A Discovery of Witches

Dr. Diana Bishop has tried her hardest to stay away from her heritage. Diana is one of the last Bishop witches. As try as she might, Diana just can not escape, who she is. Just take Diana’s latest research project…Diane ends up checking out an alchemy manuscript known as Ashmole 782. When Diana touches the manuscript, she feels a charge…a magical one.

Matthew Clairmont is a professor at Oxford. He is also a vampire. Matthew can sense something evil is descending upon Oxford. Matthew shows an interest in Diana. Though is Matthew getting close to Diana because he likes her or for another reason?

A Discovery of Witches is author, Deborah Harkness first novel. While I did enjoy this book. I thought that it moved at a really slow pace. It seemed liked most of the book was just explaining and build up of the story and the characters to help lead into the next book. The problem for me with this book was that every time the story would start to pick up speed, it would slow down for more explanation. It felt like for every one step forward I would take, I would get knocked back two steps. I was not feeling the romantic relationship between Diana and Matthew. In the beginning Diana really hated Matthew and the next moment she was in love with him. There was something mysterious about Matthew that did make him intriguing. So I could possibly see where Diana could like Matthew.

While, I did not love this book, the story line was appealing enough to want to make me read the next book. Overall, I do have to applaud Deborah Harkness as she did bring her knowledge and realism to the book and Diana. Being a professor herself, I thought Ms. Harkness did a good job with Diana. A Discovery of Witches delves into a magical, innovative world that will have you wanting some more.