The Book of Life (All Souls Trilogy #3) by Deborah Harkness

The Book of Life (All Souls Trilogy #3) by Deborah Harkness

 

This is a paranormal fantasy novel (rated NC-17)

 

  ♥♥♥♥♥

(Five Perfect Hearts)
 

 

Book Summary

 

The highly anticipated finale to the #1 New York Times bestselling trilogy that began with A Discovery of Witches

After traveling through time in Shadow of Night, the second book in Deborah Harkness’s enchanting series, historian and witch Diana Bishop and vampire scientist Matthew Clairmont return to the present to face new crises and old enemies. At Matthew’s ancestral home at Sept-Tours, they reunite with the cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches—with one significant exception. But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency. In the trilogy’s final volume, Harkness deepens her themes of power and passion, family and caring, past deeds and their present consequences. In ancestral homes and university laboratories, using ancient knowledge and modern science, from the hills of the Auvergne to the palaces of Venice and beyond, the couple at last learn what the witches discovered so many centuries ago.

With more than one million copies sold in the United States and appearing in thirty-eight foreign editions, A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night have landed on all of the major bestseller lists and garnered rave reviews from countless publications. Eagerly awaited by Harkness’s legion of fans, The Book of Life brings this superbly written series to a deeply satisfying close.

 

 

My Review

 

I love math, history and science. And although I’m an avid reader, I wouldn’t call myself a scholar of literature. Thus, when a story details Dante (haha if you can guess what books to which I refer), I can appreciate but I’m not necessarily wooed. This story is a mass of history and science whether real or imagined. And it stroked my analytical brain.

You can just tell when an author takes the time to research or has an affinity with their subject as they bring it to life on the pages of a book. Deborah Harkness has just found a new fan. I will read anything she writes (until such time as she disappoints me, lol).

I will admit I was frustrated in the beginning of this book. She doesn’t give much of a back story which normally I appreciate. But after two years waiting since the last book and hundreds of books read on my part in between, I didn’t remember much. However, the further I got in, she did remind us of the back story along the way. It didn’t matter because I was caught in the spider web of words that filled my imagination like a movie.

This story had everything, character development, solid plot, mystery and intrigue. There was romance, even steamy hot romance along with heart ache and angst. There were highs and lows and everything in between. I sat on the edge of my seat and waited with bated breath.

Most of all, where the story could have ended and a summary of events given to push us to the end, this author took her time. She gave us an ending to a series that wasn’t rushed but flushed out. And dare I hope, she gave us a somewhat open ending that could mean future books without leaving us without unanswered questions.

Although this is a prime example of how best to end a series, Yes, Ms. Harkness, I would love to read more.

Overall, if you haven’t read this series, it’s a must. It’s a treasure. And I would love to see this story come to life in a TV series or in multiple movies. It’s too much only for one.

Audio Review

Jennifer Ikeda is one of the best narrators I’ve listened to. With a huge cast of characters, she managed to give the major players of which there were many, a unique voice. This made it easy to follow and know who was talking when the author didn’t use dialogue tags. She did male/female along with multiple accents with practice ease. It was outstanding.

My book boyfriend is Matthew.

 

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*Disclaimer - I am not the owner of this picture. I found it on the web for causal fun use on my blog for which I receive no compensation. If this picture belongs to you (you are the copyright owner) please let me know and I will remove it.

Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy #2) by Deborah Harkness

Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy #2) ~ Deborah Harkness

This is an adult paranormal romance novel (Rated NC-17)

4 out of 5 stars

Book Summary

"Together we lifted our feet and stepped into the unknown"—the thrilling sequel to the New York Times bestseller A Discovery of Witches

Deborah Harkness exploded onto the literary scene with her debut novel, A Discovery of Witches, Book One of the magical All Souls Trilogy and an international publishing phenomenon. The novel introduced Diana Bishop, Oxford scholar and reluctant witch, and the handsome geneticist and vampire Matthew Clairmont; together they found themselves at the center of a supernatural battle over an enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782.

Now, picking up from A Discovery of Witches’ cliffhanger ending, Shadow of Night plunges Diana and Matthew into Elizabethan London, a world of spies, subterfuge, and a coterie of Matthew’s old friends, the mysterious School of Night that includes Christopher Marlowe and Walter Raleigh. Here, Diana must locate a witch to tutor her in magic, Matthew is forced to confront a past he thought he had put to rest, and the mystery of Ashmole 782 deepens.

Deborah Harkness has crafted a gripping journey through a world of alchemy, time travel, and magical discoveries, delivering one of the most hotly anticipated novels of the season.

