Hello everyone!
Once again, I'm late to this bandwagon.
I swear I get this feeling that I'm ETERNALLY late to everything when it comes to fans and fandoms and stuff.
But anyway.
I discovered this particular book series through sheer accident - aka I saw a post on Instagram in which Matthew Goode was sitting on a big black horse and Teresa Palmer was beside him on a gray one.
My interest sat up with a vengeance.
Firstly, Teresa Palmer is a bae and I've loved her in pretty much everything. Secondly, Matthew Goode is notoriously underappreciated. Which means I was obviously paying attention to the #ADiscoveryofWitches tag anywhere I could get it, as the show loomed near.
Meanwhile, in the BOOK version of A Discovery of Witches ...
Yeah, story of my life honestly.
After getting through half the first season of the show I decided, on prompting from a good friend, that I should probably sit down and read the books. Because rarely is there an adaptation when what you see is actually better than what you read (Shadowhunters being one of the noteable exceptions to this rule, the show being TEN TIMES better than the books).
Luckily for me, I'm now in a position where I don't have to do any waiting. The conclusion to the original trilogy is already up and done and all I have to do is read the three books.
There's a new one that was just released, too, so THAT'S exciting.
And also, it's October.
You gotta have some witches in your life in October.
A Discovery of Witches follows one Diana Bishop, or Dr. Bishop since that's her official title when she drops by in Oxford to give a lecture and prepare for a speech she's giving on alchemy in November (oh yes, autumn all the way!).
Things do not, however, go smoothly, because she accidentally calls up a manuscript that everyone and their mother thought lost for centuries: Ashmole 782.
She has no clue what to do with an obvious magical item, however, so she returns it to the stacks ... and from then on out her life just turns upside down because, seriously, everyone wants a piece of that manuscript.
Diana has a few encounters with the different species that coexist with humans, aka vampires, witches and demons, some mild, others scary.
And others ...
What do you say when you meet a vampire like Matthew Clairmont for the first time?
No clue. I'd probably have been either tongue-tied or I'd run off as fast as my feet could carry me.
Vampires do still need blood to survive, natch.
Demons seem to be the least violent of the species as they sort of just ... hang around and are more scatterbrained than most. As for the witches, however, they're another story.
Not only do they threaten Diana but they also reveal it was WITCHES who killed her parents when she was seven - gleefully, I might add. If that's the price for being a witch then sign me right off the list. No one needs that kind of complication.
Of course it deepens further as Diana's own magical power begins reawakening, in the sense that when she truly NEEDS it, it's there.
And also, there's Clairmont.
The vampire who initially wants her for the manuscript eventually starts tagging along with her to protect her from other creatures (let me insert that his subordinate Miriam is SO unhappy about that), then starts taking her to creature yoga (wherein he's anchored to the floor by his ear, apparently), and THEN gets himself invited to dinner by Diana.
Dinner served and survived, he reciprocates that particular favour and it's obvious there's more than just mutual interest in the manuscript.
The vampire and witch are falling for each other.
Only problem: the witches REALLY want that manuscript and don't want Diana with Matthew.
Unfortunately for them, their actions only serve for Matthew to whisk Diana off to France and Sept-Tours, his family home, to meet his mother, work through some ancient books, ride horses, flirt insanely, and do some dancing before the Congregation (the council that keeps the creatures in check) catches up with them.
Matthew tries staying away from Diana (and not ripping someone's head off for breaking into his lab) but ultimately fails and returns to claim her as his mate, which breaks one of the most sacred (and ancient) Congregation laws that the species must not cross-breed. Or love. Or whatever.
Anyway, Matthew having his own ideas on courtship, the marriage is not in fact consummated before Diana gets kidnapped by witches and vampires both, and interrogated by a particularly cruel witch Satu, during which time she remembers the bedtime story her mother used to tell her when she was a child, about a girl named Diana who needed to unwind her ribbons so she could do magic and fly.
Matthew, frantic that his mate is missing, calls upon an ancient brotherhood, Knights of Lazarus, and his brother Baldwin to rescue her - which they do, not that Baldwin's happy about it.
The decision is then made to travel to New York and Diana's aunts', where the two will recover from their ordeal - and the fact that the witches know about Matthew's affiliation with the Knights because of a brand they put on Diana, the star and the crescent moon, Matthew's personal seal.
Just when you think things might even start slowing down, and the Bishop house seems pretty keen on helping Matthew romance Diana, everything starts going to hell in a handbasket. Again.
While I'm sitting there going BUT YOU HAVE TO CALL HAMISH (clue: Hamish is a willy demon and Matthew's friend who helped Matthew with his initial cravings for Diana), Miriam and Marcus, Matthew's vampire son, pop up to stay for a while. Diana tries to learn and control her magic, although they now know she's been spellbound so that no one can force it out of her (her parents did that, because she was so strong; she was also one of two children but her brother unfortunately didn't make it and she absorbed his powers).
When the house (which has a really freaky tendency to make new rooms and drop photos on people's heads and trumpeting when it wants their attention) makes room for TWO DEMONS who show up to give Diana a chess piece that once belonged to Matthew, I'm in the background harping YOU NEED TO CALL HAMISH, MATTHEW.
With two demons, three vampires, and three witches, all they need is one more demon to form a shadow Congregation.
Imagine me jumping up and down in agitation. HAMISH!!!
Hamish solves the problem by popping up all on his own because he's just that cool, and after Matthew nearly dies from an attack of vampir Juliette (who's a little broken and insane) and Diana feeds him his own blood and promises anything to the Goddess for his survival, it's time to start getting real.
Diana's powers being what they are, they're going to need different teachers, in a different time. She and Matthew will travel into the past to find those powerful witches (Diana can do that; her dad had the ability).
Meanwhile, knowing the Congregation will willingly carve Diana up to see what kind of magic she has inside her, and that Ashmole 782 might actually be more important than originally thought as it could detail the further survival of witches, vampires and demons who are slowly going extinct (all signs pointing to Diana and Matthew being the two who will break the chain and forge a new one, with the potential of biological children), the entire gang of nine decide they're going to have to do something.
With Matthew out of commission, Marcus becomes Grand Master of the Knights of Lazarus, to lead them through this confusion as the creatures (and humans) will definitely figure out something's going on soon. The Congregation DOES NOT CARE as long as it gets it way. Hamish draws up wills and powers of attorney to make sure nobody misses Diana or Matthew; Nathaniel, the demon, becomes a Knight, while his wife Sophie foretells Diana will come back safe and sound. Miriam, who previously warned that Matthew Clairmont usually leaves destruction behind, him swears she will stand by his family no matter what, and Diana's aunts are in the long haul anyway since she's their niece.
Considering the discovery of a letter Diana's parents left her, along with one of the missing pages from Ashmole 782, it's imperative that Matthew and Diana head into the past sooner rather than later.
So, with everyone getting their orders and mission briefs, they say goodbye on Halloween and our main couple take a massive, massive leap of faith - and time: because where they're going is a long way back.
Elizabethan England, here we come!
If you couldn't tell in my review, I loved this book. It had the right amounts of humour, some nasty moments, a main couple that actually talked about things and tried to compromise but stayed together through most of it, supporting characters that made the book come to life, and a freaking house filled with ghosts that seems to be capable of blushing. It's impossible to share all the different depths and nuances in one blog post, however, so I highly suggest you read it for yourselves!
As for me, it's time to see what Matthew and Diana will be up to in the past - and we should all keep our fingers crossed the people they love and left behind in the present can hold fast against the Congregation.
Then again, the present has Hamish and Ysabeau, Matthew's mother. You'll never catch me betting against them.
xx
*image not mine
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