A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy #1) by Deborah Harkness - Restarting October 11th 2019

[Dr. Andy]

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

[Georgie]

Ooh, I started reading this a few weeks ago and put it down, so I'm totally joining this if that's okay!

[Tiera]

I'm doing this one via audible so it may take me longer than if I physically read it! I can only speed the audio up so fast before it sounds like a different language lol! I'll probably get started on it tomorrow though. I need to finish first.

[Dr. Andy]

Georgie wrote: "Ooh, I started reading this a few weeks ago and put it down, so I'm totally joining this if that's okay!"

Of course!

[Dr. Andy]

Tiera wrote: "I'm doing this one via audible so it may take me longer than if I physically read it! I can only speed the audio up so fast before it sounds like a different language lol! I'll probably get started..."

Lol I'm the opposite. I can listen to books super fast but actually reading them I'm a lot slower

[Dr. Andy]

Ch. 14 (view spoiler)[ I am fascinated by the mystery of Ashmole 782. I love the overlapping of all the scientific fields of Matthew's studies. It's so fascinating and I'm really enjoying it. The whole creatures are dying out thought is probably right. I'm curious to see what Diana's blood will show. I really like Diana, but idk about Matthew yet (hide spoiler)]

[Dr. Andy]

Ch. 23 (view spoiler)[ I'm really enjoying Diana's time in France, but Matthew is so annoying sometimes! I hate his alpha male shit and how he blames it on being a vampire. Like no think of another excuse and stop using this misogynistic BS. I'd really like to strangle him. I'm captivated by the sudden awakening of Diana's powers, I can't wait to see what other ones she has. (hide spoiler)]

[Dr. Andy]

Ch. 33 (view spoiler)[ So Diana is spellbound, I think it was her mother. I'm feeling a little suspicious about the tea Magrite is having Diana make too. I think it might be a contraceptive tea. Seeing Diana captured by Satu was awful. This has been one whirlwind after another. I do love Matthew and Diana but ugh sometimes Matthew drives me insane. I kinda want to reread the rest of the series after this though. The witch fire ability is a little freaky too. (hide spoiler)]

[Dr. Andy]

Finished (view spoiler)[ So Diana is a little special snowflake. How charming. Okay sass aside I was really enjoying this. I wonder how it would've been different if Juliette was successful in killing Matthew. You'd think that incident would make Matthew more likely to divulge his secrets smfh. Why is he such a stubborn asshole??? This time walking power is a bit convenient. But I'm still so curious about everything that was revealed in relation to Ashmole 782. The alchemical stuff is seriously so cool. I wonder how Diana will deal with her powers being spellbound, because I don't think she got completely rid of it?? (hide spoiler)]

[Ashy Khaira]

Chapter 1 to 10 (view spoiler)[ hmm diana and her aversion to magic sparks some curiosity.what happened to her parents?matthe and diana are so cute together.why are both peter and gillian threatening diana for?prejudice prejudice (hide spoiler)]

[Ashy Khaira]

Chapter 1 to 10 (view spoiler)[ hmm diana and her aversion to magic sparks some curiosity.what happened to her parents?matthe and diana are so cute together.why are both peter and gillian threatening diana for?prejudice prejudice (hide spoiler)]

[Ashy Khaira]

Chapter 11 to 21 (view spoiler)[ ooo romannce between diana and matthew.her parents were killed by fellow witches....wtf?finally diana learns about the covenant and stuff.i love her anger.marthe and ysabeau seems fun (hide spoiler)]

[Ashy Khaira]

Chapter 22 to 32 (view spoiler)[ wow satu and the group are mental.to use an opening spell that could have killed diana?wtf?how many people are the witches fonna kill that belongs to their own clan?at least matthew and baldwin found her in time.thank fook sarah and em managed to heal her (hide spoiler)]

[Ashy Khaira]

Finished (view spoiler)[ hamish is the 9th knight.interesting.and marcus made grandmaster while diana and matthew timewalks.i love how diana is slowly learning to control her magic.and what is gonna happen with diana with the bargain she struck with the maiden and crone? (hide spoiler)]

[Tiera]

I have finally started this. (view spoiler)[ The audio is a little hard to sink into I thought it was because it was moving a little slow so I bumped it up to 1.25 and now I'm getting distracted all the time. I think I am going to switch to kindle and just start reading it myself. (hide spoiler)]

[Dr. Andy]

Tiera wrote: "I have finally started this. [spoilers removed]"

Hopefully that helps, it is a really interesting world!

