Harkness, Deborah: A Discovery of Witches. New York: Penguin Group, 2011. Print. 579 pages.
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SETTING: Majority takes place in Oxford, England and a castle named Sept-Tours in France (I wasn't able to find the exact location of Sept-Tours. There's a Chateau des Sept Tours in real life, but not sure if that is the same as the Sept-Tours in the novel. Most likely is, but it is not confirmed.).
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SUMMARY: Diana Bishop is an American professor of alchemy at Oxford University. She is also the daughter of two powerful witches, a part of her identity she has tried to keep suppressed for years. But when a mysterious book falls into her possession, she can no longer deny who she really is or continue to ignore her past.
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FAVORITE QUOTE: "'..And happiness is always louder than sadness...'" - Chapter 36, page 480.
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I picked this book because of the title: it's about witches and magic! This book is part of a trilogy, and I accidentally grabbed the third book in the trilogy instead of the first, so I had to go back to the library and exchange the two books. I'm going to do things a little out of order this time by first listing the things I did not like about this book before the things I did like.
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Things I didn't like about this book:
- The first 400 pages. SO BORING. I attribute my patience to getting through those 400 pages to the fact that (1) I had a lot of time on my hands, (2) really just wanted to read, and (3) had a feeling that it just had to get better. How can a book about witches, vampires, and daemons be absolutely terrible? Glad I persevered!
- Diana during the first 400 pages. She thinks she's so independent and doesn't need anyone, but again and again the author puts her in situations that are just over her head. She lacks the ability to learn from her past experiences and mistakes, and is headstrong to a fault.
- Not enough magic. Again, during the latter half of the book, it picks up a little bit, but I was expecting a lot more magic throughout the entire book, and was sorely disappointed.
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Things I liked about this book:
Things I liked about this book:
- Diana during the last 179 pages. She finally becomes less whiny and actually takes initiative and responsibility for her actions. She is a strong character near the end, and I am positive this new-found strength will follow her in the next two novels in the series.
- Matthew Clairmont. He is so patient with Diana, and she did not deserve his patience during the first 400 pages of the book. She was very rude to him and wrote off his efforts as an annoyance, when in reality most of what he said and did was correct.
- The Clairmont family. A very regal and strong group of vampires who aren't afraid to speak their mind. I really enjoyed their interactions with each other.
- Diana's aunt's eventual acceptance of Matthew. Matthew is a vampire and Diana's aunt, Sarah, is a witch. In this novel, witches, vampires, and daemons (there are three separate species of non-human creatures), do not get along, and indeed, it is illegal for them to interact with more than a few passing words between each other. Sarah initially hated Matthew based off of principal, but her eventual change of heart is described very well by the author, and that progression was a nice read.
- The aspect of time travel. Always fun to read and the way they practiced and planned for their trip to the past was described in great deal. They were very smart about it, and the author did a wonderful job putting those scenes in writing.
- Diana and Matthew's love. It all happens very quickly, but there is an aspect of fate in their story and, as a hopeless romantic, I loved it. No matter how hard they tried, all events led to their eventual relationship.
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I ended up enjoying this book, and will probably read the next two in the series when I'm home next and can check them out from the library. Even though I've been in DC for three years now, I haven't joined the local public library. I don't have all that much time to read while I'm here, and the books I usually pick up are either borrowed from other people or purchased from a used book store. If I read more frequently, I would have to get a library membership, otherwise I'd run out of material really quickly!
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Recommend? Yes, if you're feeling patient...
I ended up enjoying this book, and will probably read the next two in the series when I'm home next and can check them out from the library. Even though I've been in DC for three years now, I haven't joined the local public library. I don't have all that much time to read while I'm here, and the books I usually pick up are either borrowed from other people or purchased from a used book store. If I read more frequently, I would have to get a library membership, otherwise I'd run out of material really quickly!
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Recommend? Yes, if you're feeling patient...
