Blood & Honey: Shelby Mahurin

“…but closing your eyes will not make it so the monsters can’t see you. It will only make you blind.”

Brief Synopsis:

Lou and Reid’s story is continuing right where it left off in Serpent & Dove. They’re still in the forest and they’ve just evaded sure death from Morgane and the rest of the coven. They know they can’t hide in the woods forever, but they don’t have a solid game plan either. The group is conflicted on what the next steps should be, and Reid is still mostly refusing the explore his magic. In an attempt to disguise Lou, Beau attempts dying her hair, and it doesn’t turn out the way that it should. Somehow, it’s turned her hair ice-white, and now she looks even more like her mom than she did before. Whoops.

Lou and Reid decide to sneak off and have some time to themselves even though Labelle warns them against it, and they’re nearly captured and killed by some Chasseurs. Lou has to use a decent bit of her magic while Reid fights his way out. He feels wretched about killing some of his former brothers, and also inadvertently uses some of his magic again to save Lou from freezing to death. When they get back to camp, Labelle is beyond pissed off, and they know that her patience has more than worn out and it’s time for action. They also find a letter from Morgane, which means that she not only knew that they were there, but she knows their location in general. The message is coded, but Reid is pretty sure it has to do with the Archbishop’s funeral, and begs them all to go.

When Coco’s aunt informs her that they would consider talking to them and seeing about working with them against Morgane, they refuse to do anything with Reid around.

This means splitting up, which Reid adamantly refuses to do, but he’s outnumbered in this opinion. The evening before they’re going to split, they go to a tavern to try and glean some information on when the funeral is supposed to happen. When Lou is recognized, they end up fighting with pretty much the entire bar and are saved by an unlikely ally named Claud. He sets the place on fire right before Lou and Reid are about to really have their asses handed to them. Lou ends up hurt, but they get away.

When she wakes up back at the camp, she feigns sleeping for a while longer and hears a conversation between Reid and Coco that thoroughly upsets her: Reid said she hasn’t been herself ever since she’s been using her magic more and more, and he’s afraid that it’s going to permanently change her. This angers her and they have some choice words, but Reid still says that he refuses to have anything to do with magic anymore. They take Claud’s offer for assistance in traveling, even though it means that they have to perform with his traveling group. Lou, Coco and Ansel set off with another witch in Coco’s coven, and she’s definitely a strange one y’all. She has some pretty weird and interesting things to say to Reid before they disperse, too.

One thing that disturbs Reid highly when they split is that the lost soul in the form of a cat that’s been taking to following them, doesn’t go with Reid. It goes with Lou. This is alarming because the soul is a lost one, right? And like calls to like.

So the lovers have parted ways and are now on their own adventures. Upon arriving at the blood witches camp, Lou is pretty put out when she’s almost instantly told that they won’t help her. However, one of their own is missing, a young man who just happens to ALSO be the king’s bastard son (honestly, this guy gets around…) and Coco makes a deal. IF Lou and Ansel can locate the missing boy before sunrise, the blood witches will help them. If not, they have to leave and also leave Coco behind with her people.

Oh, they find the missing boy, alright. They search all night and Lou is really frustrated because her magic just isn’t working how it’s supposed to. Eventually, a thread that isn’t like her usual threads leads her right to the boy. Except, he’s now a corpse that was erected right outside of Lou’s tent. Lou knows this is a message from her mother, who has vowed to hunt down all of the king’s kin. She feels awful, especially because she’s grown close in such a short amount of time to his little sister, Gabrielle.

They have a funeral procession that’s typical for the blood witches for this young man, but during the funeral, the unthinkable happens. Gabrielle is also taken, and they know that it’s Morgane. I feel so bad for their poor mother, losing both of her children in such quick succession in such a horrible way. The blood witches then vow to assist Lou, only because they’re so desperate to now see Morgane defeated once and for all.

Meanwhile, Reid and the others are working with Claud and his troop. Right before Reid’s first knife throwing performance, his mother pulls him aside and warns him against continuing his relationship with Lou. She tells him she’s also noticing how unstable she’s becoming and tells him that their ending won’t be a happy one. He’s obviously pissed and hesitant, but he would be pretty foolish to say he didn’t notice a grain of truth in what she said. After his performance, the storyteller of the troop tells a story that really gets him thinking about the witches he’s burnt. Is Reid finally feeling remorse!?

