3. If it’s true that the story weakened because it had to acommodate three books, then just maybe, the last book could pick up and deliver a worthy finale. As for Blood & Honey, methinks I’ll have to rely on my friend to give me a recap of what happened.
I’m so sorry this one was such a disappointment for you. I absolutely love S&D and was really excited to read this one, but every bloggers I follow reviewed this book negatively it made me put this book on hold. I always hate it when authors extend the series than what was originally planned since the middle book tend to suffer in pacing to plot the third book and unfortunately, it seemed to happen here.
I hope your next read will be better!
tasya @ the literary huntress recently posted this awesome thing…These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
I’m so sorry this book didn’t work for you. I haven’t read this series yet but it’s always such a let down when the second book just makes us go whyyyyyyyy. Here’s hoping you love the third book as much as the first, if you pick it up. And I usually DNF a book by 20-50% if I just can’t get into it. Some books I’ve pushed myself farther and then I always end up regretting that I wasted my time making it to the end to get the same old same old.
Jen recently posted this awesome thing…BOOK REVIEW: 10 Blind Dates by Ashley Elston
That sounds like a safe policy. It’s very rare for me to stick with a book past the halfway point if I’m struggling so much with it too. It’s the same for me, if I decide to give it a chance, more often than not, it doesn’t get better.
But yeah hopefully the third one picks up and delivers something great 🙂 I would really recommend the first one, just not the second one, or at least, go in with low expectations.