The All Souls Trilogy

I had seen this book several times in the past couple years, but hadn’t even thought to pick it up till I had two different reasons to. The first reason is that I got on the side of TikTok called BookTok, where this book was described as Harry Potter meets Twilight, and I loved both of those series, so it made its way onto my “to be read“ shelf. Then, a group of my friends decided to start a book club, and that the first book we were going to read together was going to be A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness.

A richly inventive novel about a centuries-old vampire, a spellbound witch, and the mysterious manuscript that draws them together. Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell. Debut novelist Deborah Harkness has crafted a mesmerizing and addictive read, equal parts history and magic, romance and suspense. Diana is a bold heroine who meets her equal in vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont, and gradually warms up to him as their alliance deepens into an intimacy that violates age-old taboos. This smart, sophisticated story harks back to the novels of Anne Rice, but it is as contemporary and sensual as the Twilight series-with an extra serving of historical realism.

That is the description from goodreads.

I do have to admit that because I’m so used to young adult fantasy, that this adult fantasy took me just a little be longer to get used to, but pretty soon into the first book, I was pulled in and devoured the entire trilogy, within a couple weeks. Matthew and Diana’s relationship wasn’t too fast or too slow, and I liked that Diana didn’t just immediately fall in love with Matthew and became a damsel in distress, she wanted to be her own person and stand up for herself. At some points the genetics talk went a little over my head, but it was still a very enjoyable read. I also liked that Harkness is a history professor herself, so she really got to put her knowledge to use, especially in the second book, Shadow of Night!

There’s also a tv show tie in from AMC and Sundance where Teresa Palmer plays Diana Bishop and Matthew Goode plays Matthew Clairmont. I waited till after I read the first book to start the tv show, and I watched season one and two before starting book two in the series. Palmer and Goode do a fantastic job of bring the two main characters to life, and I can’t wait for season three to be out!