“Sentence first – verdict afterwards.” ~ The Queen, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Okay, you all know how vocal I was when I read the first 2 chapters of Fifty Shades of Grey [https://shannonobrienauthor.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/50-shades-of-wtf/] and just about freaked my sh*t out with horror over the blatant similarities between Twilight’s characters and FSoG’s characters. I know, I know, it’s based on fan fic and they changed the names, blah, blah, blah. I’m still pissed there’s talk about making this a movie. Rent a porno for Godsakes. [Rant has concluded]
Well, I picked up A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness a week or so ago while at Target, giving myself a break from the wonderful Game of Thrones books. I was ready for something different, something fun and quirky. I read a couple of the praising reviews inside the cover and thought this was what I needed: a smart paranormal action/love story.
I’m only about 100 pages in and I’m still undecided. I can usually get a good vibe on a book by the end of the first chapter, but I’m about to start chapter 10 and I’m still on the fence. I love the premise of mixing science with mythology, and I agree that the two go hand in hand as I tend to have a serious craving for methodical studies of the unknown. I’m a huge Dan Brown and Michael Crichton fan because I dig the brainiac protagonists coming face to face with the unexplained.
Anyway, what’s niggling at me are the continuous references to Twilight. Is it just me? Am I just reading Twilight into everything? If so, am I doomed? Don’t get me wrong, I heart Twilight, but I need to read good books which are unique (or as unique as you can get if you involve vampires, witches and daemons).
So here’s what I’m getting hung up on: Diana (the mousey, intellectual witch who is trying to be ‘normal’) is constantly being “dazzled” by Matthew (the brooding, cold, venison eating hottie vampire). Matthew is becoming obsessed with Diana, sneaking in to her room to watch her sleep, falling in love with the one “creature” he can’t have.
I’ll stop there because that’s pretty much as far as I’ve read and I’m really holding on to hope that the characters come in to their own as the story evolves. I enjoy the sprinkling of science and history and architecture Harkness adds, so that is a huge difference between the YA Twilight which was pretty basic.
But I’m just not feeling the love yet…not feeling the emotions these two are supposed to have for each other. A Discovery of Witches was a NYT best seller and has a ton of wonderful reviews and the 2nd book in this “All Souls Trilogy” is set to come out in July. I’m really hoping I fall in love with this book, otherwise I may need to re-think my way of thinking.
*sigh* I’ll be back later to give you my verdict.
Shannon O'Brien, Author 
Wow, but you’re in trouble, sugar. I didn’t truly lose my patience with that book till the last third. The first half flew by, and I believe I thought of it as a wonderful mash-up of Twilight and Persuasion, the book by AS Byatt. Good luck…
I’ve got to agree. This book was an exercise in persistence for me. I read the whole thing, and I’ve got the second book on hold at the library, but the general verdict in my office was “I liked it, but not enough to buy it.” If you can make it through to the end, I think you’ll be intrigued enough to want to read the second book…but maybe when it comes out in paperback 🙂