A Discovery of Witches: A Novel (All Souls Trilogy, Book 1) Kindle Edition

I'm a sucker for books about lost manuscripts. I'm obviously also a sucker for books about doomed relationships involving magical creatures that somehow have happy ever afters, so it kinda a given that one day I'd break down and spend the big bucks to buy the book everyone has been talking about for the last six months.Real life historian with a focus on Alchemists through history, Deborah Harkness obviously is writing about what she knows, when she is weaving history, alchemy, and famous English libraries into her book. Where the novel falls short is its familiar treatment of familiar settings and couplings of other famous Paranormal Romance and Y/A books that have gone before it. A Discovery of Witches is being hailed as Twilight for adults. I'd like to throw Harry Potter in the mix as well. The upside is the literate aspects of the book, (here-in called ADOW for ease of typing's sake) which discusses Evolution, famous historical characters, and surprisingly pits Alchemy against Darwinism rather than the usual religion vs. evolution war, and for that I thought it was very unique. The downside is, she didn't stretch her creative wings enough but instead chose to ride on those, others had flown with before.This author is a real, honest to god historian. She has so much to play with, I don't know why she had to create a world so familiar, but clearly it is just what the market wanted. In the past she had two books published (probably through her college) that received a total of 5 book reviews. The books were well received critically, by her fellow historians but nobody else bought them. And then she wrote ADOW, a long winded Paranormal Romance and became famous.ADOW has about 1100 book reviews on Amazon. It has been written about in everything from People Magazine to the New York Times, and is going to become a movie. The reviews seem to fall into two camps; those who are madly in love with it, and those who absolutely hate it. I disagree with both. I thought it was at times brilliant and at times a massive disappointment. The disappointment is not for what it is so much as what it could be, and isn't. She is an excellent writer, she could have come up with something more creative then the following scenario, upon which much of the bones of the story hinges upon.1.A witch who was orphaned at a young age, whose parents were murdered by a powerful wizard who was threatened by their power. They sacrificed their lives to protect the protaganist and she has been raised by her Aunt. The parents do something with Magic to protect her before they die. She may turn out to be the most powerful wizard (oops sorry...) I mean Witch, ever.2.A much older male Vampire who meets her at school, is obsessed with a female who (while not a human like in Twilight) is still much more frail then he is and so he must always be on his guard with her. He knows he should stay away from her but he breaks in her house to watch her sleep. He loves the way she smells, and catalogs all the different flowers and herbs she smells like to him. He is at first angry and irritable with her, but he is massively protective and will kill anyone who threatens her. His Vampire friends are upset that he is attracted to this woman. Their love can't be consummated because he is afraid he might hurt her, or he wants to wait or something. I don't know, I got so tired of watching two adults act like teenage kids I can't remember if they ever actually had sex or not.J.K Rowling and Stephanie Meyers should ask for a portion of the receipts.Harkness's world is one of Humans, Witches, Vampires, and lastly the poor Daemon's (who aren't demons, but are basically slightly wacked out hyper creative sorts who are the Mozart's of the world, and often can't function in the real world. Other then visions of the future, the Daemon's kinda get short shrift as far as magical abilities goes).The protaganist, Diana Bishop is an American historian who has returned to Oxford, England to continue her studies in famous historical Alchemist's for a dissertation she is going to give. (The above is all applicable to Harkness as well, in fact there are so many similarities between the protagonist and the author, Diana's name could well have been Mary Sue.)Dr. Diana Bishop isn't just an intellectual with a penchant for studying historical Alchemy, she is also a witch from a long line of witches (going back of course to Salem's witches which all fictional witches seem to need to use as a touch stone.) For some inexplicable reason Diana "usually" refuses to use her magic, allotting herself only the occasional magical sin like fixing the washing machine when it goes on the fritz. While in the library she asks for a book called Ashmole 782, which it turns out has been hiding in the Bodleian Library for over a hundred years. Her magic rears it's head and breaks the spell, sending out a shock wave to the magical community.Suddenly the library is full of "Creatures," all staring at her while she is trying to study. Vampires, Witches, and Daemon's follow her around waiting for her to call the book back up. They all want to get their grubby little paws on Ashmole 782, each group for different reasons. When Diana returns it, everyone wants her to call it back up and give it to them. The Witches want the book because it will tell them how to attack and kill Vampires magically. The Vampires want the book