Review: Gods & Monsters by Shelby Mahurin

Finally, we finished the the conclusion to the Serpent & Dove series, Gods & Monsters. We first read Serpent & Dove back in 2019 and it was easily our favorite book of the year. While we liked Blood & Honey, it wasn’t quite as good as the first installment. Needless to say, we had high expectations going into the finale.

Gods & Monsters picks up after the devastating events of Blood & Honey. Ansel is dead and Lou is being possessed by Nicholina. To make things worst, Morgane is getting ready to attack and no one in Belterra is safe.

Not only does the group need more allies to defeat Morgane, they need to get Lou and Nicholina separated. This journey takes Lou, Reid, Coco, Beau and Celie from the waters of L’Eau Melancolique to Chateau le Blanc and back to the city of Cesarine to finally face Morgane and her army of witches. If they don’t get some help, they won’t be able to stop their enemies from taking control of Belterra and killing Lou once and for all.

Okay, so overall we did enjoy Gods & Monsters. However, it still wasn’t nearly as good as the first book. What we loved about Serpent & Dove was the intense chemistry between Lou and Reid. They challenged each other and had excellent banter. We feel like it lacked in the final installment. We get that they had a lot on their plate, but we missed the amazing connection between the witch and chasseur.

Another problem we had was we believed the book was too long. Some of the middle could have been cut, especially one specific plot point with Reid that we found unnecessary.

Now, to the parts we enjoyed! Lou is still as clever and funny as ever. We’ve loved watching her character growth through the trilogy. The same goes for Coco, who had a lot of emotional baggage to deal with. We loved getting to learn about her background and all the trauma she faced a a child. Coco and Lou have an amazing and strong friendship that’s been one of the best aspects of the series.

We liked the plot overall and questioned how Lou’s and Morgane’s final battle would go. Without spoiling anything, the ending was super exciting and kept us on the edge of our seats. Mahurin definitely took a few unexpected turns.

Finally, the epilogue was super emotional. It came from an unexpected point of view and it did nicely wrap up Lou and Reid’s love story. Their relationship came so far since they were forced to marry at the beginning of the series. Plus, we require a happy ending in fantasy books with a lot of action.

Overall, we enjoyed the ending of this series, even if the first book was clearly the best in the series. If you need an exciting high fantasy read, we recommend picking this up.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