Book Review for: A Discovery of Witches

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Book: A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy book #1) by Deborah Harkness

Source: Library

Rating: 2 1/2 stars

The Bad:

What can I say about "A Discovery of Witches" by Deborah Harkness, I found it to be quite boring. This book received so much hype and great reviews, yet it turned out to be boring. I thought the plot of this nearly 600 page book was supposed to be about trying to find a magical book, Ashmole 525. This book was supposed to be so special that it had all of these various creatures (witches, vampires and daemons) wanting to get their hands on it. But somehow Diana Bishop (a witch) was able to locate it when no one else has been able to in years.

A Discovery of Witches started out very interesting like a supernatural mystery then it turned into a tired and boring romance novel. The author just seemed to have given up on the whole point of finding the magical book. What also annoyed me was how pathetic and uninteresting Diana was. She was a total damsel-in-distress through the majority of the book and had to be constantly saved by her vampire love interest Matthew Clairmont. She couldn't do anything without him telling her what to do, and I mean nothing, he told when to sleep, when to eat, etc.

There is nothing interesting about a female character that has no problem being dominated and the romance was way too co-dependant. Diana's life went from her being a respected professor to only being about Matthew. Her life prior to meeting Matthew no longer seemed important to her.

This book seriously needed to be edited, there seemed to be too many pages with nothing happening or it just felt repetitive such as: Diana was sleeping, Diana was waiting for Matthew, Diana was drinking tea and much more. I love books that are descriptive but I felt like this book went over board with too many details, she described how: the wine smelled and tasted, the smell/scent of various characters, the various furnishing in various homes, etc.

The last problem I had with this book was the ending, it was very disappointing. There was no conclusion it felt unresolved. I understand this book is the first in a series but I have read other book series that had a solid end yet transitioned perfectly into the next.

The Good:

Unfortunately, there is not a lot of good things about this book but here are a few. First, I checked this out from the library. Second, I like the characters: Diana's aunt Sarah, Matthew's son Marcus and Diana's family house. Yes, the house was a character. It had more life in it than Diana. Third, I liked the world that the author was trying to create and I did like some of the details that she provided.

I'm not sure I want to read the second book in the series because I was so disappointed with the first. I will have to see.