You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
A Discovery of Witches
A Discovery of Witches is a lush, intellectually playful mash-up: library romance, supernatural politics, and a meditation on how we inherit and revise the past. It’s not a thrill-a-minute ride; it’s a long, candle-lit evening in good company—sometimes overlong, often captivating. If you enjoy historically grounded fantasy, forbidden-love stakes, and scholar-protagonists who solve problems by reading as much as by fighting, this will hit the spot.
Spoilers (lite in this section)
Why it works:
1) Scholarship as worldbuilding, not wallpaper
Harkness (herself a historian) builds a fantasy that smells of vellum and tea leaves. The Bodleian routines, alchemical marginalia, wine notes, rowing on the Isis—these lived-in details make the supernatural feel plausibly stitched into academia. The bewitched manuscript isn’t just a MacGuffin; it’s an argument about how knowledge is preserved, lost, and sometimes defended by those who fear it.
2) Science and magic in conversation
The book is most interesting when it treats “creatures” as a biological and historical puzzle. Matthew’s genetic research and Diana’s history of alchemy sit in productive tension: one reads the world through data, the other through texts. Harkness uses that tension to ask what counts as evidence—and who gets to decide.
3) A romance with thematic teeth
Diana and Matthew aren’t just fated lovers; they’re a clash of temperaments, eras, and ethics. Their magnetism is believable because it’s built on curiosity and competence before heat. The forbidden-love frame (the Covenant’s ban on interspecies relationships) isn’t mere melodrama; it exposes how institutions police boundaries to maintain power.
4) A sense of place (and time) that keeps expanding
Book one moves from Oxford’s cloisters to Sept-Tours in France and a haunted, memory-laden house in upstate New York. Each setting refracts the central questions—who owns history, who enforces it, who resists it—while steadily widening the story’s scope.
Prose & pacing: Clear, unfussy sentences with a scholar’s eye for objects. The opening third is superb—library rhythms, scholarly sparring, tension humming under civility. The middle luxuriates in history and relationship; the finale tilts into domestic gothic and supernatural politics. If you like a slow burn that prioritizes atmosphere and research over constant combat, you’ll be delighted. If you want nonstop action, the digressions (botany, wine, genealogy) may test your patience.
Characterization: Diana’s arc—from avoidance to agency—rings true, especially once she confronts the cost of suppressing what she is. Matthew is compelling but deliberately problematic: protective to a fault, shaped by centuries of hierarchy. The novel knows this about him, and part of the tension is Diana naming (and pushing back on) his control.
System design: Witches, vampires, and daemons are defined by talents and tendencies rather than game-manual rules. It’s elegant but occasionally vague, especially early on, which can make some stakes feel hand-wavy until later clarifications land.
Themes that linger-
Inheritance vs. self-making: Diana’s refusal of magic is about autonomy and grief; accepting power means accepting history—familial and collective.
Policing difference: The Congregation/Covenant operate like a cartel of “order,” using fear of hybridity to justify control. The book’s politics are sharper than the romance marketing suggests.
Knowledge as intimacy: The love story doubles as a research partnership. Reading, tasting, training—Harkness treats learning itself as courtship, which is refreshing.
Where it wobbles
Information density: Exposition sometimes arrives in lecture blocks (lineages, councils, medieval sidebars). Fascinating if you’re into it; draggy if you’re not.
Power dynamics in the romance: Matthew’s alpha tendencies (surveillance, unilateral decisions) may raise eyebrows. The narrative critiques this, but readers’ tolerance will vary.
Tonality shifts: The jump from academic intrigue to clan politics to haunted-house hijinks is fun but can feel like three novels stitched together.
Verdict-
Recommended for: fans of The Historian, Outlander’s slower historical sections, and anyone who happily lingers over marginalia, wine notes, and old houses with opinions.
My take — richly imagined, occasionally indulgent, ultimately rewarding.
A Discovery of Witches is a lush, intellectually playful mash-up: library romance, supernatural politics, and a meditation on how we inherit and revise the past. It’s not a thrill-a-minute ride; it’s a long, candle-lit evening in good company—sometimes overlong, often captivating. If you enjoy historically grounded fantasy, forbidden-love stakes, and scholar-protagonists who solve problems by reading as much as by fighting, this will hit the spot.
