30 November, 2018

REVIEW: A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES by Deborah Harkness


Title: A Discovery of Witches
Author:  Deborah Harkness
Series: #1
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Paranormal, Witches
Publisher: Viking Penguin
Release: February, 2011
Source: Audiobook
Pages: 579

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BLURB:
Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.


EXPECTATIONS: I follow an actress called Teresa Palmer on Instagram because she gives the best tips on how to do yoga, prepare healthy meals or in general good tips to be in inner peace. I liked her blog called Zen Life that she had with another actress Phoebe Tonkin. If you like that stuff so check it out it has really good tips on healthy food, exercise and in general feeling better. So one day I saw that she posted a picture of a new show she was doing balled A Discovery of Witches and I Googled it realizing it was a good. So after a long period of time, I finally got round to it and read it. 

THE WORLD: The plot is set in our modern day world. In England actually. Out characters are professors in Oxford University, but we get to travel around Great Britain as well - to Scotland! So nothing much to add about the world except that in this world all different species live together! Human,s vampires, witches and deamons. The supernatural creatures live among mortals and don't use their powers as such. 

CHARACTERS: I don't even know if it is worth going through them all. The main character is Diana Bishop, a witch, who kind of left that part of her life never really learned how to practice magic, or even wanted to be a part of any coven or among witches. She is a professor and is just living her normal life until she uses magic, to reach for a book and all hell breaks lose. I liked Diana, for most part. She was a true 21st century woman: strong, independent, intelligent. She did have these moment of annoyance, but nothing too major. 

The one time Diana uses her magic, a dashing Vampire - Matthew Clairmont sees her and boom - love! He was also a good character, maybe he tried to control Diana a little bit too much for my liking, but she told him to stop it right away. I dunno, the characters in general  didn't really bother me, they were cute, annoying, good and bad, nothing too special, nothing too bad.

ROMANCE: The forbidden vampire + witch love. But, I am a sucker for forbidden love, so I liked it.

GOOD: The entire premise I thought was believable. The idea that supernaturals like vampires or witches also go to school, to university, have degrees and jobs and just like a normal life was actually very cool to me. It's not like all vampires need to live in old castles and wear black. I think this aspect was very pleasing to the understand that you never know, maybe your co-worker is also a vampire! 

BAD: I have to admit, I liked the romance in the book, it was a little too insta-love even for me, and I love romance books. I wanted a little more of connection building, a little bit more of the turmoil. Also I found it a little bit too descriptive at times, it felt like every little detail in the book was given 10 pages of description and I found it unnecessary sometimes.

OVERALL: I loved this book, and I enjoyed it very much.

What do you think about A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES?

 

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