to destroy it for the above reason. And the Daemon's want the book because they hope it will explain how they came to be created. The poor Daemon's are the only ones who deserve the damn book in my opinion. The Witches are born so they know how they are created, Vampires are made, but no one knows what makes a Daemon, and so children who are born to human's are often treated like freaks by their terrified parents when the "Gifts" arrive. This one book is enough to nearly create a war between the species.Diana is approached by the 1500 year old (and of course gorgeous) Vampire, Matthew Clairmont, who is also (of course) a brilliant academic with doctorate degrees in four different discipline . He is rich, aloof, distant towards women, and suddenly obsessed with average looking and socially awkward Bella...I mean Diana. Can you tell this is a fantasy written by a middle aged academic?Vampire, Matthew Clairmont has wanted Ashmole 782 for over 100 years as he is trying to scientifically analyze what creates magical creatures. He is a smarter version of Edward who continues to go, not to highschool, but to one of the highest levels of college, and has studied with and learned from the brightest minds in the world. He hears about Diana and goes to the library where he sees her use her magic, and begins to basically stalk her to find out more about the book. These two break every magical rule in the book when they fall in love and team up to try to find the book again. Only instead of trying to find the book again, they basically run and hide.ADOW's settings are gorgeous, Oxford England, a Mansion in France, a magical Farmhouse in the midwest of America. I also loved all the nods to historical people and places. At times lyrical and thought provoking it was also however maddeningly slow and in desperate need of editing. At over 600 pages ADOW has scene of meal after meal after meal. A surprising number meals given that one of the pair is a VAMPIRE. Likewise, the main character, Diana is always fussing with her hair. There are long (to me anyway)boring descriptions of the two of them taking Yoga together. Yoga. For god's sake. The two of them reading hand written copies of everything from Shakespeare to The Origin of Species, all signed to Matthew of course. And long winded descriptions of wine. What makes good wine, what the best wines are in the world today and by the way, Matthew has them all and is willing to share. We get long descriptions of Diana being initiated into learning all about wine. You get the idea. He's catnip to a fictional historical academic, and the perfect fictional hero to a living one as well.I could not get a handle on Matthew's character. He is in the beginning oddly hostile and surprisingly angry at the slightest thing (again, shades of Edward), then he becomes shy and uncertain around her. He's 1500 years old, I doubt there would be much shyness left after having lived through the dark ages, and the black plague.Once these two lovebirds start exchanging lists of what the other smells like to them (he smells of cinnamon and clove and carnation pinks, she smells like...oh seriously who cares,) the plot almost dissolves. Instead of getting to the bottom of what is in the damn book (Ashmole 782) that has every creature's panties in a bunch for a 200 mile radius, these two go on Inter-species Yoga dates, and have long meals with lectures on wine tasting and long walks. Harkness by the way has a blog on wine tasting that has won awards so she is knowledgeable, perhaps too much so for a fictional escapist novel. Too much detail and something can lose its alure.At first Diana doesn't want anything to do with him. Then they start hanging out all the time because he wants information on the book, then they start to fall in love and he tells her they can never be together. She is crushed. The lovers almost kiss. She gets threatened by bad witches and he takes her to his Mother's castle in France to protect her and then leaves her, saying they can't be together at which point she turns into a watering witch and almost floods the Mansion with her tears and nearly drowns herself. In other words, just a week or two into knowing Edward, oops I mean Matthew, she is ready to die if she can't be with him. Where did my independent, brilliant, educated witch from the beginning of the book go?The forbidden and implied, doomed love affair of a Witch and a Vampire in ADOW is so all consuming to the story, it loses some of the excitement a book like this needs to move the whole thing forward, and the obsessive focus on the romance takes away from any action or plot involving the magical book. Nothing much happens, and some of what does happen, happens off page. There are only, in over 600 pages, two times where I thought ....now we are talking, something serious is about to happen. Which again reminded me of Twilight.There are some fascinating themes, the idea of Vampires working in DNA labs to try to find out more about their origins and her idea of Daemon's was new to me. I thought it ridiculous however, that in all of history these are the only two who have crossed the bi-magical dating line. ADOW is at times fun and thought provoking. It is also at times as dull as watching the dust settle on the books our heroine loves so well, and that is the real tragedy here. It could be so much more. But evidently, an intellectual Harry Potter meets Twilight is just what the public was clamoring for.

