Blood&Honey by Shelby Mahurin Book Review (Contains Spoilers)| Carenza Bramwell

 

Title- Blood&Honey

Author- Shelby Mahurin

Series- Serpent&Dove

Published- 2020

Page Count- 528 pages

Publishing House- Harper Teen

Genre- YA Fantasy

Rating- 4/5 stars 

About the Author

Shelby Mahurin grew up on a small farm in rural Indiana, where sticks became wands and cows became dragons. Her rampant imagination didn’t fade with age, so she continues to play make-believe every day—with words now instead of cows. She still lives near that childhood farm with her very tall husband and semiferal children. Serpent & Dove is her debut novel and is followed by Blood & Honey. Visit her online at www.shelbymahurin.com.

Taken from HarperCollins Website

Plot

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.

The hotly anticipated sequel to the New York Times and IndieBound bestseller Serpent & Dove—packed with even steamier romance and darker magic—is perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas.

Taken from Goodreads

Opinons 

To read my review of Serpent&Dove, click here. 

For long time readers of my blog, it will come as no surprise that I was very excited for Blood&Honey. After Serpent&Dove became my favourite book of 2019, I would have sold, traded, done anything to get my hands on the sequel. The first release date announced was September 1st, two days after my twentieth birthday. I would have happily skipped my own birthday just to read this book. It didn't end up coming out until September 17th in the UK and I got my copy a couple of days later.  

Something I am very glad I decided to do was reread Serpent&Dove first. It had been almost a year since I read it and turns out I'd forgotten basically the entire plot. A refresher was desperately needed. I read it in about two days and I actually changed my original rating from 5 stars to 4.5 stars. This is something I'll expand on in my review, but while I adored this story, I did spot some things I had issues with. Namely, the writing and the pacing. The writing wasn't as sophisticated as I remember it being, but that necessarily isn't a bad thing. The main thing is the pacing. It takes a while to get going and then it jumps from nought to a hundred very quickly. Those are my only complaints and the reason I changed my star rating on it.

Now, the reason you are here, are my thoughts on Blood&Honey. I'll get straight to it. I wasn't the biggest fan. I think I put so much pressure on myself about this book being amazing that I actually ended up disappointing myself. In essence, I found it too angsty and repetitive. It suffered from second book slump, which is such as a shame as I adore this series. What I mean when I say angsty and repetitive is that the central relationship between Lou and Reid felt off. They were at loggerheads for most of the book through everyone's least favourite trope- lack of communication. This became repetitive as they were like "oh I love you but I'm going to leave you". I was not a fan of this element of their relationship. Also, quite a few chapters ended with at least one of them being injured or knocked out, how many times can a person survive those sorts of injuries? 

Despite my issues with the plot, I was so happy to be back with the characters. They have become some of my favourite fictional characters. Lou is a badass women who doesn't take nothing from nobody. I find it really encouraging that despite all these traumas in her life she has remained the same person. She hasn't changed her personality that much, yet she has still developed as a character. Reid also went through quite a journey in this book, with regards to his relationship with his mother and brother. The characters in this series feel very real, which is something that keeps on drawing me back to them. I want to know more as I do care about them. I think the characters are probably my favourite part of this series. 

A character I loved throughout was Ansel. He was so sweet and the group really needed someone with that dynamic. It was announced before the book came out that a major character was going to die and as I read the book, I slowly realised it was going to be Ansel. He went through a lot. His relationship with Coco and a need to be worthy of his position in the group. While I adore Ansel, he did get a little bit annoying, but that didn't stop his death from being sad. I realised it was going to be Ansel as in theory the group can continue without him, which is so sad as he had a lot of potential. The ending was what really saved this book for me. I think Shelby is fantastic at writing endings. Lou has been possessed by the Dames Rouges and obviously we as readers know this but the characters don't. It shocked me that this was where the book decided to end. 

I am very anxious for book three. I know it is going to be an action packed finale as this is a trilogy. I hope nothing too bad happens to my precious beans as they are my favourites. I have treated myself to a Fairyloot special edition box for Blood&Honey, so keep an eye out for when I do an unboxing for this. 

What did you think of Blood&Honey?

Carenza :) x 

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir Book Review (Contains Spoilers)| Carenza Bramwell

Title- An Ember in the Ashes
Author- Sabaa Tahir
Series- An Ember in the Ashes
Published- 2015
Page Count- 446
Publishing House- Razorbill
Rating- 3/5 stars

About the Author

Spent my childhood in the Mojave Desert, where I didn’t have cable and thus chose to entertain myself with books and radio. My parents assured me that I wanted to become a doctor, but a brief stint working in a hospital changed my mind.

I left the desert for university at 17, graduated from UCLA a few years later, and went to work for The Washington Post directly after. Five years later, I left the Post and started working on a book.

If I could be anything, I’d be a space explorer, but a cool one, like Jean-Luc Picard.

I’m represented by Alexandra Machinist at ICM.

Taken from Sabaa's website. 

Plot

Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free.

Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear.

It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.

But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy.

There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.

Taken from Goodreads.

Opinions

When I first got into reading in 2015/16, I discovered the world of BookTube and the book community. I saw all these books that everyone was talking about and had to get them. It took me many years to actually read them. In the years that have passed, I have become a very different reader. My taste in books has changed a lot. 

I think I am one of the few people that almost always does not enjoy the super hyped books of the classic days of the book community. I always read them too late and they never feel like they're exactly for me. An Ember in the Ashes sadly falls into this category of hyped books that I just don't like.

I will say that I adored the first part of this book. It really hooked me in and I wanted to know more. The setting was interesting and I wanted to know more about the characters. This book is split into three parts, so I was expecting more of the amazing quality of part one in the following two parts, but it just didn't feel the same. I really lost interest in this book as I read on. I stopped enjoying the world and the two central characters, Laia and Elias, ended up being quite annoying. 

I think that the reason I ended up not enjoying this as much as I thought I would was the writing style. I've spoken about how I really don't enjoy the first person perspective, especially if it's from multiple perspectives. However, this book was written in the first person present tense perspective and I just couldn't get through it. I really didn't like the writing style as I read more and more. I will say that this is a personal preference and not the fault of the author. 

If the book had been in the same style as the first part, I would already be purchasing the next two books. However, as I've mentioned, I just lost interest. I didn't care for the Resistance plot or the Trials plot. I also felt that there was a lot of unnecessary romance in this book. I think it ended up being a love square. None of the characters relationships, especially the romantic ones, felt convincing to me. It just felt like that the author had to include romance because it's a common feature in fiction. 

This book did feature a lot of violence towards the characters. There was also a huge divide between the higher class characters and the slaves. The author also used rape or rape attempts a lot. I would be careful going into this book as there are a lot of uncomfortable scenes. 

I can see why this is a beloved book and the hype behind it, sadly it just ended up not being for me.

Carenza :) x