A Discovery of Witches

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

"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's the only creature who can break its spell."

I always find myself dying to read books that fit the season. I want beach scenes during the summer. Hopeless romantic love stories (of course set in a blizzard) for Christmas time. It is no less true during October. There is nothing better than a good witch story to get you in the mood for Halloween. Especially when there are vampires and daemons thrown in the mix to keep things really interesting.

The description of this book does not do justice to all that happens in book one of the All Souls Trilogy. The history and background of all the creatures kept this so interesting. There was so much mystery and so much I wanted to understand that kept me from putting this book down easily. There were a few moments where I was confused and didn't understand what was happening, which kept me from giving this 10 stars. I'm assuming I will understand more as I read book two. That didn't stop me, however, from ordering the full trilogy when my time for the e-book was about to expire.

Overall, I give this book a 9/10 and would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys new perspectives and the possibility of magic around us. It will cure your creature fix and Harkness created such a enticing world to explore. I am very much looking forward to book two and catching up with Diana and Matthew sometime very interesting.