A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy)

When historian Diana Bishop opens a bewitched alchemical manuscript in Oxford’s Bodleian Library it represents an unwelcome intrusion of magic into her carefully ordinary life. Though descended from a long line of witches, she is determined to remain untouched by her family’s legacy. She banishes the manuscript to the stacks, but Diana finds it impossible to hold the world of magic at bay any longer.

For witches are not the only otherworldly creatures living alongside humans. There are also creative, destructive daemons and long-lived vampires who become interested in the witch’s discovery. They believe that the manuscript contains important clues about the past and the future, and want to know how Diana Bishop has been able to get her hands on the elusive volume.

Chief among the creatures who gather around Diana is vampire Matthew Clairmont, a geneticist with a passion for Darwin. Together, Diana and Matthew embark on a journey to understand the manuscript’s secrets. But the relationship that develops between the ages-old vampire and the spellbound witch threatens to unravel the fragile peace that has long existed between creatures and humans—and will certainly transform Diana’s world as well. From the Deborah Harkness website.

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Series: Number one in the All Souls Trilogy

Cover: Appropriate, suits the setting, classy. 1 of 4 different versions.

Genre: Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy

Pages/Words: 759/224,449

POV: Alternating person views between the main character and the love interest. Though it only switched from the first person (main character) to the third person (love interest) once so I found it rather unnecessary.

Setting: Present Day Oxford

Language: Little if any at all

Sexual Content Rating: G

Publisher: Penguin Books (February 2011)

My thoughts: I couldn't finish this one, though I did try. However, since I didn't want to suffer through another book solely because I was being stubborn, I finally stopped at page 144. In the words of Mark Twain,'It is chloroform in print'.

The story is very slow and incredibly detailed; there's practically no progress at all. The best way to describe it is by liking it to a person who has nothing interesting to write about and so they fill their diary by describing every tedious and mundane thing that happens to them. It results in a heap of everyday tasks that no one cares about. What makes it worse is that it feels as though you are experiencing it all in real time.

The characters themselves aren't much better as they too are very boring, even though the main character happens to be a witch and the love interest a vampire. In fact, they were so normal and boring that I couldn't understand why anyone would want to write about them, let alone read about them. Also there were a lot of inconsistencies and contradictions in the main character that didn't sit well with me.

Truthfully, I don't see much appeal in this one.

Cover Image from Google Books

Divorced, Desperate and Dating (Divorced & Desperate Series)

Sue Finley murdered people...on paper. As a mystery writer, she knew all the angles, who did what and why. The only thing she couldn't explain was...well, men. Dating was like diving into a box of chocolates: sometimes the sweetest-looking specimens were candy coated poison. After a break-up with a bank robber and a divorce from a cross dresser, she gave it up for good. Then came Detective Jason Dodd.

Raised in foster homes, Jason swore never to need anyone as much as the parent who abandoned him. That was why he failed to follow up after experiencing the best kiss of his life: real passion was addictive. But when Sue Finley started getting death threats, all bets were off. The blonde spitfire was everything he'd ever wanted—and she needed him. And though this novel situation had a quirky cast of characters and an unquestionable bad guy, he was going to make sure it had a happy ending. From the Christie Craig Website.

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Series: Number two in the Divorced and Desperate series (Can be read as a stand-alone)

Cover: Goes with the story and gives a fun, light feeling. Could be better, at least it doesn't contradict or distract from the story. Seems dated.

Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense

Pages/Words: 353/105,149

POV: Third person, switches between the main character and the love interest.

Setting: Present Day Hoke's Bluff

Language: Moderate profanity.

Sexual Content Rating: Mild-Moderate

Publisher: Love Spell (December 2008)

My thoughts: This is my first Christie Craig book, I never want to see another one again. It was utterly and totally EXHAUSTING! Such an agonising and exasperating read, I wish I had never picked it up. When I turned the last page, a huge amount of relief washed over me as it was finally, FINALLY over.

I've never experienced that before when reading. Though to be fair, I usually stop reading a book or skip pages when it starts getting bad. But since I had gotten this book for the sole reason of reviewing it, I couldn't bring myself to do that. Though I must admit it's still a wonder I actually finished as whenever I picked this book up, I would suddenly gain an urge to clean a spotless house or start projects I had been putting off for months.

However in saying that, it wasn't all bad. Mrs Craig has a writing style that flows well and is easy to follow. She also had a few similes and metaphors that brought a smile to my face. I remember thinking while during those very first pages that 'This might be alright....' But it didn't last. What let her down was her cheesy, flimsy plot and thin, unbelievable characters.

I felt that her plot didn't have much thought put into it and was just barely threaded together. Also she relied heavily on dragging out conflict and small misunderstandings between the two main characters in order to add body to the story but not any substance, as everything was at a standstill.

With her characters, it seemed as though she gave them outrageous quirks (such as a grandfather that collects cockroaches, a grandma that poisons every one who eats her cooking, an Elvis emulating fruit seller etc) instead of truly trying to develop them. The result were beings that you wouldn't ever forget were characters in a book. None of them appeared real to me.

Another thing that peeved me was the reasons she gave for the way the hero/heroine acted. If one can not love the hero/heroine it becomes very hard to love or enjoy their story. Some of their actions and rationalisations were so stupid that I heard myself asking aloud 'Really, she expects us to believe crap like that?'.

Also, I couldn't believe how long it actually took for the main characters to have sex. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind stories leaving the sex until later or not even having any at all as long as it doesn't hinder the progress of the plot. But that wasn't the case here. The sex was left way past its expiry date that by the time they did have sex, I was just thankful that they had finally gotten the damn thing out of the road so that we could get on with the rest of the story. Yet by that time, the story was almost over!

This is one of the main reasons why I thought the plot was so weak. Take out all the time she spent writing about the reasons why the two main characters couldn't have sex and the amount of times they almost had sex but didn't because the heroine came back to her senses and the book would probably be reduced to fifty pages. Seriously, it was ridiculous!

All in all, it was very disappointing. I recommend reading the preview before buying (something I didn't do) and if you aren't absolutely and positively compelled to finish reading the story, then don't. Because it only gets worse and you'll be left frustrated.

 Cover image from Amazon