Spoilers (lite in this section)
Why it works:
1) Scholarship as worldbuilding, not wallpaper
Harkness (herself a historian) builds a fantasy that smells of vellum and tea leaves. The Bodleian routines, alchemical marginalia, wine notes, rowing on the Isis—these lived-in details make the supernatural feel plausibly stitched into academia. The bewitched manuscript isn’t just a MacGuffin; it’s an argument about how knowledge is preserved, lost, and sometimes defended by those who fear it.
2) Science and magic in conversation
The book is most interesting when it treats “creatures” as a biological and historical puzzle. Matthew’s genetic research and Diana’s history of alchemy sit in productive tension: one reads the world through data, the other through texts. Harkness uses that tension to ask what counts as evidence—and who gets to decide.
3) A romance with thematic teeth
Diana and Matthew aren’t just fated lovers; they’re a clash of temperaments, eras, and ethics. Their magnetism is believable because it’s built on curiosity and competence before heat. The forbidden-love frame (the Covenant’s ban on interspecies relationships) isn’t mere melodrama; it exposes how institutions police boundaries to maintain power.
4) A sense of place (and time) that keeps expanding
Book one moves from Oxford’s cloisters to Sept-Tours in France and a haunted, memory-laden house in upstate New York. Each setting refracts the central questions—who owns history, who enforces it, who resists it—while steadily widening the story’s scope.
Prose & pacing: Clear, unfussy sentences with a scholar’s eye for objects. The opening third is superb—library rhythms, scholarly sparring, tension humming under civility. The middle luxuriates in history and relationship; the finale tilts into domestic gothic and supernatural politics. If you like a slow burn that prioritizes atmosphere and research over constant combat, you’ll be delighted. If you want nonstop action, the digressions (botany, wine, genealogy) may test your patience.
Characterization: Diana’s arc—from avoidance to agency—rings true, especially once she confronts the cost of suppressing what she is. Matthew is compelling but deliberately problematic: protective to a fault, shaped by centuries of hierarchy. The novel knows this about him, and part of the tension is Diana naming (and pushing back on) his control.
System design: Witches, vampires, and daemons are defined by talents and tendencies rather than game-manual rules. It’s elegant but occasionally vague, especially early on, which can make some stakes feel hand-wavy until later clarifications land.
Themes that linger-
Inheritance vs. self-making: Diana’s refusal of magic is about autonomy and grief; accepting power means accepting history—familial and collective.
Policing difference: The Congregation/Covenant operate like a cartel of “order,” using fear of hybridity to justify control. The book’s politics are sharper than the romance marketing suggests.
Knowledge as intimacy: The love story doubles as a research partnership. Reading, tasting, training—Harkness treats learning itself as courtship, which is refreshing.
Where it wobbles
Information density: Exposition sometimes arrives in lecture blocks (lineages, councils, medieval sidebars). Fascinating if you’re into it; draggy if you’re not.
Power dynamics in the romance: Matthew’s alpha tendencies (surveillance, unilateral decisions) may raise eyebrows. The narrative critiques this, but readers’ tolerance will vary.
Tonality shifts: The jump from academic intrigue to clan politics to haunted-house hijinks is fun but can feel like three novels stitched together.
Verdict-
Recommended for: fans of The Historian, Outlander’s slower historical sections, and anyone who happily lingers over marginalia, wine notes, and old houses with opinions.
My take — richly imagined, occasionally indulgent, ultimately rewarding.
Oh, this book. I went back and forth about this book. A lot. But first...
Dear authors who want a vampire in their novel,
Hello! How are you? I have not read enough novels with vampires to know the ins and outs of their tropes. I have read Twilight, though. And I enjoyed it for what it is. Here are a things that are, at least to me, strongly associated with Twilight that you may want to never include in another book about vampires again.
1) The word dazzling. Words sometimes stick out to me in books. Dazzling vampires make me think of Twilight, which I do not want to do unless I am reading Twilight.
2) Vampires love expensive/flashy cars. I think this sticks out to me because I think it is a super specific and weird detail to include. I very rarely care what real life people drive, so I care less about characters in books. (I don't know why TV is sometimes the exception. Let's blame Supernatural!)
3) A vampire comparing a human, particularly a lady human, to drugs. Whether it's the smell or the taste, just stop it.
Sincerely,
Sarah
So, THIS BOOK. I enjoyed parts of it. Big chunks of it. Other chunks, not so much. I was kind of bored in France. And I think that's because France focused on the "romance." I read romance. This was not super romantic. It was a bit of patriarchal and/or deceitful bullshit in a candy coated shell of, "because we're vampires we're old, there are things you don't understand, blah." Don't get me wrong, the vampires don't have a monopoly on hiding things. I think maybe I prefer witches as a concept. I liked the found family, group of rag tag misfits business. I wanted to know more about the book, because of course I did. And my favorite character in the whole book was a house.
