From the Bookshelf of Nothing But Reading Challenges…

A Discovery of Witches (All Souls, #1)

Deborah Harkness

Start date: April 1, 2011

Finish date: April 30, 2011

Why we're reading this: This book won the Paranormal/Urban Fantasy Book of the Month vote.
[close] This book won the Paranormal/Urban Fantasy Book of the Month vote.

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Nov 19, 2014 Andrada rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-english, 2015

My Goodreads adding-books-without-reading-their-description rampage will someday turn against me. For a full review check out: http://chapter26.net/2015/12/27/a-dis...

I have already outgrown my vampires-and-witches-books phase, but I honestly couldn’t resist this one after reading (just) its title. After buying it from the local bookstore and reading about 50 pages I started studying the back cover and the praises, one of them mentioned a resemblance to “Twilight” which is one of my least favou My Goodreads adding-books-without-reading-their-description rampage will someday turn against me. For a full review check out: http://chapter26.net/2015/12/27/a-dis...

I have already outgrown my vampires-and-witches-books phase, but I honestly couldn’t resist this one after reading (just) its title. After buying it from the local bookstore and reading about 50 pages I started studying the back cover and the praises, one of them mentioned a resemblance to “Twilight” which is one of my least favourite books; immediately after discovering this my attitude towards the book (which wasn’t great in the beginning, by the way) changed even more and at some point I actually disliked reading in. One thing I have learned from all this, always read the description before buying books (I know, I’m reckless & be warned that some spoilers lay ahead).

And now, to the book itself. Our main character, Diana Bishop, is a witch living in a world where human, witches, vampires and daemons coexist. Her parents passed away when she was little, both being powerful witches. After their violent death Diana refuses to use her powers or even learn how to control them, she tries to live like a human and chooses an academic career relating alchemy. Thus begins her journey and we find her in an Oxford library, rummaging through books. She accidentally finds an old manuscript, a bewitched one, she opens it with the idea in mind of studying it only for its alchemy purpose and blocks out the magical part. The manuscript turns out to be an important one for all three unhuman races: witches, vampires and daemons. After the discovery she meets a charming vampire, Matthew Clairmont, with whom will later start a romance. Other pay her visits after opening the manuscript, witches who threaten her, daemons who seek her help and also other vampires who are not as friendly as Matthew.
The book unfolds through a series of adventures and keeps you quite alert until the unexpected end.

A good read for those into the vampire&witches books and I also advise you to be patient because at some point things will get quite exciting and I think that it is worth finding out what the story of the manuscript is.

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Jul 20, 2011 Delitealex rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: vampire, witches, favorites, fantasy, own

This book was nothing like I expected. The writing was so descriptive. I loved the parts about Diana's alchemical research and Matthew's experiments. Also the descriptions of each creature were interesting. I loved the characters and can't wait to learn more about them. The mystery of the manuscript and the interactions between the creatures really kept me interested and I loved the chemistry between Diana and Matthew. I'm definitely continuing on to the next book. ...more

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Feb 10, 2012 Irene Hollimon rated it it was amazing

It was long in parts but worth it. It definitely has the feel of the first book in a series. The world is built and the mystery is set up but there is no resolution. We don't know what's in Ashmole 72 and we don't know how the relationship between Diana and Matthew will go. We do know that the goddesses will extract a big price for Diana's bargain when she saved Matthew and we're also clued by Diana's vision of Sarah being sad. The parents never do make an appearance in this book which surprised ...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Morgan rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, witches-and-wizards

Probably 4 or 4.5

I'm glad that I have the other two in the trilogy in my plans for the Fall Seasonal Reading Challenge.

Definitely an interesting world populated by interesting characters.

A reasonably quick read for as long as it was (considering the time I actually spent reading it and not reading other things). ...more

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Mar 03, 2011 Rachel Willis rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nook-book

Rereading...

Rereading this has reminded me that this book is my absolute favorite. The world built, the characters imagined into life... It's all beautiful. ...more

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