My Review

I really liked history in school and find myself surprised I don’t read as many historical novels because I do enjoy them.

This novel was a bit different than other historical novels. The author took liberties in taking real life characters from the past and fictionalizing them. I’m not sure how much I liked that especially the ending but I’ll get there.

We travel a lot in the book and meet a host of characters. Some of my favorites are Phillip and then when they visited Prague. I won’t give anything away, but there was one character a bit larger than life that was really interesting.

Let’s get down to business. Plot holes galore for a traditionally published book. Maybe it was a bit too long and the editor just was overwhelmed. Anyway, if you haven’t read please skip to end of spoilers for an overall view of the book.

SPOILERS (sorry, it can’t be helped)

I had a few problems with the story. Still I gave it 4 stars so they aren’t that bad. Okay, you’ll have to forgive my spelling of character’s names as I did listen and not read. I did try to research the author’s website for character’s names and didn’t get what I was looking for. I also looked at other lengthy reviews and got nowhere there either. So here I go.

•  Matthew has a sister Vern or something like that. Anyway, I found it curious that she called “Isabo”(spelling) her step mother. Phillip sired her. And I guess I’m okay with that. But Matthew was sired by Isabo but he doesn’t call Phillip, stepfather? And it is never really explained why the difference.
• Here is my biggest problem. Kit. He loves Matthew. Okay fine. When he divulges information about Diana that can get her killed, Matthew kicks him out. I’m okay with that. It was his best friend, it may be hard to kill the guy. Matthew had something really bad happen to him and he find solace with Kit. Okay maybe. He’s doing opium with Kit, hmmm. Kit could take advantage of him. Diana seems okay with it. Whatever, I wouldn’t have been. But when Diana comes home extremely tired with her medical condition, Kit is there. He asked her to leave with him. She left Matthew feigning she was too tired. But she leaves with Kit, the guy who’s tried to being harm to her before. It’s beyond unbelievable even for fiction. I thought Diana going outside from the Isabo’s home in France in the first book after Matthew repeated told her not to was bad. This was far worse. Still Matthew doesn’t kill Kit. Even Diana is risking her life to save Kit who’s tried to kill her twice. Come on.
• Another big problem. When they return to the present, she can only get to her home in Cambridge. Why not try to travel walk to Isabo once they are in the present? Why are they worried about a car, plane and passport? And why would it conveniently not work for them to get to Isabo from the past. The world building just doesn’t add up. There just wasn’t a credible reason why they didn’t at least try.
• The whole thing about past Matthew disappearing was fine. But how he was intent on everyone knowing that he had a wife when the past Matthew would come back without a wife bothered me. I thought he’d leave himself a note or something to explain. But no, they stepped all over the past changing things without a care. Again, it didn’t add up.
• I didn’t like the ending. I have an idea of what the author was trying to do, but honestly, I would have preferred to read more about what happened in the present. I read about theories about Shakespeare taking Marlow’s work. This because when Marlow was introduced, I wanted to read up on the historical figures she was using in her work. I didn’t need that last bit. It was meaningless.

END of SPOILER

Overall, I thought it was better than the first book mainly because we were doing things instead of sitting in the library learning nothing of consequence. Not sure that we learned a great deal about what’s to come to pass in the next book, but it was entertaining.

Audio Review

Jenniger Ikeda again did a stellar job.  I’ll repeat myself form the last time.  She was amazing at throwing her voice, capturing accents, speaking in other languages.  She made the book bearable when it was slow and swept me away into this world the whole time.

My Book Boyfriend, Matthew. (I’m using a different picture because he was in the past. I’m not a historian so not sure if the costume is quite right, but you get the point.)

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*Disclaimer - I am not the owner of this picture. I found it on the web for causal fun use on my blog for which I receive no compensation. If this picture belongs to you (you are the copyright owner) please let me know and I will remove it.

A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy #1) by Deborah Harkness

A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy #1) by Deborah Harkness

This is an adult paranormal romance novel (Rated R)

4 out of 5 stars

Book Summary

A richly inventive novel about a centuries-old vampire, a spellbound witch, and the mysterious manuscript that draws them together.

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.

Debut novelist Deborah Harkness has crafted a mesmerizing and addictive read, equal parts history and magic, romance and suspense. Diana is a bold heroine who meets her equal in vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont, and gradually warms up to him as their alliance deepens into an intimacy that violates age-old taboos. This smart, sophisticated story harks back to the novels of Anne Rice, but it is as contemporary and sensual as the Twilight series-with an extra serving of historical realism.

