Shelby Mahurin- The Scarlet Veil

By Amie Kealy

*potential spoilers ahead for those who haven’t read it*

I had high hopes for this book after loving Mahurin’s Serpent & Dove series but I must say, it was rather disappointing. From the random introduction of vampires, the slow plot development, and the lack of action throughout the book, it was tough to get to the end – halfway through, I was very close to DNFing (did not finish)!

Focusing on Celie Tremblay, a tertiary character in Serpent & Dove, we see her enrolled in the Chasseurs, determined to pioneer the way for women in joining the elite, male-only brotherhood. Immediately this felt somewhat random as Celie’s character is weak and quite passive (from what I can remember, it has been a while since I last read it) so it made absolutely no sense for her to suddenly join the Chasseurs.

As a Chasseur Celie struggles to be accepted by her fellow peers and even butts head with Frederick, a sexist, arrogant man who we quickly grow to hate. Frederick doesn’t think Celie belongs with the Chasseurs and isn’t quiet in his opinions. We learn early on that there are a series of murders: victims from all species, wolf, mermaid, witch, and human, are killed with their bodies being drained of blood. Celie is completely unaware of the dangers happening in her town, Ceserine, until she stumbles upon a meeting being help by her friends, the heroes of Serpent & Dove, without her. Upset and angry at the exclusion, Celie runs off by herself and is subsequently abducted by a mysterious man.

In walks Michal, this book’s morally grey, handsome, villain. You can tell from the beginning that Celie will inevitably fall for Michal in a typical enemy-lovers plot, but whilst I normally enjoy this trope, even claiming it to be my favourite, Celie’s weak character and the surface level characterisation of both Celie and Michal, leaves the plot to be desired. It feels like nothing happens between the two of them, as well as the larger, overarching plot, until we get to around page 500. The book is 600 pages long so we’ve literally had to trawl through SO MANY pages without getting any gratification and excitement at all.

Mahurin’s take on a vampire fantasy is also tired and boring. It appears as though she draws from older texts, her vampire characters taking life from the likes of Count Dracula, than Edward Cullen, and because of it the book lacks originality and tension. Whilst Jennifer L Armentrout’s take on modern vampires can, at times, be confusing, it still breathes life into an otherwise overdone fantasy trope. Mahurin’s, on the other hand, does not.

As the plot develops we discover that Celie’s close encounter with death in Serpent & Dove, has caused her to become a Bride of Death who can now cross the veil and see ghosts. This then pulls the plot along by revealing the person who is murdering all the victims is not a vampire as we initially thought, but is instead Frederick! I saw this plot twist coming a mile off and wasn’t surprised in the slightest. Frederick’s motivations for the murders is to bring back the love of his life who died and who just so happens to be Philippa – Celie’s dead sister. This felt like such a stretch since nothing of the sorts was ever hinted at in Serpent & Dove.

We get to the last chapter of the book where it all kicks off – we think Michal is killed by Frederick, Celie dies at Frederick’s hand and passes into the veil, and Frederick uses Celie’s blood to try and resurrect her dead sister. It ends on a cliffhanger without much being resolved. The epilogue ends with someone waking up and from the description it seems as though it is Philippa and not Celie! 

Despite my diatribe and overall lack of enthusiasm for the book, I still plan on reading the next one to see how everything plays out and which characters ultimately live and which ones die. This series is a duology, thankfully, so if the next book is bad, I’ll only have to suffer through one more.