From the Bookshelves

source: the Tome Traveler

He's yours, a strange voice whispered. You musn't let him go.
"I know, " I murmured impatiently.
"What do you know, Diana?" Matthew took a step toward me.
Marthe shot to my side. "Leave her," she hissed. "The child is not in this world."

I was nowhere, caught between the terrible ache of losing my parents and the certain knowledge that soon Matthew, too, would be gone.

Be careful, the strange voice warned.


"It's too late for that." I raised my hand from the floor and smashed it into the bow, snapping it in two. "Much too late."
"What's too late?" Matthew asked.
"I've fallen in love with you."
"You can't have," he said numbly. The room was utterly silent, except for the crackling of the fire. "It's too soon."

"Why do vampires have such a strange attitude toward time?" I mused aloud, still caught in a bewildering mix of past and present. The word "love" had sent feelings of possessiveness through me, however, drawing me to the here and now.
"Witches don't have centuries to fall in love. We do it quickly. Sarah says my mother fell in love with my father the moment she saw him. I've loved you since I decided not to hit you with an oar on the City of Oxford's dock." The blood in my veins began to hum. Marthe looked startled, suggesting she could hear it, too.


"You don't understand." It sounded as if Matthew, like the bow, might snap in two.


"I do. The Congregation will try to stop me, but they won't tell me who to love." When my parents were taken from me, I was a child with no options and did what people told me. I was an adult now, and I was going to fight for Matthew."


-A Discovery of Witches, Deborah Harkness

This book has been getting huge accolades since before it was even published. Written by a history of science professor, it follows witch-in-denial Diana Bishop (of Salem fame) as she heads to Oxford for a year of sabbatical and research, only to get much more than she bargained for when she calls up manuscript Ashmole 782. The world is complete, the characters complex (with a cast of dangerous enemies), a fistful of exotic locations, and quite the toe-tingling romance. As a historian, I love when a lady historian goes off on an adventure, running across all sorts of people and texts along the way. Harkness assumes her readers are intelligent (a wonderful quality in a writer) and allows her characters to hold flourishing conversations about 16th and 17th century alchemy, as well as genetics and biochemistry (vampires love their science, you know). Furthermore, she writes about Oxford (my beloved city, as you know) with the authority of someone who has actually lived and spent time there. Her descriptions of rowing down the river and lunch in the Blackwell's Cafe Nero made me practically cry with a homesickness for my cobbled streets and dreamy spires. Overall, it was a great read and I'm champing at the bit for the next book (it's a trilogy, woohoo!). I read it (via Kindle . . .it's technically for school, and I'm buying a print copy, despite my dad's exasperated "wait! that's not the point of this!") in two days, clued to the screen and going into a zone that could not be shaken. History, the supernatural . . . romance . . . illuminated manuscripts . . . just my cup of tea.

Resources and Reviews:

Deborah Harkness
Entertainment Weekly
Bookgeeks