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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
My luck with "popular" books continues - or I should say more accurately my lack of luck.
I typically give a book and hour audio narration/about a hundred pages reading with my own eyes to convince me if it's worth my time, but with this one the arrogance of the main character immediately put me off. The author tried (and failed) to make it subtle and matter of fact, but going on for 15 minutes about all her accomplishments and "wow, look at how smart and awesome I am" gave me the impression of someone extremely full of themselves. That paired with her willful ignorance and avoidance of all things magical when the book lists "Witches" right in the title only further soured my attitude toward her, because they means she is either going to royally fuck up and unleash some serious bad mojo, or she is going to magically be the most powerful and perfect witch ever without any effort or practice. Probably both.
As soon as the sinfully gorgeous vampire showed up, I was out. I don't need another 23 hours/500 pages to know exactly what is going to happen, and I guarantee it is a story that could be told in 300 pages or less.
I typically give a book and hour audio narration/about a hundred pages reading with my own eyes to convince me if it's worth my time, but with this one the arrogance of the main character immediately put me off. The author tried (and failed) to make it subtle and matter of fact, but going on for 15 minutes about all her accomplishments and "wow, look at how smart and awesome I am" gave me the impression of someone extremely full of themselves. That paired with her willful ignorance and avoidance of all things magical when the book lists "Witches" right in the title only further soured my attitude toward her, because they means she is either going to royally fuck up and unleash some serious bad mojo, or she is going to magically be the most powerful and perfect witch ever without any effort or practice. Probably both.
As soon as the sinfully gorgeous vampire showed up, I was out. I don't need another 23 hours/500 pages to know exactly what is going to happen, and I guarantee it is a story that could be told in 300 pages or less.
This starts a bit interesting and then slides into mundane. It didn't make sense to me why the MFC started to trust or listen to the MMC when there are so many reasonable reasons to be suspicious. But there they are, talking about tea and yoga. Doing tea time and yoga. Morning kayaking exercise. Mystery backburnered for smoldering on about how huge and tall and pretty the MMC is, with his cool stuff, which isn't my thing already. Other reviews helped solidify this as a DNF.
lighthearted
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
You might like this if you'd like an Oxford AU of twilight. I would not recommend if that doesn't sound like your thing.
adventurous
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
TL DR: The last 200 pages of this book had pretty much all the things I hate in a story. So... no surprise, I didn’t like it in this one either.
I was even willing to look past the early 2000’s alpha male love interest, that somehow the female main character trusts more after one page than literally anyone else in her life.
(Also, If you wanted your vampires to behave like wolves, you could’ve just had werewolves instead).
I was fine with overlooking the main character switching so hard between being a doormat and being an all powerful “you will listen to me and do as I say!” goddess, it almost gives you whiplash.
I was even okay with her having all, and I do mean ALL the powers.
But not the ‘we have to have babies to save human kind plot line”! Whyyyy?????? FFS
If I wasn’t like 150 pages from the end when that happened, I would’ve DNFed.
The turn the story took really isn’t for me. What a shame, I was entertained for most of the story. It’s been a while since I read such a long book this fast.
Don’t even get me started on the time traveling. I know that’s something people aren’t usually bothered by, but I always hate it when it shows up out of nowhere in a story.
Not to mention, the cast of waaaaaayyyyy more interesting people around, other than the main character herself. Tell me more about the lesbian witch couple please! The heartbroken vampire who killed nazis??? I want her story! The governess who knows more than everyone else, where’s her backstory?? And the demons! How come you have 3 different species in your world and we know basically nothing about one of them??!! To be fair, it’s not like you find out much about vampires or witches either. Aff.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book started at five stars for me and lost a star every two hundred pages.
We open in a *chef’s kiss* perfect slice of dark academia. Diana Bishop is a professor and historian of science perusing alchemical texts when she calls upon an elusive book from the Oxford stacks that is full to the brim with dark magic. As a witch, Diana senses its power immediately—and decides she wants nothing to do with it. Magic has burned her before and she’s sworn off engaging with it if she can help it. Of course, a text so powerful starts to draw the attention of other witches, vampires and daemons, including a hot vampire and fellow professor, Dr. Matthew Clairmont.
Some things that make sense at first that fall very quickly into a tangled mess: the forbidden text, the magic system, Matthew Clairmont as a redeeming character, the academic Oxford backdrop, SCIENCE, and the characters’ familial histories.
Holy smokes. At first, the book sets up a lot of constancies that are easy to wrap your mind around. The introduction of the three species and how their individual powers manifest makes sense because it’s relatively simple. Once you get the family trees mapped out in your head, understanding the Clairmonts and Bishops seems to be manageable too. Diana is described as human in all ways but physical; Matthew is likened to a wolf.
THEN—things take a sharp left turn. Diana ends up being a HUGE Mary Sue, despite her inability to tap into her powers for nearly the entire book. There’s extensive and invasive detail about her genetics that takes a frightening amount of agency of her own body away from her. This, coupled with Matthew’s deeply problematic treatment of Diana (even more troubling than Edward with Bella, if you could imagine!) really gave me the ick.
That said, A Discovery of Witches and its many, many pages aren’t hard to read. The writing style is smooth and easily consumed like a glass of water down the throat, even when those later chapters start to feel like a fever dream. All in all, I think I might need a break before I think about the second book.