I absolutely loved this book, I wouldn’t say that it is an “adult twilight “ or “adult Harry Potter “ because I feel like it gives you much more history than either of those series. I really enjoyed the layers of back story you get on a creature who would be the age of a vampire and the hook it leaves you on at the end made me wait for the Amazon delivery driver like a dog for the mailman. I flew through it completely enthralled, it’s been years since a book has done this and I’m already on book 3. You know it’s good when you stay up until 1am reading and suffer through work or balance to read while on a stair stepper. 🤣 get it! You won’t be disappointed!

A Discovery of the Witches"It begins with absence and desire. It begins with blood and fear. It begins with a discovery of witches..."The Discovery of the Witches is the most fascinating book I have ever read. My God, the amount of knowledge one must possess to be able to write a such complex story.It's not an easy read and don't go in hoping that it is. I think, that in order to completely enjoy and appreciate the story for what it is, and it is a piece of art, in my opinion, you have to have at least some basic knowledge about some of the significant historical events, old books or manuscripts, a little about biology or/and science. You don't have to know the exact details of the events or context of the manuscripts, but you need to at least have heard about dem. The rest is explained.If you think that the chromosome might be some kind of rare plant, that grows in the Amazons, and the DNA is a new boy band, fighting for the spotlight with One Direction, this book is not for you!The story starts with a witch, Diana Bishop, going out and about with her day, doing her research in Oxford's Bodleian Library, going through her everyday routine, but this time, she discovers a very rare manuscript (which actually exists in real life, or existed, to be precise), by accident (?).She is a historian and young scholar at the university, and the descendent of witches. She knows she is a witch, she have known that her whole life, but she refuses to use her magic, because of what happened to her and her family in the past. She wants to be normal. She is aware that the vampires and daemons exists. She can feel them, but refuses to acknowledge dem.The moment she touches the manuscript weird things start happening.Suddenly, she can feel every eye of every witch, vampire and daemon on her. And here is when we meet the vampire and the professor, Matthew de Clairmont. There is a lot of mystery surrounding de Clermont. Even though he is an employ of the university, he doesn't lecture or take on the apprentices. He is known for his studies of neutral mechanisms and prefrontal cortex (whatever the hell that means :-D), and his studies and publications on wolves. Which explains nothing about why he decides to approach Diana Bishop. And that's why Diana decides to dig around for information about him. Why the sudden interest?The more she discovers about him, the more suspicious he looks. But the thing is, Diana have enough secrets of her own.The most amazing thing about this story is the way author describes witches, vampires and daemons. She describes them based on her research, as a historian, and the tales that we (humans) have been passing on to the others, from generation to generation. There are a lot of actual facts. Regardless, if you believe that such creatures exists or not, there were times when people did believe that they did exist.Another thing that amazed me was the way author used historical events, the breakthrough scientific publications and well know classic literature, to twist/super-naturalize it, for it to suit the story, and make me believe that all I knew about it was not as important as I thought it was. It made me believe, that all that, was only a small pieces of the puzzle, of the bigger picture, in the Diana Bishop's and Matthew de Clairmont's story.It was mind blowing.It reminded me a lot of the move The da Vinci Code. That is the only thing that I can compare this book to. In the movie, at the end, outside the church, Tom Hanks says to what's-her-name "You know, we never actually found any evidence that Jesus was a "he" and not a "she."". Movie ends and you left thinking "WTF?!". That is pretty much how this book made me feel. It made me doubt everything that I know :).Usually, when I read a book in this genre, I adjust my expectations to sustain degree. I know that there will be either vampires, witches or daemons, that the story is fictional and that anything is possible. But with this story, it was hard to tell where the actual truth ended and the fiction began...This book can be analyzed from many different angles. One might think that it's about forbidden love and overcoming the obstacles. Others might think that it's about more important things like finding the answers to the questions like "Who are we? Why are we here? What's our purpose?". For me, it's about all of the above.The thing that makes this story so realistic is that witches, daemons and vampires are asking the same questions as we, humans, have been asking for centuries :-D.I don't blame those who gave up on this book halfway through. The first half of the book is slow-paced. Not as in it's boring, but there is not a lot of action going on (fighting, killing, sex and so on). The author goes into a great details explaining things that Diana Bishop comes across or remembers. This book focuses on the fact that knowledge can be just as powerful as the physical strength (Learning, planing, strategizing, then striking). But it suits the story. You can't rush when you are asking such an important questions, right? :-). It have to be properly explained.There are a lot of secrets surrounding two main characters, the mysterious manuscript and supporting characters as well. That is why the story can't be rushed.Even though the book was a 600 page brick and it took me a while to finish, I enjoyed it quiet a bit and can't wait to start the Shadow of Night." Comperi, Comperi' she said.'Merces amb tot meu cor' he said quietly.Al rebeire. Mefi.T'afortissi."

