• The Serpent and the Wolf • Review •

Once again thank you to the wonderful team at @sagapress for gifting me this book. 

Let me just say this novel made it to my top 5 romantasy reads ever!!! I freaking loved it. Everything about it is perfectly crafted to appeal to me as a reader: the flawed FMC, the sweet and unbelievably hot MMC, the magic system and the politics involved. It all came together to give me one hell of an emotional ride. This is perfect for everyone who loved Nesta and Cassian in Silver Flames, plus the complicated political connotations (and divine meddling) of Serpent and the Wings of Night. 

 

  • be warned SPOILERS may be ahed •

Characters ~

The thing that drives this book to a insta favorite of mine is the wonderful character work the author did with our main girl Vaasa. She is everything I like in a FMC: powerful, strong-willed, flawed, fierce and emotionally handicapped. Her journey throughout the novel is one of self-discovery and healing. She starts out as a scared, dangerous woman who is backed into a corner and lashes out at everyone who gets close. Gradually we learn her reasons for being that way, her struggle with her own identity and the reckoning she faces everyday for the things she’s had to do in order to survive. I started the book wanting to strangle her and ended it wanting to hug her and kill everyone who ever hurt her. 

Reid is everything you want in a MMC: considerate, protective, sexy and sweet. The aspect I enjoyed more about his character was his comfortable self assured manner in the face of the hurricane that is Vaasa. He is never threatened by her or her power, on the contrary he is in awed of her. 

The secondary characters were lovely, if a bit one dimensional. I feel like there’s a lot of space to grow for some of them in the coming books. I can’t wait to have more of Amalie, Koen and Melissina. 

Pace and Worldbuilding ~ 

The pace in this story literally never slows down. There isn’t a single moment where you feel like putting down the book. There’s constant action that builds to an ending that will have you screaming with your heart in your throat. 

The world building and magic system are a huge highlight of the novel. The author created a complex society in Icruria that feels alive in every page, and the contrast with what little we get to know about Asterya had me wanting to learn more about the world. The political intrigue was very well played out. There are so many questions left open after the ending that I hope will get answer in book 2. I’m also hoping we get to see more of how Asterya society works. 

Another thing that was done masterfully was the lore. I found very unique the concept of people inheriting different gifts from different gods and the idea that the magic was only acquired once the parent died. The structure and secretive nature of the covens left me with a lot of questions about the Gods and how magic users became so separated from each other on the first place. The sense of community that Vaasa finds in the other witches was especially hearth warming to read. 

The Romance ~ 

This has one of the best written romantic development I’ve found in the genre. Rebecca managed to do what I think is lacking in some many other stories: have the romance unfold hand in hand with the main character personal development. Vaasa’s feelings for Reid feel authentic because she doesn’t instantly fall head over heels for him. She has to actually grapple with her emotions and her trauma in order to open herself to the possibility of loving him. 

Their story is written how I think enemies to lovers is done right: with a gradual progression from enemies, to allies, to friends, to lovers. The reader can actually see how they grow to respect each other as people, then as partners. And from there we get a wholesome journey of learning to trust the other person and feeling worthy of the same. 

….

I can literally rave about this novel until next year. It made me feel all the feels: I laughed , I swooned, I cried, I screamed. 

Suffice to say I am desperate to get my hands in book two.