Stace's Book Review: A Discovery of Witches

I'm a reader. I love all sorts of books but there are those certain few that just stick with you and become a part of your top ten favorites or ones that change your reading life. A Discovery of Witches is one of mine. It is actually the first of a Trilogy called the All Souls Trilogy by Debra Harkness. My mom was the one to tell me about it and I loooved it.

Its about a woman named Diana Bishop who is a professor of alchemy at Oxford, she also happens to be a witch. She requests a book from the stacks for her studies and when she receives it knows instantly that there is magic in it. The retrieving of this book  changes her life for she learns that the book is coveted not just by other witches but other creatures as well and it leads her to meeting the ever wonderful Matthew De Clairmant who happens to be a vampire. 

These books are very academic and nothing like Twilight in case you were wondering. They are filled with creatures such as witches, vampires, and daemons. The characters in them, big or small, are very believable and by that I mean I buy it. I buy it if a character is a total chump or a big sweet heart. The author stays true to her characters and that is my favorite. A lot of authors do not do that and it drives me crazy. Even if a character that I thoroughly enjoy acts like a jerk or something as long as it is true to character I don't care.

Some downs about the trilogy is that it is, like I said, very academic and almost all of the characters are so much smarter then me. Steph said that reading them makes her feel dumb because of their conversations and knowledge and as I've mentioned Matthew is a vampire so the man has much knowledge about history and biology and basically everything. Reading these actually makes me feel smart because I'm all "Oh, you want to have a conversation of alchemy? Done." Of course I can't really have a conversation about alchemy but it makes me feel like I can. And I don't want to  turn people off to reading them but they are very long, like, close to 600 pages long. Its ok! It doesn't feel like you are reading this giant never ending book. Almost everything in them is prevalent to getting to know the characters and the main out come of the story.

The All Souls Trilogy are just good solid books that are in depth, have well rounded characters, are intriguing and fascinating and keep drawing you in. If the books being so long is a little intimidating I absolutely recommend listening to them. They are phenomenal to listen to because a lot of the characters have different accents like, British, Scottish, and French and the narrator does such a good job at portraying that.

Please give them a try, at least the first one, and if you hate them than obviously stop (and be judged by me) but they are a Stace must read. A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy)