Serpent & Dove
#6593.84 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 3 books Status Complete 2019–2021 Reading commitment Medium Shelby Mahurin Last reviewed 2026-08-25
Overview
Serpent & Dove is a completed trilogy by Shelby Mahurin, comprising Serpent & Dove (2019), Blood & Honey (2020), and Gods & Monsters (2021). Set in Cesarine, a France-inspired fantasy city, it follows Louise, a witch hiding from her own coven, and Reid, a witch hunter sworn to destroy witches, who are forced into a marriage of convenience after a chance encounter exposes them both to danger, and must learn to survive each other's mutual hostility even as outside forces from both the witch hunters' order and the witches' coven close in on them. The series blends young-adult romance with a persecution-and-prejudice narrative built around the two leads' opposed factions, and became a commercial success on release, spending time on major bestseller lists and building a large readership through its enemies-to-lovers structure, part of a broader wave of witch-and-witch-hunter romantic fantasy published in the late 2010s.
Romantasy, Historical fantasy · For YA
Core Canon: Reading Order (3 works) counts toward ranking
Serpent & Dove Shelby Mahurin
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Serpent & Dove | 2019 | 1 | core | 3.96 (353,506 ratings) |
 | Blood & Honey | 2020 | 2 | core | 3.51 (145,514 ratings) |
 | Gods & Monsters | 2021 | 3 | core | 3.93 (83,482 ratings) |
Complete witch-hunter-and-witch romantasy trilogy.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Serpent & Dove? Serpent & Dove's Core Canon is 3 books.
- What is the reading order for Serpent & Dove? Publication order, starting with Serpent & Dove. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Serpent & Dove finished? Complete (2019–2021).
- How much reading does Serpent & Dove take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 3 Core Canon books · ~624 pages).
- How is Serpent & Dove ranked? #659 in this site's official ranking, based on 582,502 reader ratings across 3 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #659?
Ranked #659 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.84 across 3 core books.
- Backed by 583k reader ratings.
- Uneven reception: its books range from 3.51 to 3.96.
- Less than 0.01 behind #658, Dilvish, the Damned (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Rated · 3 books · Complete · 583k ratings · Ranks #659 overall
Good choice if you want a moderate-length romantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (3 Core Canon books)
- Serpent & Dove (2019)
- Blood & Honey (2020)
- Gods & Monsters (2021)
Documented internal/story chronology is recorded for every Core Canon book here, and matches publication order exactly, with no divergence to show separately.
Awards (verified)
- No awards found for this universe.
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.84 across 582,502 ratings on 3 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Admit Serpent & Dove (Shelby Mahurin) accepted 2026-08-25
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Last reviewed: 2026-08-26
Rule: Core Canon covers all three novels of the complete trilogy: Serpent & Dove (2019), Blood & Honey (2020), and Gods & Monsters (2021).