Reid is surprised with the reuniting of the entire group during a special performance that is anything but a happy reunion, and guys, I’m just going to say it. I pretty much hate Lou in this book. She’s freakin’ driving me nuts with not taking anyone’s advice and just letting the magic turn her into something nasty, even though she knows who her mom is. I kept getting really annoyed by Reid about him being so uptight, but at this point I’m on his side.

Lou and Reid end up creeping up on a moment between Ansel and Coco, but it’s not the happy moment we want. She kisses him, but she then pretty much confesses that she was kissing him to see if she could possibly love him, or trying to tell herself she could. Ansel’s understandably pissed and embarrassed and stalks off, so everyone splits up. Reid follows Ansel to give him comfort, and Lou goes after her bestie. They have a good chat by the water, but Claud tells them it’s time for sleep.

Coco leaves, but before anything else can happen, they’re attacked. They’re not Chasseurs, but they are street thieves, and guess who is with them? Bas. Somehow Lou doesn’t remember that she totally altered Bas’s memory when she saved him in the last book and it takes her, like, forever to remember that fact? I don’t know, that also annoyed me. Anyway, they end up all battling and it takes a while, but the troop triumphs, and they take off again. Claud agrees to take them pretty close to the wolves, but he says they also have to part ways for a while. Lou tries to convince Reid that they can just go right into Cesarine without visiting the werewolves, but Reid won’t have it.

He confesses to Lou that the werewolf child that he killed before he became captain is the leader of the wolves’ son, and she’s understandably upset. The rift between them continues when she goads him into a physical fight and masquerades it as teaching Ansel further. By the time they reach the wolves, none of them are really on good terms, except for Ansel because we all know that he’s an angel and that isn’t up for debate. The wolves are pissed off and ready for blood, and though Reid challenges their leader to a one-on-one fight, he declines and they tell Reid that pretty much the entire pack is going to hunt him and if he can make it to the next town they’ll let him live.

Ooookay. Reid sets off with nothing but the knives that he had already had on him. He’s not as stealth as he thinks that he is and he honestly doesn’t make it far before the leader reaches him, ready to avenge his son. He and Reid face off, but things aren’t going so well back at the base either. The others were told that if they interfered in any way, magic included, the bet would be forfeited and Reid would be killed. The others are trying to keep Lou from doing something drastic, but she’s Lou.

When she hears Reid being attacked, she goes on the defensive and uses her magic too much. It starts to change her instantly and she’s not herself. When Chasseurs find them, including our bestie Jean Luc, she’s too giddy to be in the fight. It’s abhorrent, but it actually breaks up the fight in the woods between Reid and the alpha when they hear his other son being hurt in the midst of everything. When they arrive, it’s not good. They see wolves and Chasseurs battling it out, with Lou in the middle, looking nothing like herself. Reid convinces her to melt the ice she created, thus returning her to herself, but the damage is done.

With some really quick thinking on Reid’s part (with Coco’s intuition playing a big part) he’s able to convince the wolves not to kill them all when he saves the leader’s other son. They banish both the Chasseurs and Lou’s crew from their lands, but when both of the alpha’s children vow to fight alongside Reid, Lou and the rest, the alpha agrees to come along. So here we are on our merry way to Cerasine, where the funeral is taking place, the Chasseurs are waiting, and there obviously won’t be a happy reunion. Though Claud helps them out and they think they have a solid plan (Lou uses even more of the lost souls that have been finding her to communicate. At this point she has three, which really just should be a GLARING red flag) of course things go totally off the rails.

The crew disguise themselves to get back into the city, save for Beau, who just uses his title as the Prince and his good looks to convince some poor girl to smuggle him into town. Reid’s disguise doesn’t work so well, however, and he has to run for it. However, now the Chasseurs and anyone within shouting distance know the truth: he’s a witch, too. He and Lou flee, make it in the town, and just so happen to find Manon. Remember the chick from Lou’s coven that was like… taking care of her and pretty much dressing her up for her death, even though they’d been friends as kids? Yeah, her.

They follow Manon and witness her killing the supposed love of her life, just because Morgane told her she had to. Why? You guessed it, or maybe you didn’t, so I’ll tell you. He’s ANOTHER one of the king’s bastards. Lou and Reid end up in this random shop to shelter for the time being so that Manon can’t lead them to the others, and all of the tension between the two of them finally comes to a head. They both say some really shitty things to each other, and pretty much decide that thinking they could be together was a joke. Reid leaves first, and when Lou finally decides to leave the little shop, there’s yet another message from her mother. She’s almost beyond caring at this point.

