Book Review: Shadow of Night

Book: Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy book #2) by Deborah Harkness

Source: Library

Rating: 1 star

Review:

This was not exactly a page turner and just like the first book there was a large number of pages where nothing happens and with a book of this size (nearly 600 pages) you typically expect something to happen. But the story drags on for quite a while.

As much as I didn't like the first book, compared to this one, the first book was an exceptional masterpiece. At least with the first book, it started out good. However, this one started out slow and continued on with rarely anything happening. This was a time traveling snooze fest.

The book begins where the first one left off with Diana, a witch and Matthew, a vampire traveling back in time to London in 1590.

When they arrive they are immediately met by one of Matthew's old friends (by the way all of Matthew's friends turned out to be some historical figure as well as various creatures) where he tries to figure out how to introduce Diana.

This goes on for a while with Diana meeting various friends and trying her best not to show she was from the future. Shadow of Night felt like a way for the author do a little historical name dropping and changing history to suit the story.

Things didn't start happening until later in the book (by later I mean about the last 200 pages) and they still were not that interesting.

I found this to be a really disappointing read and with it being so long winded and boring the story seems to have gone off course. Matthew and Diana wasted so much time in the past doing useless stuff instead of focusing on trying to find the book Ashmole 782 (it's a special book that various creatures have been trying to get their hands on for years) which was the whole point of them going to the past. As well as finding herself someone to teach her how to use magic. There wasn't much progress made in this sequel unless you count Diana and Matthew hanging out with a bunch of historical figures and Matthew's father. I feel like a majority of the story could have been cut out. And Diana and Matthew both made so many stupid mistakes and decisions that the story started to feel like a bad comedy. And their insta-love from the first book continued and became even more annoying.

All the characters either from the first story or included in this one seem to be lacking a personality. There were too many characters in this story that added absolutely nothing to this slow moving story. Oh, and there was a death of a character (who was from the first book) that happened off pages and was barely mentioned as if it was an after thought. Insta-love must be a vampire thing because Matthew's son Marcus (who is also a vampire) fell instantly in love with a woman he just met and which the reader finds out at the end of the book that he's completely in love with her.

I am quite proud of myself for giving the sequel a chance but I really don't plan on reading the third book. This series is truly a time waster and I don't want to waste any more of mine.