Blood & Honey

Shelby Mahurin

eAudio - 2020

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.

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Subjects
Published
[United States] : HarperTeen 2020.
Language
English
Corporate Author
hoopla digital
Main Author
Shelby Mahurin (-)
Corporate Author
hoopla digital (-)
Other Authors
Holter Graham (-), Saskia Maarleveld
Edition
Unabridged
Online Access
Instantly available on hoopla.
Cover image
Physical Description
1 online resource (1 audio file (14hr., 18 min.)) : digital
Format
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
ISBN
9780063032217
Access
AVAILABLE FOR USE ONLY BY IOWA CITY AND RESIDENTS OF THE CONTRACTING GOVERNMENTS OF JOHNSON COUNTY, UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, HILLS, AND LONE TREE (IA).
Contents unavailable.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

After Serpent & Dove (2019), Lou and Reid must gather allies to take on villainous Morgane. In a stumbling first act, witch Lou and her forced-husband--turned-love, Reid, struggle to retain likability, making foolish decisions while hiding out from enemies as the heroes regroup and prepare for their next encounter. In a painful bit of characterization, Lou's sassy empowerment comes at the cost, early on, of the sexual boundaries of the characters around her (unfortunately played as steamy). Further troubling characterization comes in a classist scene in which the heroes mock a dirty, poor person for having missing teeth. To stop Morgane's murderous endgame spell, they must forge an alliance between enemies: blood witches (Coco's people), the witch hunters, and werewolves. A colorful surprise alliance comes when they join traveling performers with secrets. Lou and Reid's romance hits character-driven speed bumps--Lou's pull toward magic's darker side isn't terribly original but is solidly done, and it strengthens Reid's self-hating and self-acceptance storyline, fueling his anti-magic bias. There's plenty of action, and secondary characters have their own romantic storylines. The climax gives only a moment to breathe before sinister implications for the next book set in. Though the leads default to white, racial diversity is present in the world and in secondary characters (like brown-skinned Coco and Beau, who is coded as white and Polynesian); additionally, there's casual inclusion of same-sex relationships and respectful bisexuality representation. The strong magic system and plentiful conflicts don't make up for problematic missteps. (Fantasy. 15-adult) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.