Despite my sometimes loathing for the attention-seeking wimp of a heroine I enjoyed this, I think because of the settings and the obvious passion she has for her characters. Couldn't quite understand the undying love the male protagonist had for Diana, who kept fainting, crying, obsessing about her feelings of self pity, sleeping and eating (all in great detail). Not sure why he kept calling her his lioness, love is blind perhaps. I would have preferred to see her acting more independently away from the over-protective, enfolding arms of her lover, then needing to be rescued whilst lamenting her fate, and fainting again. I often wanted to walk up to her and give her a kick up the backside as everyone else seemed to indulge her self obsession. Perhaps this is a fault of first person narrative, and editors saying 'you need to explore her feelings more!!' Sometimes, you can just overdo it.Some great imaginative touches in the book, particularly the magical house, but much of it was rather too 'Twilight' for me, and the obsessive love and devotion thing overdone.If I got the following books for free I might read them to see if Diana develops into a more likeable character, but otherwise I wouldn't read them. Sorry.

Dreadful! The heroine, in spite of the reader constantly being told how brave she is, behaves like a child, regularly fainting, having to lie down or be carried. She seems to be little more than a comfort blanket doll for the one-dimensional vampire male lead who seems unable to resist clutching her to his manly chest all the time. What on earth does he see in her? The plot however is interesting, if unnecessarily drawn out by a lot of overwritten description and unnecessary scenes, and I hope the scriptwriters have made something out of it for the TV series since this is a book crying out for a decent edit.

Why do so many authors think it's a good idea to promote toxic, emotionally abusive relationships in their novels? Some guy has told you he might kill you at any moment, he constantly loses his temper and has had you in tears but that's fine - he's handsome and rich and you've fallen in love with each other in a week so just put up with it. It's probably all your own fault anyway! And of course your safety isn't as important as having a boyfriend... Great message.

I bought this book some years ago but never got round to reading it at the time, however with the announcement of the forthcoming TV adaptation the time seemed right to pull it off the shelf. I was glad that I did as it is a page turning story. The idea of a central character who denies or doesn't know about their powers which will be needed to save the world or kingdom has been done to death in fantasy literature, but here is presented in a slightly different form from usual and is all the better for it.Diana Bishop, an American academic studying in Oxford, is well aware that she is a witch but has always refused to accept her powers. The reasons for this are gradually revealed throughout the story and, as a result, the reader is more sympathetic to the character. The world Diana inhabits includes witches as well as vampires and daemons (creative types who are mercurial and unpredictable but not inherently evil) and all three groups are after a manuscript which it appears can only be accessed by Diana.She is befriended and later falls in love with a vampire - this is a serious no no in Diana's world and their love affair is the catalyst for troubles far beyond the characters of the story. The novel moves from Oxford to France and then on to upstate New York before ending on a significant cliffhanger that leads into Book 2.On the whole I found the story engaging, accessible and well written. It made a pleasant change from my more usual choice of story. Mostly it is told in the first person by Diana with occasional chapters being told in the third person. This does break the flow of the story somewhat and it is a shame that the author could not have found a way of conveying the information we needed whilst still in Diana's voice. Jim Butcher (author of the Dresden Files) is a master of this and perhaps could have proved a source of reference for the writer.My only real criticisms of the story is that the love story between Diana and Matthew is overdone in places to the point of being almost nauseatingly saccharine. I can only assume that this was to attract the Twilight and Fifty Shades fans to the book but I hope that it is toned down in the other books of the trilogy.Secondly an essential power that forms the major plot element at the end of the story (and, given how the book ends, presumably for the whole of book 2) is only introduced very late on. It would have been nice to have it foreshadowed at least earlier in the book. I wonder if the author had decided how to the end the story late on and was not willing to go back and stitch in some references or hints early on (or maybe I just missed them!)Overall though it was an enjoyable read. I look forward to the Sky adaptation and will turn my attention to book 2 in the fullness of time.

I watched the first episode of the tv series and was so enthralled by it that l had to get the book to understand the characters as they were intended to be seen. The book started out fantastic. The writing was great; the plot of the story seems solid; the description of the hero was sublime; and then it all seem to go terribly wrong as if the author forgot what set out to accomplish.Many reviews stated that Diana became wet. I do not necessarily agree. She was a strong and confident character at the onset because she had worked hard and achieved success as an academic. This was her life's work and she was good at it. Her supernatural powers, on the other hand, were ill developed and repressed and bounded so she did not have confidence in them. So to be thrust in a maelstrom of events where everyone wanted a piece your power which you are ignorant of or can't access, was frightening.; and rightly so as she could have died on a number of occasions.Enter the protector. I loved him as he was described as a perfect alfa. But it all ended in the description. We did not see him do much outside of his commanding presence. He also failed the most basic of basic test of any hero and that is to protect the heroine or die trying. Actually he nearly killed her trying to survive. Therefore l will wait for the movies as they promise to be great.