Book Review: A Discovery of Witches

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was okay.

I have had at least a dozen people tell me to read this series. Other than their recommendations I knew nothing of the book when I bought it. They recommended it to me because I love books about magical realism. However, they neglected to notify me it was about vampires.

A book would have to be shockingly fantastic for me to really love to read about vampires. They were just overplayed in the wake of Twilight's success ... in fact, this whole book just reads like a more grown-up version of Twilight.

Normally I'd have just stopped reading, but SO many people recommended it to me, I couldn't just give up.

I liked the story. I liked the characters. I like how it ended. But I didn't love it. It wasn't captivating for me. If I'd read it right when it came out, I might have LOVED it. If I'd read it right after I read the first Twilight book I know I would have loved it.


Thing is, I didn't. I read it now. Now when I'm burnt out on vampire books and just wanting more from my fantasy plot lines than a Romeo and Juliet situation. Not that this book didn't try to have more going for it ... just for me, it didn't succeed.

In the end I finished it out of respect from ALL the people who told me this was a must read. The ending was sweet, not tied up in a bow which I like (mostly because, hello, there are subsequent books, but I won't be adding any of those to my TBR).

Three stars. It was just an average story.


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