I am intrigued enough to try book two, with reservations because I have a feeling it will focus on two of my least favorite characters.
I finally read this because my friend Sarah promised she would read Neverwhere if I read this; like a favorite books exchange. My pick is about 200 pages shorter. You're welcome!
Dear authors who want a vampire in their novel,
Hello! How are you? I have not read enough novels with vampires to know the ins and outs of their tropes. I have read Twilight, though. And I enjoyed it for what it is. Here are a things that are, at least to me, strongly associated with Twilight that you may want to never include in another book about vampires again.
1) The word dazzling. Words sometimes stick out to me in books. Dazzling vampires make me think of Twilight, which I do not want to do unless I am reading Twilight.
2) Vampires love expensive/flashy cars. I think this sticks out to me because I think it is a super specific and weird detail to include. I very rarely care what real life people drive, so I care less about characters in books. (I don't know why TV is sometimes the exception. Let's blame Supernatural!)
3) A vampire comparing a human, particularly a lady human, to drugs. Whether it's the smell or the taste, just stop it.
Sincerely,
Sarah
So, THIS BOOK. I enjoyed parts of it. Big chunks of it. Other chunks, not so much. I was kind of bored in France. And I think that's because France focused on the "romance." I read romance. This was not super romantic. It was a bit of patriarchal and/or deceitful bullshit in a candy coated shell of, "because we're vampires we're old, there are things you don't understand, blah." Don't get me wrong, the vampires don't have a monopoly on hiding things. I think maybe I prefer witches as a concept. I liked the found family, group of rag tag misfits business. I wanted to know more about the book, because of course I did. And my favorite character in the whole book was a house.
I am intrigued enough to try book two, with reservations because I have a feeling it will focus on two of my least favorite characters.
I finally read this because my friend Sarah promised she would read Neverwhere if I read this; like a favorite books exchange. My pick is about 200 pages shorter. You're welcome!
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness is book that cast a spell on your knowledge of witches and vampires. This book is one of the best of introducing vampires and witches and their additions to world history and sciences. The book is really well researched on the history and plausibly inserts the creatures into time. This book reminded me of some of my favorite parts of Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles and The Mayfair Witches, the history and the romance. It creates and explains it's own rules for each creature, mocking their Hollywood interpretations. Diane the main character is a strong witch that does need any saving my vampire or witch. I like that this book is quest for the holy grail tale reversed, instead of finding out about human life they want a book that explains the creation of vampires, witches, and daemons (not a typo, it is a creature at uses influence to madding effect, the super smart, that could go crazy at any moment) and also how to destroy them. The novel pays out like a chess match making continuous moves and sacrifices along the way.
The Plot: Diana Bishop is a professor at Oxford and also a witch. She knows what she is but very reluctant to use any of her powers only for trivial stuff, like not finding her glasses. She knows of Vampires and Daemons can feel their presence. Diana while doing research on alchemy stumbles across a book she needs in the Oxford library. the book is old with a seal preventing it from being opened, she need this book and it reluctantly opens, and Diana can feel a spell being lifted. She does research with it a notices the pages when in light reveal hidden text, she would love to explore this more but her need is done, she shuts the book and the seal reforms making the magic reactivate, and returns it. What she didn't know is that no one has seen that book in hundreds of years and the book holds secrets of life and death to witches, vampires and daemons. When the magic was released others felt it's power. Matthew an over 1,000 year old vampire wants the book and starts following Diana and protecting her from others who want the book. The book draws an ancient order that will stop at nothing for the secrets of the book.
What I Liked: The history in this book is so good I felt very real and plausible. The lore changes to Vampires and Witches were really thought full and explained where the movies and book borrowed from. The haunted witch house were my favorite scenes with the grandma witch in ghost form criticizing her ancestor's choices. The family dynamic of vampires, this is the first book that I have read where the maker is referred to as mother and father while the new vampire is referred to as son of daughter. The aspect of the book and the secrets it holds was really intriguing and held my interest. I enjoyed that Diana's character was so head strong and wasn't a damsel in distress. I really liked the bad guys and only wished I could have spent more time with them in this book. I really enjoyed the side characters of Marcus, Miriam, and Hamish. The love aspect took be quite a while to be fully on board but when more was reveled in terms of fate I enjoyed it more and it became less forced. The mystery surrounding the death of Diana's parents and what they did to protect her. The lead in to the next book is really intriguing, it seems like all the things that I liked in this book will expanded. The magic was really good I especially liked the witchwater scene and witchfire usage.
