A Discovery of Witches

I always include major spoilers (hidden), to help with my memory  issues. Read them at your peril! 

Beautifully atmospheric Oxford. The story does move on elsewhere eventually, but is the poorer for it. Still very good though. Paranormal creatures who are much less fantastical than in other works, so it's more believable that they get away with living in plain sight. A slow but, for me,  fascinating start. There is scary action, but it's not mostly about that. It's more about the developing relationship between Matthew and Diana, meeting the other characters (mercifully, not a cast of thousands), and slowly revealing what is going on. Not much spice, even behind closed doors. In fact, I'm awaiting an explanation in the next book for why Matthew STILL won't consummate, even though she's taking birth control 

Set in Oxford, where Diana first meets Matthew. As a witch & vampire they should be antagonists. She is researching in the Bodleian and requests a strange old alchemical manuscript. Suddenly all kinds of magical creatures are interested, and Diana is in danger from The Congregation, a group of 9 : 3 each of witches, vampires & daemons, who rule. They visit His 16thC home in Oxford, his mother in their French chateau (from whence Diana is kidnapped & tortured, & rescued), and Diana's family in the USA. Here their answer to the Congregation is formed - . a Conventicle of good guys . At the end D & M have Traveled back to 16thC England to find the original manuscript and find witches to train Diana