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A Discovery Of Witches (2010)

by Deborah Harkness(Favorite Author)

3.98 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0670022411 (ISBN13: 9780670022410)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Viking Penguin

series

All Souls Trilogy

review 1: I'm not quite sure how to describe this book. I'm giving it 3.5 stars. It started out somewhat slow, setting up the story I suppose but then about half way through it took off. It was so much more than a "vampire/witch romance story". I really enjoyed the secondary characters, and there were many, more than the main ones. Although, Matthew is a fascinating character and well written. Diana, on the other hand, is an odd duck. I cannot figure her out and maybe that is what the author wants. I must admit there were times while reading this book I skimmed some pages due to boredom and other times I could not put it down! Strange right? Strange enough that I will read the second book.
review 2: Simply magic. I practically flew through this rather thick bo... moreok in a matter of 4 or 5 days. Having read some of the varying reviews here, I figured it was one of those books that you either love completely or absolutely abhor. I absolutely LOVED IT! I can't exactly put my finger on why but I was spellbound. There were some initial 'issues' for me, like the romance between Diana and Matthew coming off as a bit bizarre because I didn't really understand at the beginning why they were so drawn to each other and Diana came across as too much of a confused psuedo damsel in distress (which sounded a tad typical). But as the book progressed, I began to understand the "damsel in distress" was more commingled with her general confusion, lack of identity and resulting genuine lack of confidence in herself. And Matthew... who doesn't want to read about indestructible, protective, beautiful male vampires? Although his tendency to 'command' Diana was annoying in the beginning, but after awhile Matthew does grow on you. And onto the good stuff. This is modern science, history, evil, romance, mystery and action all rolled into one. I didn't mind that the author spent a fair bit of time setting up the plot with various historical and scientific intricacies along with several characters' backstories, all of which make up a significant portion of the book. To me early on, I could sense she was laying the groundwork for introducing more twists to the plot and creating a rich fabric of characters to support the story. And I wasn't disappointed. There were these swatches of details and intricacies in the book that I didn't mind ploughing through (i.e. sacrificing sleep) just to get to the juicier/action bits. So I think Ms. Harkness has done a great job of balancing the details with action; but as an aside, I'm one of those readers who rather enjoy the foundational bits of a book but again, balance is key even for me. This is probably going to be one of my favourite vampire-witchy book (I couldn't bring myself to finish the Twilight series). Looking forward to the 2nd book in the trilogy! less

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