Title: The Serpent in Heaven
Author: Charlaine Harris
Series: Gunnie Rose #4
Length: 7 hours
Felicia, Lizbeth’s younger half-sister, is a student at the Grigoris school within the capital of the New Holy Russian Empire in San Diego. When she is kidnapped right outside the school she finds her past has come back to haunt her. Now she has to unravel the truth about her family and use her true abilities that she has kept hidden to keep herself and everyone else alive.
After meeting Felicia in the previous books, I was very interested in learning more about her and what she can do. As we quickly see in this one, Felicia is no longer the small and malnourished child that Lizbeth found. She has grown alarmingly fast and is a lot smarter than people realize. She is also older than people realize too. Now that her growth isn’t being stunted she is becoming the teenager she was meant to always be, including the feelings that come with it.
I liked Felicia. She was smart, determined, and knew what she wanted. She stands up to those who try to push her down, fights for her friends and classmates’ lives, and is embracing her growing feelings for Peter. One thing that I appreciated about this book is that Felicia’s POV was definitely that of a teenager. We see her struggle to deal with her feelings about her changing body, friends, family, duty, and her new boyfriend. I was a bit apprehensive that Felicia would come across as an adult after reading Lizbeth’s books, but that didn’t happen thankfully.
Felicia’s kidnapping and the reasoning behind it was very interesting and also archaic, but that is common in this post-apocalyptic America. I like that we finally know more about Felica’s past, her mother, and that side of the family. Also, I love that we finally got to see Felicia use her abilities without her sister there to back her up. She was quite deadly and badass. I want to know more about her future now.
Overall, this was surprisingly enjoyable for a switch in POV mid series. I enjoyed Felicia’s story and learning more about what is going on with the Russian empire and Grigori school. I am very curious to see how Lizbeth will react to everything that happened. Also now that we have had a switch in POV, does that mean we will be changing throughout the rest of the series now? I can’t wait to read the next one to find out.
TW: kidnapping; death; violence; epidemic (Spanish flu); animal deaths; suicide of a side character; racism;
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Previous books and reviews for the series:
Red-Haired Ash Reads 