My Review

Great things I’d heard about this book and when it went on sale at audible.com, I picked it up.  At twenty four hours of listening, I didn’t immediately dive into it.  This week, I finally gave it a shot. 

The first couple of hours were painful to listen to.  Not much happened and a lot of repetitive events went on.  I said to myself, everyone said it was good and carried on.

During the second two thirds of the book, the pace was a bit like a rollercoaster.  Steaming slowly ahead to the top and then a race with fast pace to the bottom only to climb another hill.  Again, I was still frustrated but started to enjoy the book.

The last half was full steam ahead and had me captured in its grips.  I couldn’t stop listening for fear I’d miss something.

So, I have a lot to say.  I’ll start with my likes and dislikes.  Then I go into explanations which may have bits of spoilers but I not a spoiler person.  I won’t be explaining in detail the plot.

Dislikes

• It was too long.  I felt like we were reliving Diana’s life painful second by second.  Some of the telling of meals, sleeping and such can be important.  But honestly, all of what was given didn’t really add to the story much.  I have a feeling the author wanted us to feel the effects of the painfully slow parts so that we could appreciate the more exciting ones.  I would have preferred summary.  I didn’t need to be in the library everyday learning nothing new for a few hours of listening.  That could have been summarized in a few paragraphs.
• Because the book was so slow, I picked up on themes common in other big name books.  Twilight, Morganville Vampires, and Hunger Games.  Maybe if the pace of the story moved faster, I wouldn’t have had a chance to compare while listening this book with those mentioned above. (I’ll explain in the spoiler section.)
• The change of POV seemed like a cop out.  It was the author’s way to give us information that Diana didn’t have not to give us more insight into Matthew per sa.  The change of POV only came when necessary, no rhythm when he would show up.
• Worst of all offenders “INSTA LOVE”.  Both of these characters are old enough to know better.  The author does acknowledge and try to explain it.  I’m just not sure on this point.

Likes

• The book was methodical which appealed to my analytical side.  I think that going through each day let us understand her better.  Still I don’t think we needed to know when she brushed her teeth. Okay, that was a bit of an exaggeration.
• It is well written. I wouldn’t describe the words as beautiful because this isn’t a beautiful story. But the author did an amazing job at bringing her words to life in full Technicolor.

Okay, a bit of SPOILERS here.  Nothing in plot detail, but I am going to mention things in the story.

Themes

This book seems inspired by Twilight.  It could be a coincidence.  But check out my logic below.  Mind you, I read Twilight a couple of years ago and did enjoy the first book.

• Forbidden love.  In itself, is not a reason but combined you will see.
• The main female’s blood being so desirable to the main guy.
• The guy stalking the girl.  Watching over her when she isn’t aware or is.
• Wants to leave her for her protection.
• Family of “made” vampires who stick together even if they don’t initially like the main female.
• Feeding from animals as an alternative to human blood.
• Being chaste until marriage. 
• Possibility of a child that may not be like other children.  Man guy would prefer not to have a child if it puts mother at risk.
• The vampires walk in sunlight.  No these vampires don’t sparkle, but the author continues to mention the “pearl” like quality to Matthews skin throughout the story.  Pearls have a little luster and shimmer to them.  Hmmm.

Still, it’s like the author took Twilight made it more grown up and improved on the writing.

All and all, a bit hard to ignore.  It’s interesting how Stephanie Meyer inspired popular books. (My Blood Approves – Amanda Hockings and Fifty Shades of Grey – E.L. James)

Other Themes

It’s interesting how the vampires are becoming a little more unhinged and dying out like Morganville Vampires.  This book only briefly mentions it, but as soon as I heard it, I thought of that other series.

Also, Hunger Games (HG).  And you say why.  Real loosely, but the whole bow and arrow held by girls and women seems to be popping up everywhere now including this story.  And the name Hammich.  I listened to both books, so I’m unsure of the spelling.  But the name is similar to the one used in HG.

Overall, I think it’s worth a read.  Suffer through the first half knowing there is a pay off.  I bought the next book, so I’m moving on straight away.

Audio Review

Jenniger Ikeda did a stellar job.  She was amazing at throwing her voice, capturing accents, speaking in other languages.  She made the book bearable when it was slow and swept me away into this world the whole time.

 My book boyfriend is Matthew.

View all my reviews

*Disclaimer - I am not the owner of this picture. I found it on the web for causal fun use on my blog for which I receive no compensation. If this picture belongs to you (you are the copyright owner) please let me know and I will remove it.