A Discovery of Witches (All Souls, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

May 16, 2018 Moondance rated it liked it

Shelves: witches, first-in-series, fantasy, sos-bingo-2018, gothic-horror, vampires, alchemy, daemons, ancient-manuscripts

The leather-bound volume was nothing remarkable.

Diana Bishop comes from a long line of powerful witches. She tries to suppress her magic and lead an ordinary life. Everything changes once she opens Ashmole 782, an ancient manuscript. Suddenly, witches, daemons and vampires are noticing Diana. A centuries old vampire, Matthew, becomes particularly enthralled with her.

I had heard so much about this book that I wanted it to be a solid 5 star read. It started out rather slow and I found myself rerea ...more

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May 23, 2016 Katie rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 27, 2012 KarenF rated it really liked it

Shelves: paranormal, library, urban-fantasy

I really enjoyed this book; I think in some ways despite itself. I loved the world that the author created with the different supernatural races and I love the way the information about them was revealed. There would be both scientific or historical information about a certain race and then you'd see characters demonstrating those traits. I felt the characterization in the book was very strong. I knew all these characters and I was rooting for them even when they were annoying me. Diana was a li ...more

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Jun 04, 2017 Cee rated it it was ok

A Discovery of Witches seems to be many books in one. Diana is a historian, and a witch. When she inadvertently stumbles across an ancient manuscript in Oxford, she gets caught up in a plot with other covens, vampires, and daemons.

The beginning of the book made me incredibly excited. Not only is the main character a witch (yay!), she's also a historian (yay!!) doing actual historian things. Add to that the Oxford setting, which has always appealed to me ever since I read The Golden Compass as a ...more

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Nov 26, 2011 cc rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2015-read, paranormal-romance, did-nothing-for-my-lady-parts, hero-jealous-possessive, stalkerific-hero, contemporary, dnf, twilight-ish, hero-i-wanna-slap, adult

DNF.

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Mar 14, 2019 Rae rated it liked it

A slog. I wanted to like it, truly. Trying to be generous with 3 star. Bummed I bought all three at once. I think I’m on a nonfiction kick for a while. Halfway through the second one and just... The characters besides Marthe and Em aren’t very likeable. I’m sure this likely a character defect on my part. Sorry. I am grateful for the lack of cringeworthy sex scenes!

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