A Discovery of Witches - Deborah Harkness

Diana Bishop is a Historian specialising in ancient manuscripts associated with Alchemy. She is also a Witch of impressive pedigree. Due to distressing incidents in her past Diana has turned her back on all things magical and is determined to live an ordinary life studying the subject she loves. An incident in the Bodleian Library suddenly plunges Diana into a world she genuinely knows little about and luckily a tall, handsome Vampire by the name of Matthew is on hand to guide her through the mysterious world of the fragile peace that exists between Humans and Creatures. Vampire books seem to ... more

I was randomly sent this book a few weeks before it’s publication, and was generously given two weeks to read the book and let the publishing house know my thoughts….two weeks for almost 600 pages, they would be lucky unless it was amazing! I got started straight away on a cold Saturday evening while sleeping rough for charity (My theory being if it was amazing it would get me through the night, if not it would send me to sleep – win/win!) The story, set mainly beautiful Oxford, took quite some time to get going and wasn’t quite sure of its own identity. To begin with I found the book very ... more

I read a lot of fantasy books about vampires, witches, were-wolves and the likes, some are definitely better than others - this book being one of them. A friend lent it to me and I cannot wait for the second book to be released, definitely one for pre-ordering. I enjoyed the insight into how witches have different skills and I loved the ghosts that lived in the house where she grew up. A really really good read that I found very hard to put down, there were some occasions where my two boys (my partner and my step-son) had to wait for me to finish a chapter (!) before I did tea..... I think ... more