Book Review: A Discovery Of Witches By Deborah Harkness

Title: A Discovery Of Witches

Author: Deborah  Harkness

Deborah’s Website: DeborahHarkness.com

Deborah’s Twitter: twitter.com/DebHarkness

592 pages, Publisher: Viking Adult

Buy The Book: Amazon

From The Publisher:

Deep in the stacks of Oxford’s Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell. (Summary provided by Viking Adult.)

My Thoughts:

As some of you might remember, I have had quite the thirst for novels imbued in magic and witchcraft lately. My latest book du jour, A Discovery Of Witches by Deborah Harkness, quenched my thirst quite nicely. Harkness’s novel is the first book in the All Souls Trilogy. An epic tale of forbidden love between a powerful witch and a centuries old vampire, Harkness takes the reader all over the world as her protagonist, Diana Bishop, struggles to embrace the power she has always fought against.

Lush academic environs, a beautiful castle, and homey cottages are just a few of the settings the reader gets to travel through during the course of A Discovery Of Witches. Deborah Harkness’s sharp attention to detail and lovely descriptions of the characters’ surroundings combine to form an exquisite backdrop for the action to take place against. Harkness’s prose beautifully tells the witch’s story in the most unique voice I have encountered since Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witch series. The book also contains the most bizarrely wonderful yoga scene that I could not have dreamed up in a million years! Basically, I loved this book, and I can’t wait for 2012 to roll around so I can read the next book in the trilogy. If you enjoy elegant writing steeped in folklore and myth, then you will devour A Discovery Of Witches by Deborah Harkness!

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