I had read Time's Convert when it was released in 2018 not realizing that it was book #4 in the All Souls trilogy. I always told myself that I should go back and read the first three books to figure out how Matthew and Diana got to that point. I finally read book #1 and it did not disappoint.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Diana and Matthew's first meeting and how Diana started to discover her powers. Looking forward to reading the next book in the series. I am hopeful that I can read the second and third books before the fifth book is released!?! ( )

Is hate reading a thing? I obviously got something out reading this as I got through nearly 700 pages in a week (helped by 2 sick days!)... and I DO want to read the next book in the series... but this is not a "good" book. This book is trash.

If you are picking this book up excited to get into some witchy stuff... this book is not about witches. This book is a Vampire Romance. It reads exactly like "Twilight for Adults." It is esssentially a YA novel without the teenage characters. But the adult characters still act like YA teenagers.

You don't even properly meet any other witch characters until the last 100pages.
Rest of it is alllll vampires. And honestly vampires are not that interesting.

The protagonist Diana is a complete idiot. You may initally be fooled by the academia, the PHD and the tenure... but no she is an idiot, her brain does not engage.

She is 33 years old so a lot of her behaviour just makes me cringe all over. The basically instantly falling in love, the calling this vampire she met 3 WEEKS AGO her "husband" (his vampire son her "son") and finding all Matthew's giant red flag controlling violent behaviour romantic (he's so protective *swoon*) ... is frankly embrassing at her age. Bad enough in a teen character but not as a grown woman.

I wouldn't mind this as much if the author could acknowledge that she is acting like a teenager.. I feel like it would be much better if Diana spent ANY TIME ruminating on how Matthew came into her life and how quickly things got so intense with him - maybe question seriously if she is just under his vampire thrall (or even if this prophecy business is messing with their feelings). Because they have own known each other for 3 WEEKS (she hasn't even completed a mentrual cycle in the 690 pages of this book).
You can feel in love but also question the healthy impact on your life and choices... especially given the scenario she is in!
As an adult woman. Who is supposed to be intelligent.
Just any self-awareness I think would have made it more interesting and given her some/any depth.

Also because she is a first class moron this made me think less of Matthew for being so obsessed with her.

I also did a fair amount of skim reading whenever we got into any tea and/or wine drinking scenes... if you play a drinking game for whenever tea, wine, "you have a lot to learn about vampires" or any kind of smell is mentioned you will die of alcohol poisoning before you're 50% of the way in.

I honestly think the author did a lot of research for this book and just needed to show off about wine and old timey herbs!

Generally this book is way too long, you could easily trim 200 pages out of this and it would be better for it.

But I did enjoy all the supporting characters and I do love the Bishop House. The last 100 pages where they have a little gang forming were probably my favourite, sadly the book ends with us about to be stuck alone with Diana and Matthew again.

I also like the world this book builds, I like the way she pulls science and the supernatural together, and I enjoy the historical stuff.

I do want to know what is going to happen?! ( )

It reads like a romance novel, except for some violence by the bad guys. Not sure if I will read the next book in the series.
( )

One book I wish lived up to the expectations. I had friends rave about this series and I just couldn't find any love for it. I think had I read it when it came out, things would be different, but I'm severely turned off by Matthew's hyper-masculinity and Diana's "fragile-yet-fierce" trope. I dunno. I was into the idea of a book nerd growing into her powers, but with a plot-driven narrative and very little character-given agency, this book gets pretty boring. I found myself going "oh how convenient for them" as the story progressed. Also, Matthew being a 1500 year old vampire who's super into abstinence??? "Humans are so impatient" dude just have some consensual sex with your wife! On that note, I'm pretty sure just saying "I love you" doesn't mean you're automatically married to someone and I don't buy it.

Not sure I'll pick up the rest of the series, but at least I can say I tried! ( )

A Discovery of Witches is a novel with a huge supernatural canvas and a decidedly feminine point of view. Rather than fix on a ghostly secret in some out of the way place, its ambitions are world-sized, ranging across history and zeroing in on DNA, human and otherwordly. Age-old tensions between science and magic and between evolution and alchemy erupt as Diana seeks to unlock the secrets of Ashmole 782. If you love History and Science as much as I do, YOU HAVE GOT TO READ THIS BOOK!!!! ( )