A Discovery of Witches

Diana Bishop comes from a powerful family of witches but refuses to use her power. Witches have a way of weaving their power into every aspect of their lives, and she wants to earn her recognition for alchemic research without any magical influence. Then Ashmole 782 ends up in her research stack. When she touches the book, Diana recognizes it for what it is, a magically sealed manuscript. After a quick look through, she decides to return the book and never look back. Unfortunately, every witch, daemon, and vampire nearby knows Ashmole 782 has been found and wants it. Among those interested is Matthew Clairmont, a 500-year-old vampire who not only takes an interest in the manuscript but in Diana as well.

The scholarly atmosphere surrounding this first book was foreign to me and I have to admit I wasn't impressed. Reading about a character studying and researching alchemy should have been more interesting than it was. While I admit I would love to spend most of my days in a library, reading about a character doing just that isn't exciting. The amount of time Diana spends in the library baffles me as literally, nothing happens in it. Different creatures swarm her and at times threaten her, but we didn't need chapter upon chapter of this. Even the discovery of Ashmole 782 fell flat as again, she did nothing with it. The sad part is the most exciting thing Diana does is exercise and accidentally spark her fingers.

The amount of time Diana and Matthew spend drinking and describing different wines could have been totally cut out too. I understand the whole courtship thing, going on dates and fine dining, but I don't need to know what three different wines taste like and smell like in great detail all in one date. I'm also not a reader who enjoys the instant infatuation romances, unfortunately, this novel fell into that troupe.

I also suppose someone who enjoys history would like this book far more than I did. Every building Diana encounters seems to need a historical overview, including letting the reader know where modifications were made on top of the original work. The history of minor characters is also detailed, adding in the historical aspect as the vampires were from different time periods. Again, not my cup of tea.

The subplots were also pretty buried and didn't have enough detail in them. Diana's tragic past didn't even hit me with emotion, let alone the genetic discoveries Matthew made. The science behind DNA research made me cringe. I know nothing about genetics, don't go into detail on it. How many readers are actually going to have enough knowledge to understand it all?

Not a series I will be continuing. There was no action, no mystery and hardly any magic. This novel was just a slow boring story that never really seemed to go anywhere.