I loved this book!

There were so many elements in this book that tick my boxes.
Enemies to lovers? … CHECK!
Set in a mix of a fantasy world and historical France? … CHECK!
Witches and Supernatural elements? … CHECK!
French pastries that I can’t find recipes for and it’s killing me inside that I’ll never be able to eat those delicious sweets?... check :(

This book was such a surprise to me, I was told I would love it, if only for the enemies to lovers element, but with all these extra elements I wasn’t aware of I ended up loving this book more than first expected.

I enjoyed the writing style and found that even though the chapters were long, I went through them so quick due to the writing being so amazing. It wasn’t overly descriptive but gave me enough details that I could clearly picture the people and places.

Plus, there was a beautiful map at the beginning of the book which is always a plus.
The world building was done so damn smoothly that I didn’t even realise it was happening, until I knew the whole world and magic system with no effort. It was like a guy sliding into my DM’s with a dad joke, one moment I’m laughing at a dad joke and then BOOM! We are having a full conversation! SO SMOOTH!

I really enjoyed all the characters, even the ones I’m supposed to hate (I have a problem, don’t judge me) but I loved the diversity of the characters and their personalities.
I could spend all day talking about each character, but let’s just talk about my main babies!
From the very start I loved Reid, I was drawn to his character and the more I read from his perspective the more I loved him.

Lou was a sassy witch, that I wanted to be my best friend, if only to have her on my side in a fight. I really enjoyed watching her character develop as she went from hating Reid and calling him Chass all the time to realising she was in love with him and finally calling him Reid.
I mean sure they were married the whole time, but it was when they finally admitted to each other that they loved one another that my soul was dedicated to this ship.

I really enjoyed watching their relationship develop and the fact the story was told from both Lou and Reid’s perspectives really provided me with a balanced view of the relationship and the issues they faced. Sure there were times where I got annoyed with both Lou and Reid for keeping things from one another, *cough* mostly Lou *cough* but, by the end I understood the reasons for it.

There were so many times reading this book that I had to stop and squeal due to something Reid had said or thought, one of my favourite examples of this is when Reid called Lou “My little heathen.” I don’t know why but my heart just wanted to explode at that line! It was so damn cute, and all I want in life is for someone to have that much affection for me.
There was also this quote from Reid near the end of the book that made me laugh and it might not be for the reason you expect. The line was:

“Why the fuck is everyone in this kingdom trying to murder my wife?”

Of course, I would laugh because our good holy boy Reid just cursed (and a big one mind you) but that wasn’t the only reason I laughed, the main reason was because it reminded me of John Mulaney yelling “THAT’S MY WIFE!” It gave me the same vibe and I was living for it!

I really enjoyed this book, but for me the only issues I had was my struggle to remember all the French words, that isn’t the books’ fault, it is clearly my own fault, but before I read Blood & Honey I might need to brush up on some French or have a translation app up on my phone to help me through. (My mother is the French speaker, not me)
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good enemies to lovers trope, or is looking for a book that has such a beautiful backdrop they will beg for the Pandemic to be over just so they can run away to France to find their own witch hunter.

Both… I am both these people.