The Black Bird Oracle

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So this was a little bit of a disappointment. There's an AWFUL lot of Diana in this book, and almost almost no de Clermonts. The vampires are and have always been my favorite part of this world, so the lack of them is really felt for me. I'm going to say this is hitting at a 3.5ish stars. I still adore the characters and the world, but there just wasn't enough SUBSTANCE here. We do get a whole helluva lot of world-building, though, and a lot more information about witches. Which is good! We didn't know a whole lot about how magic works, and we certainly didn't know a lot about Diana's family. But again....not a WHOLE lot happens other than some serious character development.

The Black Bird Oracle is pretty definitively a part one to what will hopefully at least another book. It's a lot of set up for something that just isn't in this book. Unless I'm very much mistaken, it seems Harkness is setting up another series here in the All Souls world. (I do hope we'll get Gallowglass's book sooner rather than later, though, as he's my favorite.) ALSO, I do hope we'll see more from daemons at some point. They are extremely neglected in this world – I want to know more about them!

ANYWAY, the gist of the story is that Diana's family on her father's side finally makes an appearance in her life. They want to help train her in higher magics, and they want to be part of her life....finally. I didn't really understand why they waited so long to introduce themselves, but whatever. Magic, y'all. It seems there's a big, huge secret somewhere in Diana's family and we don't find out what it is in this book. LAME, but its a good set up for a few books.

Diana and Matthew's children, Becca and Philip are both huge characters in this book, which was entertaining. Learning more about them and what their strengths are was definitely fascinating.

So despite not hugely liking this one, I'll still pick up the next. I love this world, and these characters. I'll just hope the next one has more going on.