We open in a *chef’s kiss* perfect slice of dark academia. Diana Bishop is a professor and historian of science perusing alchemical texts when she calls upon an elusive book from the Oxford stacks that is full to the brim with dark magic. As a witch, Diana senses its power immediately—and decides she wants nothing to do with it. Magic has burned her before and she’s sworn off engaging with it if she can help it. Of course, a text so powerful starts to draw the attention of other witches, vampires and daemons, including a hot vampire and fellow professor, Dr. Matthew Clairmont.
Some things that make sense at first that fall very quickly into a tangled mess: the forbidden text, the magic system, Matthew Clairmont as a redeeming character, the academic Oxford backdrop, SCIENCE, and the characters’ familial histories.
Holy smokes. At first, the book sets up a lot of constancies that are easy to wrap your mind around. The introduction of the three species and how their individual powers manifest makes sense because it’s relatively simple. Once you get the family trees mapped out in your head, understanding the Clairmonts and Bishops seems to be manageable too. Diana is described as human in all ways but physical; Matthew is likened to a wolf.
THEN—things take a sharp left turn. Diana ends up being a HUGE Mary Sue, despite her inability to tap into her powers for nearly the entire book. There’s extensive and invasive detail about her genetics that takes a frightening amount of agency of her own body away from her. This, coupled with Matthew’s deeply problematic treatment of Diana (even more troubling than Edward with Bella, if you could imagine!) really gave me the ick.
That said, A Discovery of Witches and its many, many pages aren’t hard to read. The writing style is smooth and easily consumed like a glass of water down the throat, even when those later chapters start to feel like a fever dream. All in all, I think I might need a break before I think about the second book.
2/5 stars
This book was a frustrating one for me. I bought the trilogy because I loved the show, and after reading reviews about it, I thought to myself why not. An urban fantasy, elements of historical fiction, and a forbidden paranormal romance? Sounded great in theory - but sadly, it was not executed well. I tried to keep in mind that this book was written over a decade ago, so writing trends and books trends are so different now - but even then, this book fell flat for me.
On paper, Diana's relationship with Matthew seemed great. However, that illusion was quickly shattered because Diana, a mature adult working woman with a Ph.D. and a professor, someone who is an expert in her field, acts like a child. I'm sorry but I was absolutely beyond annoyed with her. Every complaint, every action, I was just so frustrated with her! She acted like a pushover teenager to be honest, which only cemented my dislike for her.
And Matthew. Oh, Matthew. I had to remind myself not to be fooled by Matthew Goode because Matthew de Clairmont is perhaps one of the most toxic, unlikeable love-interests I've ever had the displeasure of reading- and that's saying something. He's controlling, possessive, and quite frankly, insane. He basically kidnaps Diana and she lets him too - all the while, she's also refusing to acknowledge that hey, you're not human. You're a witch! Stop bringing others into your issues! I felt like screaming at her so many times throughout the novel because of this. She doesn't act like her age which only served to frustrate me beyond belief.
Not to mention that whole part of them being mates and his "children" becoming "their children" - it was just too much for me to handle. I rolled my eyes when I read those scenes. Overall, I'm over the mating aspect of paranormal romances because they're simply not my thing, which may be a reason why I couldn't click with that in this novel.
However, despite my intense annoyance with the main characters, I have respect for the fact that Deborah Harkness is passionate about the subject. Because the author is a professor, her knowledge clearly bleeds into the history she weaves carefully through the novel. I liked that; it just wasn't enough to save the book for me.
Will I continue this series? Yes simply because I own the trilogy. Hopefully, the frustrations I have will either get remedied or at the very least, forgotten.
This book was a frustrating one for me. I bought the trilogy because I loved the show, and after reading reviews about it, I thought to myself why not. An urban fantasy, elements of historical fiction, and a forbidden paranormal romance? Sounded great in theory - but sadly, it was not executed well. I tried to keep in mind that this book was written over a decade ago, so writing trends and books trends are so different now - but even then, this book fell flat for me.
On paper, Diana's relationship with Matthew seemed great. However, that illusion was quickly shattered because Diana, a mature adult working woman with a Ph.D. and a professor, someone who is an expert in her field, acts like a child. I'm sorry but I was absolutely beyond annoyed with her. Every complaint, every action, I was just so frustrated with her! She acted like a pushover teenager to be honest, which only cemented my dislike for her.
And Matthew. Oh, Matthew. I had to remind myself not to be fooled by Matthew Goode because Matthew de Clairmont is perhaps one of the most toxic, unlikeable love-interests I've ever had the displeasure of reading- and that's saying something. He's controlling, possessive, and quite frankly, insane. He basically kidnaps Diana and she lets him too - all the while, she's also refusing to acknowledge that hey, you're not human. You're a witch! Stop bringing others into your issues! I felt like screaming at her so many times throughout the novel because of this. She doesn't act like her age which only served to frustrate me beyond belief.
Not to mention that whole part of them being mates and his "children" becoming "their children" - it was just too much for me to handle. I rolled my eyes when I read those scenes. Overall, I'm over the mating aspect of paranormal romances because they're simply not my thing, which may be a reason why I couldn't click with that in this novel.
However, despite my intense annoyance with the main characters, I have respect for the fact that Deborah Harkness is passionate about the subject. Because the author is a professor, her knowledge clearly bleeds into the history she weaves carefully through the novel. I liked that; it just wasn't enough to save the book for me.
Will I continue this series? Yes simply because I own the trilogy. Hopefully, the frustrations I have will either get remedied or at the very least, forgotten.