A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy, #1) by Deborah Harkness
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
While studying in the Oxford library Diana Bishop accidentally opens up a bewitched alchemical manuscript while doing her research. Diana is actually a witch and she knows the script has been spelled but Diana tries to avoid any form of practicing magic.
After coming across the manuscript though Diana meets Matthew who is a vampire. Vampires and Witches are not supposed to be together but Diana and Matthew form a friendship when it becomes apparent that Diana’s unknowingly opening the manuscript has put her in danger and she’s suddenly being followed by numerous vampires, witches and daemons.
A Discovery of Witches is one of those books that I have put off reading forever because I was a bit worried about the length and what the pacing would be like with this one. Unfortunately it fell flat as I was afraid of with just being way too slow in my opinion. The biggest part of the first half of this is simply centered around Diana and Matthew and it seemed forever to get anything else really going in the story.
However, there really were some good ideas in here that I did enjoy. But again even with the good parts I felt the author seemed to drag the story down with a bit too much detailing to it. A few parts in here felt almost like sitting through a class lecture which was a rather unfortunate way to get some ideas into the story.
As for Diana and Matthew and the relationship side of things. This one would be for those that prefer a slow build. In this case a really really slow build. I did like the characters for the most part but there were a few times I was a bit iffy on Diana though. I think that was because of her lack of magical knowledge seemed to kind of contradict her being a scholar and made her seem not so smart at times.
Overall, this one falls for me somewhere around the 2.5-3 stars range since the pace just slowed it so much for me. If a good portion of this was edited down to make it not seem so incredibly long to get to the action I probably would have loved it.
Carries Book Reviews 
I agree with you 100%. I felt the same way reading the series – good ideas, but flat execution. Diana bothered me as well. As a scholar, should she not have been curious about her heritage and abilities?
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I’m not sure I’ll pick up the others after this one. Did like the idea behind it but not sure I’d want to sit through another dragged out the way this was.
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Don’t bother. I read the rest of the series, hoping it would live up to the idea, but it just drags.
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I’ll probably pass on them then, so many books out there it’s hard to drag through slow ones like these.
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This was actuated one of those rare books I didn’t finish. Everything eas so descriptive, from the way she made her tea to how she took her walks. I felt as though I was drowning in quicksand.😑
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I flipped it to audio and toughed it out. I did like the ideas the story had when you waded across them and weren’t getting the day to day details between the characters. LOL
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I was very curious to see what you thought of this and am very glad to see the end result ;).I gave this one 1 or 1.5 stars. Diana was a whiny doormat and the endless boring details…just *SIGH*.
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Haha you knew I’d be complaining, didn’t you? 🙂 I’m kind of obvious that I tend to get bored with things dragging on and this one definitely did.
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I was hoping for it alright ;).
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I was probably a bit nice on my rating, just kept thinking well if it was rewritten I probably would love the story.
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There were some interesting key elements in it alright. I liked the biology behind the vampirism. But holy crap on a stick, the boring romance etc. Of course, with all the raving fans, this will never be rewritten 😀
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Did you read anymore of the series? I’m told it doesn’t get any better so will probably pass on those.
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Hells no. I initially got into it because I wanted to read the second book, but I’ll gladly pass on it now as well. I heard whatsherface gets pregnant in book 2. Just imagine the pages full of emotions and descriptions on that…pfff, lol.
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Oh man, describing morning sickness and body changes? Yeah, pass. LOL
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It’s been awhile since I read it, but I can mostly picture Diana lying in bed when thinking of it again. Can you imagine what book 2 will be like then? “Oh Diana, my love, I know you’re the most powerful witch EVER, but you need to rest now because I say so. And because I’m a gentleman who needs to protect young helpless powerful witches as yourself”, said Matthew. UGH!
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This is another series that just proves that people have a huge range of tastes when it comes to books. Some absolutely love it and when I was finished I was just scratching my head wondering why I’d seen so many good reviews. LOL
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So true! 🙂
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