[Tiera]

Chapter 8 (view spoiler)[ Still audioing it.. Sticking it out because I really have to have an audio during exercising lol. I don't undrestand why she is so ashamed of being a witch. Why she denies her powers, refuses to learn control, and why she is kind of in denial. She seems like such a smart person. (hide spoiler)]

[Tiera]

Chapter 15 (view spoiler)[ I do really like the whole vibe of this book, is like scholarly in regards to the paranormal world which is in itself really interesting especially with all the research they are doing to explain where the species come from etc. That being said not much else is going on with this story lol. Everyone keeps mentioning this manuscript but nothing is really happening with it.. and is Diana like in danger? Are all these other species trying to steal the book when she pulls it from the library again? I'm ready for something to happen already lol. (hide spoiler)]

[Dr. Andy]

Tiera wrote: "Chapter 15 [spoilers removed]"

lol Diana is always in danger

[Tiera]

Ok so I suck at Audible! Trying to listen to finish this up during my workouts and I forgot to bookmark areas for updates.. Its impossible to remember what chapters things happened in so I'm just going to wing it.

Chapter 26 ish.. (view spoiler)[ I really liked Mathews backstory and the history of his family and all that. Whatever chapter that was in. I'm not really sure if the author just did an amazing job at being writing Mathew and his super overprotective and domineering character since he is so old school.. I don't know I just dont see their personalities meshing well. (hide spoiler)]
Chapter 35ish.. (view spoiler)[ We are finding out so much about Diana and I'm really loving it. Its obvious that the bedtime stories are about Diana's future. Her mother is telling her how things are going to go down in the only way a little girl would remember. Now we are planning the time travel.. (hide spoiler)]
Finished: (view spoiler)[ So the notes in the book at the end does that have to do with time being changed? Why are we not more concerned with some type of changing future beyond repair? I will definitely read the next ones physically. The audio was a little stuffy and for some reason really took me forever to get into not that I felt the narration was bad I just think that this book had a ton of details and some really in depth concepts going on that really drug out the audio. (hide spoiler)]

[Sarah Elizabeth]

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Date changed. Restarting October 11th 2019. Happy Reading ☺

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[Sierra]

25% (view spoiler)[ what is he doing in her house?! omg what is that around her, is that her power? will he find what hes looking for? thats weird that they dont know how daemons are made only from humans. (hide spoiler)]
50% (view spoiler)[ i think he likes her! omg his house! can i please have. i wonder how old he is. all them books he could have read already. lucky (hide spoiler)]
75% (view spoiler)[ i cant believe she went to france with him. oh this isnt good. would he really kill her so no one would hurt her? i love these two so much. that man is scary will he try to hurt her? (hide spoiler)]
finished (view spoiler)[ did he really kill her? these witches are horrible. how could you do that to your own kind. i hope they get to her and i hope they pay for what they did. so many secrets, i cant believe her parents did that for her. i hope she can turn things around (hide spoiler)]

[Jennifer]

Ch 9 - (view spoiler)[ Hmm, so yoga isn't the only time that Matthew hangs out with the other species. I like Hamish, I hope we see more of him. (hide spoiler)]
Ch 16 - (view spoiler)[ That part about Marcus was interesting. So he was a bit of a bad boy in his early days as a vampire, but now he's back to being Matthew's faithful assistant? Also, I am surprised that Diana doesn't know anything about this council or the Covenant or whatever. I get that she doesn't want to do magic, but you would think that stuff would have been part of her upbringing regardless. Bring on the forbidden love though! (hide spoiler)]
Ch 20 - (view spoiler)[ This developing romance between them is so adorable. I keep waiting for Ysabeau to try to kill her though. (hide spoiler)]

[Jennifer]

Ch 31 - (view spoiler)[ It's getting interesting again. I was lulled into a half-nap there for a little while. But now I want to know more about this Lazarus group and what its true purpose is and how Matthew is wrapped up in it. I also can't help but wonder how the witches justify torturing her (or any other witch) and expect her to come over to their side and join them. It seems preposterous to me. (hide spoiler)]

[Jennifer]

Ch 37 - (view spoiler)[ Wow, that was intense. I was already on the edge of my seat with Juliette showing up, but then for Diana to basically have to sacrifice herself to save Matthew. Whew! I didn't understand the part about her becoming the mother though, did you? (hide spoiler)]
Finished - (view spoiler)[ I liked this book.....but it is a special snowflake isn't it? Good lord, it took forever to finish. Talk about a slow burn, this plot took a while to heat up. The excitement of the book (Ashmole 782) lit the first little spark; however, it didn't ignite much, then it just barely smoked for a while until the flame caught around the 80% mark. Now they are off on a time-travelling adventure that I felt sort of came out of nowhere. I mean, yes, it is a good place to hide but it seems strange that that is all they intend to use it for.

The writing detail was great, I just felt the pace was a bit too slow. (hide spoiler)]