A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
A brief synopsis: Diana is a descendant of witches and well aware of her own possible powers. However, magic killed her parents, and she has little to no desire to actually practice herself. She is researching alchemy at one of the libraries at . . . Oxford? when she pulls a manuscript that has been missing for two hundred years and is much sought after by creatures of all races (vampires, witches, and daemons). Somehow, without even realizing she was doing it, Diana broke a powerful spell guarding the book, bringing her a lot of unwanted scrutiny of the creature variety. Most unwanted (or wanted?) of all is that of an attractive vampire named Matthew. . .
I liked this just fine, really. The book sadly suffers from being easily comparable to Twilight (albeit the grown up version) with the vampires, the (slightly) vapid female lead, and the forbidden love angle. Also, there's quite a bit of drama to go with the romance. (I love him so much I could just DIE.) There's even the possibility of a pregnancy! Which, please, explain to me how vampires have a) a pulse and b) the ability to get anyone pregnant? So confused.
That said, I stayed up until past midnight the night before the last day of our Memorial Day sale so I could finish it (and I opened the store this morning, so that's sacrifice), so clearly I found it absorbing. Harkness is a good writer, although she's got some pacing issues. I liked the characters too, even Diana grew on me after a while.
Haha, this is the most lukewarm review EVER for something I've already told four people they should read. I liked it! I read it really quickly! And I've already gotten my hands on an advanced readers copy of the second book, so woot!
- Merrin
I liked this just fine, really. The book sadly suffers from being easily comparable to Twilight (albeit the grown up version) with the vampires, the (slightly) vapid female lead, and the forbidden love angle. Also, there's quite a bit of drama to go with the romance. (I love him so much I could just DIE.) There's even the possibility of a pregnancy! Which, please, explain to me how vampires have a) a pulse and b) the ability to get anyone pregnant? So confused.
That said, I stayed up until past midnight the night before the last day of our Memorial Day sale so I could finish it (and I opened the store this morning, so that's sacrifice), so clearly I found it absorbing. Harkness is a good writer, although she's got some pacing issues. I liked the characters too, even Diana grew on me after a while.
Haha, this is the most lukewarm review EVER for something I've already told four people they should read. I liked it! I read it really quickly! And I've already gotten my hands on an advanced readers copy of the second book, so woot!
- Merrin