A review by kori_krc
Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness

4.0

The series is developing nicely. It's well paced and I haven't found myself getting bored despite this book basically entirely taking place in the 1500's. I did have issues with Diana in this book. On top of her being a walking cliche, she is starting to get annoying on top of it. She's a historian and has studied this time period extensively but would still get upset with Matthew or others in this time period for treating her how they would treat women/witches back then. Like...girl. Her constant need to be a 21st century woman in the 16th century was crazy to me. It was also weird that she kept getting upset with Matthew for not divulging 1500 years worth of his life/secrets in the couple of months they had been together. Like miss mam...he had many lives before you. This book was also page after page of Diana/Matthew getting upset with each other for keeping secrets, getting in a small argument, and then Matthew giving in and bringing them back together. So if you're okay with the repetitiveness of that dynamic, then it's fine. The story outside of their relationship was pretty good. I enjoyed learning of Matthew's past. But it is incredibly hard for me to see that the didn't have any major impact on the future despite having spent 8 months in the past and causing as much chaos as they did. They even said multiple times that they could be affecting the future in a bad way but they really didn't? Which let's be honest, simply Diana speaking to someone would have changed SOMETHING.