She’s the only one, though. The others still want to fight, and Reid, Beau and Labelle take off for the castle via underground tunnels to see if the king will still have an audience with them. The king is prepared, though, and after a pretty ugly and public standoff with Beau, he seizes not only his son but Reid and his mother as well. He has a standoff with them where he tells them all some pretty awful things, including the fact that he’s secretly glad that Reid killed the Archbishop and that they’re all gonna die. They’re locked up and left behind, except that Beau’s kick ass little sister’s come through and rescue them.

As they’re escaping, they’re attacked and they’re separated from Labelle. Reid has a really coming to moment and realizes that he’s been judging Lou too harshly and he’s in it for the long haul. Though he’s terrified for what’s going to happen to his mother, he’s very anxious to get back to Lou and make things right. Back at the Leviathan (the place they are hunkering down at while they wait for Morgane to make her move) a fight breaks out and while Coco is trying to fix it, Lou just kind of casually starts burning Coco to death. Everyone freaks out, she comes to, Coco’s fire is put out, and Lou FINALLY FREAKING UNDERSTANDS how out of control she really is. Her and Reid, I just can’t sometimes.

While Lou is waiting for things to happen, she has a moment to herself that is interrupted by Claud, who tells her that he used to be in love with Morgane before she turned darkside. This is something I 1000% saw coming earlier in the book, honestly. It became pretty obvious when he wouldn’t specify some things to Lou earlier. He seems to really care about Lou, though, and that’s cute. Reid and Lou finally reunite, and the funeral begins. Reid totally breaks down and loses it, finally letting himself grieve for the Archbishop and what he did. He and Lou have a ~moment~ after the funeral, finally letting out some pent up frustration and bringing themselves back to each other.

Right after the funeral, freakin’ Jean Luc shows up and tells them that Celie is missing. Lou realizes that this is the person that Morgane took to lure her in, and they receive a message that if they don’t find Celie by midnight, Morgane is going to eat her heart. Do you guys remember Celie? The one that Reid thought he was in love with before? Well, it turns out that her and Jean Luc have actually been a thing for a while, and Jean Luc is desperate to get her back, willing to work with his sworn enemies to find her alive. Coco tells Lou that a man she loves is going to die that night, so she takes off for the catacombs, where Celie is trapped, and locks Reid away.

Though separated, they all enter the underground tunnels to fight. Lou locates Celie first, and Ansel locates Lou. You see, Reid was really harsh with Ansel, made him feel useless, and told him to stay behind. Since Ansel ISN’T Reid, Lou’s spell didn’t work against him and he was able to use the trapdoor that Reid couldn’t and get to Lou first. Lou is absolutely terrified that he’s down there and willing to fight, because she just wants to protect him at all costs. She says terrible, awful things to him to try and make him go back, but he refuses. He stays to fight and helps her with Celie, who tells them she’s destined to be trapped with her sister’s rotting corpse forever unless she leads Lou to Morgane.

Knowing this is where she has to be, Lou tells Celie to proceed. They end up in this underground theater-type room, where Morgane is waiting. It seems like she has the upper hand once again, but when Reid and the others show up to attack, Claud transforms. He’s the Woodwose, an ancient creature, a God, and far more powerful that even Morgane. He tells her that all of this is to come to a halt and that Morgane isn’t allowed to try and harm Lou anymore. He tells her if she continues, his sister (another God) will pretty much smite her. Morgane isn’t finished yet, though. As she’s fleeing, she kills… Ansel. You guys, I KNEW IT. I knew his death was coming, because authors are becoming too predictable and they’re like “see this cinnamon roll that you love? It would be a shame if I KILLED THEM”.

I’m still heartbroken and so pissed though. Lou tries to take revenge, but they all barely make it out alive as it is, so Morgane gets away. Lou begins talking with La Voisin (you know, of Coco’s coven) and Nicholina, who end up totally betraying her and bewitching her to control her so that they can take her to Morgane. It’s. so. Effing. Frustrating. The books end with none of the others knows that she’s actually being controlled.

My Rating:

I so so so want to rate this higher, but I’m gonna say 8/10. This one was a harder read for me to get through. I struggled a lot with how Lou was acting and pushing everyone away, though I know it needed to happen for the storyline.

Devastation Rating:

Full 10/10. I don’t even care that it was over one particular character, a lot of other awful things happened, and I’m ANGRY. I’m hurt. I’m sad.

Favorite Quote(s):

“I’m impractical, improbable, but never impossible.”

“It’s like a secret just for the two of us. I don’t think I ever love you more than when you smile at me.”

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Until next time <3