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Evil always seeks a foothold. We must not give it one.
After a heartbreaking loss, Lou, Reid, Beau, and Coco are bent on vengeance more than ever before—and none more so than Lou.
But this is no longer the Lou they thought they knew. No longer the Lou that captured a chasseur’s heart. A darkness has settled over her, and this time it will take more than love to drive it out.

Okay, this series has been an absolute rollercoaster. I loved the first book. It was one of my favourite books of 2020 and I fell in love with the characters so much. Blood & Honey though, was a bit of a let down and even though I liked some aspects I did find it a little disappointing.

I feel like Shelby Mahurin did a great job to bring some of the focus back to the relationships. Although there were some aspects of the relationship in Blood & Honey, there was more of a focus on found family, which I did like. My favourite aspect of the first book was the relationship between Lou and Reid, and some clever plot work in Gods & Monsters gave a new perspective on this one which felt like falling in love with the story and the pair over and over again.

Fear was inevitable. We all made our choices, and we all suffered our consequences. We all felt fear.

Although we still had quite an intense plot in this one, it wasn’t all about the action and the plot which made for a nice change. We had some downtime too, and I loved those slow and rambling moments. There was a specific scene in this book which made me very emotional, and it was actually a sex scene. I’ve always liked how Mahurin writes sex scenes as they always feel quite emotional, but there was something about this one that made me tear up. I loved how there was a strong emotional connection between the two as they made love, and it really surprised me how emotional it made me feel.

Although this one one was a little up and down and I didn’t love the entire thing, the second half was much more enjoyable than the first in my opinion, and once I got into the story I really liked it. What I loved about this book was how unpredictable it was, and both Alex and I (who were buddy reading it together) were a little nervous about where the book was going to end up.

The trick was learning to live with that fear, to continue forward in spite of it.

Overall, I did really enjoy this series and I’m so glad I’ve finally finished it! This one fell between Serpent & Dove and Blood & Honey for me, but the series as a whole I liked a lot.

★★★★★
4.5 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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