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If you are in love/obsessed with Twilight and True Blood and The Vampire Diaries like I am, you need to pick up A Discovery of Witches by Deb Harkness right now and read it. Witches, Vampires and Suspense, Oh My!
A Discovery of Witches is about Dr. Diana Bishop, who is a witch. She comes from a long line of Bishop witches, who are some of the most powerful witches of all time. Because of this, and her highly successful academic career, she shuns the witch part of her life. She chooses not to use or embrace her powers. And so far, it has served her well.
Then one day in the library, she meets Matthew Clairmont. He’s a vampire. And basically then all hell breaks loose. Diana has called an ancient manuscript from the stacks of the library at Oxford University that has basically been under a spell and hidden for a million, billion years. (Not really, but a long, long time.) Turns out this book is wanted by every supernatural character this side of Mars.
The story revolves around the hunt of this book by all sorts of creatures -- vampires, witches and daemons. And because Diana has recalled it, seemingly having some sort of power no other witch has, she becomes Earth’s Most Wanted. And this leads to vampire Matthew becoming oh-so-protective of Diana. And then ***SPOILER ALERT*** they fall in love! (Actually not much of a spoiler. You can see it coming from the minute they meet.)
The rest of the book takes you on a journey as Matthew tries to protect Diana from every creature, and Diana learns to embrace her witch heritage. And in the middle of it all, they piss off all the supernaturals because of their love affair and both of their heads are wanted on a silver platter.
The book is part love story, part suspense novel. Matthew, Diana and both their families search to find out the meaning in the ancient manuscript and why every one wants it and why their lives are willing to be lost over it, all while trying to keep Diana (and themselves) alive. It’s very similar to the quest that Robert Langdon went on in The Da Vinci Code.
Some people will say that one downside to this book is that the love story is unrealistic -- Matthew and Diana fall in love so hard, so quickly. But that didn’t bother me. When I’m reading a book about vampires and witches, logical plot points aren’t really my highest priority -- entertainment value is.
The book is long, almost 600 pages, and it could easily be 100 pages less. There are many points where the history and the science and the snoozey stuff are just too much. And not really relevant to the whole story. But this is also the first book in a trilogy, so who knows if that information will come back into play in the next two books.
I really enjoyed this book overall and you all should go pick it up. I am already itching for 2012 for the next book in the series!
