Serpent & Dove
A witch hunter falls in love with the witch he was sent to destroy, igniting a dangerous game of secrets and survival. In a world where magic is forbidden and death waits around every corner, their forbidden bond becomes their greatest strength and deadliest weakness. Trust could kill them both.
Everything You Need to Know About Serpent & Dove
Louise le Blanc is a witch hiding in the one place no one would look, the city controlled by the Church that hunts her kind. She lives on the streets, runs cons, and avoids magic because every spell she casts makes it easier for the Chasseurs (witch hunters) to find her. She is also hiding from the witches, who want her for reasons she will not discuss.
Reid Diggory is the youngest captain of the Chasseurs, devout, rigid, and certain that all witches are evil. When a public scandal forces the Archbishop to marry them as damage control, Louise and Reid become the most miserable couple in Belterra.
The forced-marriage framework puts a witch and a witch hunter under the same roof, and the tension is immediate. Louise is irreverent, dishonest, and finds Reid's earnestness both infuriating and endearing. Reid is sheltered, morally absolute, and has never met anyone who challenges his worldview the way Louise does. Neither can reveal who they really are. Both are keeping secrets that would destroy the marriage and possibly each other.
Beneath the romantic comedy of errors, a darker plot is building. The witches are planning something. The Church is more corrupt than Reid knows. And the secret Louise is hiding ties directly to both.
The forced-marriage trope is perfectly deployed. Louise and Reid's dynamic is enemies-to-reluctant-roommates-to-lovers, and Mahurin writes their bickering with genuine wit. Louise's irreverence against Reid's sincerity creates comedy that masks the danger both are in.
The French-inspired setting gives the book a distinctive atmosphere, Catholic gothic mixed with witchcraft, cobblestone streets, and a city that feels like a character.
Louise is a protagonist who lies constantly and charms you into forgiving it every time. Her survival instincts are honed by years on the streets, and watching her manipulate situations with magic and mundane cleverness is entertaining.
The witch-hunter-falls-for-a-witch premise is inherently tense. Reid's entire belief system is challenged by loving someone he has been trained to kill.
Religious persecution and witch-burning. Violence and execution scenes. A character hides their identity under threat of death. Manipulation within a marriage. Moderate to high sexual content. A religious institution depicted as corrupt and violent. Themes of zealotry and the harm it causes. A character's family wants to sacrifice her.
Lou's secret: she is the daughter of Morgane le Blanc, La Dame des Sorcieres, queen of the Dames Blanches. She has been hiding from her own mother since she fled the altar at sixteen, because Morgane means to sacrifice her. Lou's death is the key to a ritual that would destroy the royal line and break the Church's hold on Belterra, and Morgane considers one daughter a fair price.
Reid discovers Lou is a witch in the worst possible way, in public, with the Church watching. The collapse of his worldview, the woman he loves being the thing he swore an oath to burn, is the emotional core of the final act, and the book does not rush his choice.
The Archbishop reveal lands last: he is Lou's father. The man who built his life on burning witches once loved one, and his obsession with Morgane and with Lou was never institutional. The trilogy's endgame grows out of that triangle.
Serpent & Dove is the first book in a trilogy, followed by Blood & Honey and Gods & Monsters. The series is complete. Read in order.
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