Book Review: A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Book #1), Deborah Harkness

I was a little reluctant to try this one. Everyone I asked about it compared it to Twilight. Kind of puts you off, you know? I think it's unfair to compare A Discovery of Witches to Twilight, though, because it's smarter and the writing is so much better. There are, unfortunately, a couple of similarities between the two - the biggest being the fang thing.

Why do we keep neutering vampires, dammit? Give them their fangs back!

*pet peeve*

There's also the whole watching-over-her-while-she's-sleeping thing and Matthew's reluctance to have sex with Diana, which are both kind of annoying. Aside from those, A Discovery of Witches and Twilight are very different. (Thank the Gods.)

Like I said, A Discovery of Witches is intelligent. You need a fairly well-rounded education/general knowledge to really appreciate all the references. It starts in a library in Oxford, after all. The location (er, locations) is one of the things I like best about the book. Being an American in Britain has a very particular feeling, one Harkness captures perfectly.

“As far as I can tell, there are only two emotions that keep the world spinning, year after year. One is fear. The other is desire.” 

― Deborah Harkness, A Discovery of Witches

A Discovery of Witches is undeniably a romance. (Enough that I suspect my husband won't be watching the TV series with me when it starts.) A really great, really sweet romance. I definitely "aww"ed a few times while reading this. Might have even blushed once or twice, too. ;)

It's a romance you won't be able to help falling in love with.

Did I mention there's a TV series coming? The trailer is the whole reason I picked this book up in the first place.



If it's anything like the book, it's gonna break me, for sure.

Over the years, I've grown to dislike reading books that are part of a series. Most of the time, I won't even pick up the second book. I've gotten too used to being let down by the books that come after. Please don't let that be the case with the All Souls series because I'm dying to find out what happens to Diana and Matthew.