What I Disliked: All the conversations about wine, too much! There's people out to kill us, let's take a while and talk of this Bordeaux. The pacing to me was sometime frustrating, there's a book that can hold the secret to everything we know of witches, vampires, and daemons, and it takes 200 pages to try to summon the book again, while we had ten wine conversations. What I failed to see was all the information on history was pulling the book in a different direction, which I enjoyed where the book ended up but would have enjoyed a faster pace pulling me there.
Recommendations: If you want a smart new take on the vampire genre, then A Discovery of Witches is the book. If you're a history buff, you'll geek out after Matthew is inserted Forest Gump-like into literature, history, and science as well as witches and daemons influences as well. This book captures the imagine because it it so well thought out in terms of history. If you're a wine connoisseur then you will find all the wine conversation way more fascinating than I did. I rate this book 4out of 5 stars. My girlfriend has read all the books says that I will like the 2nd book a lot better, so I look forward to it and the history.
The Plot: Diana Bishop is a professor at Oxford and also a witch. She knows what she is but very reluctant to use any of her powers only for trivial stuff, like not finding her glasses. She knows of Vampires and Daemons can feel their presence. Diana while doing research on alchemy stumbles across a book she needs in the Oxford library. the book is old with a seal preventing it from being opened, she need this book and it reluctantly opens, and Diana can feel a spell being lifted. She does research with it a notices the pages when in light reveal hidden text, she would love to explore this more but her need is done, she shuts the book and the seal reforms making the magic reactivate, and returns it. What she didn't know is that no one has seen that book in hundreds of years and the book holds secrets of life and death to witches, vampires and daemons. When the magic was released others felt it's power. Matthew an over 1,000 year old vampire wants the book and starts following Diana and protecting her from others who want the book. The book draws an ancient order that will stop at nothing for the secrets of the book.
What I Liked: The history in this book is so good I felt very real and plausible. The lore changes to Vampires and Witches were really thought full and explained where the movies and book borrowed from. The haunted witch house were my favorite scenes with the grandma witch in ghost form criticizing her ancestor's choices. The family dynamic of vampires, this is the first book that I have read where the maker is referred to as mother and father while the new vampire is referred to as son of daughter. The aspect of the book and the secrets it holds was really intriguing and held my interest. I enjoyed that Diana's character was so head strong and wasn't a damsel in distress. I really liked the bad guys and only wished I could have spent more time with them in this book. I really enjoyed the side characters of Marcus, Miriam, and Hamish. The love aspect took be quite a while to be fully on board but when more was reveled in terms of fate I enjoyed it more and it became less forced. The mystery surrounding the death of Diana's parents and what they did to protect her. The lead in to the next book is really intriguing, it seems like all the things that I liked in this book will expanded. The magic was really good I especially liked the witchwater scene and witchfire usage.
What I Disliked: All the conversations about wine, too much! There's people out to kill us, let's take a while and talk of this Bordeaux. The pacing to me was sometime frustrating, there's a book that can hold the secret to everything we know of witches, vampires, and daemons, and it takes 200 pages to try to summon the book again, while we had ten wine conversations. What I failed to see was all the information on history was pulling the book in a different direction, which I enjoyed where the book ended up but would have enjoyed a faster pace pulling me there.
Recommendations: If you want a smart new take on the vampire genre, then A Discovery of Witches is the book. If you're a history buff, you'll geek out after Matthew is inserted Forest Gump-like into literature, history, and science as well as witches and daemons influences as well. This book captures the imagine because it it so well thought out in terms of history. If you're a wine connoisseur then you will find all the wine conversation way more fascinating than I did. I rate this book 4out of 5 stars. My girlfriend has read all the books says that I will like the 2nd book a lot better, so I look forward to it and the history.
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A Discovery of Witches gave me a new perspective on supernatural creatures. I don't usually read books that have vampires in it anymore, but this was a great book. I can't wait to see what Deborah Harkness has in store for the characters in Shadow of Night!
The “smart” girl made the dumbest decision by going outside by herself when she knew the other creatures were looking for her. I hate this trope
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes