beckmank 's review for:

The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness

3.0

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Three stars is generous - it's really a 2.5 for me. I really, really wanted to love this book. The first in the series - A Discovery of Witches was great - it sucked me right in, what a page turner! I loved the storyline and had great hopes for the rest of the series. The second book I didn't love as much, but I enjoyed it. This last one - meh. It was ok. There were parts I enjoyed, but it felt like the book spent a lot of time on storylines that just didn't seem important in the overall scheme of things.

Spoiler

I was interested in the Ashmole 782 manuscript and the secrets it held. I wanted to know more about the conflict with the Congregation, and I thought that this would be the ultimate fight that Diana and Matthew would face. I felt let down on both of these plots. They were such big build ups in the first book, and then barely got any page time in this book. Instead, we have a huge tangent with Matthew becoming the head of his family - which really went nowhere in the end - and his son Benjamin turns out to be a big baddie in this book instead of the showdown with the Congregation.

I enjoyed spending time with the characters but definitely felt let down by the plot.