Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Review: DISCOVERY OF WITCHES by Deborah Harkness


3 of 5 stars

I've heard a lot of hype about this book and I was excited to finally read it. It starts out very well. I liked that Diana Bishop was a strong independent woman with a stellar academic career. Preferring to live her life without using her magic, Diana is confident that all her accomplishments have been achieved on her own. She's in Oxford doing research when she crosses paths with vampire Matthew Clairmont and that's when she starts to change. Her long repressed magic starts to show itself and not in a good way.

This book meanders for 600 pages and that's the problem. It could easily be half that length and it would have been a page-turner. As it is, there are so many paragraphs devoted to her eating and drinking tea. I get it, she likes to eat and drink tea. I don't need to be told endless times. I was very disappointed to see Diana go from a strong independent woman to a weak-willed simpering witch who follows Matthew's every command. Beside that, my biggest complaint is that there is NO conclusion to any of the issues raised in the book. It ends on a cliff-hanger and if you want to know what happens next, you'll have to buy book 2. I understand ending books on a cliff hanger, but that's usually after the author has resolved some of the issues in the book. Ms. Harkness chose not to do that.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

 

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