Hi ForeverBookers,
How are all of you doing? I hope you’re good! I’m sorry that I haven’t posted in what feels like MONTHS! I’ve literally been reading ONE book for ALL that time, which is why you haven’t heard from me. It’s my favourite book in the world, “A Discovery Of Witches” by Deborah Harkness so I don’t mind, but I understand how this is a book blog, where you want to read reviews and I haven’t been giving you them, so sorry! I just wanted to make sure I did my favourite book justice, I guess. I own this series in French and Italian digitally too, as well as the series in the UK and US hardcovers. That's how much I LOVE it!
There’s LGBTQ+ rep in A Discovery of Witches too! Diana’s aunts who are mentioned throughout are lesbian. We meet them in the last third of the novel!
5 FREAKING STARS!!!!!!!!!!
I read “A Discovery of Witches” for two readathons I think:
Cardcaptor-a-thon The Dream - The Dream - A card Sakura has to believe beyond all capabilities is a card…A book you’ve either dreamt about or that you’ve dreamt you’re a character from… - I've dreamt that I was Diana
Reading Rivalry - I started “A Discovery of Witches” in August but didn’t finish so I carried it over into September. For September, I read it for the prompt of “Niche Genre,” as paranormal romance falls perfectly into the term “niche genre.”
In “A Discovery Of Witches” we follow a historian called Diana Bishop. She’s also a witch. This is revealed within the first few pages and in the blurb so it isn’t a spoiler. She thinks she’s a “normal” witch at the beginning of the story. Witches, vampires, daemons and ghosts are known to exist in this version of the world. They’re not hidden away but neither are they meant to interact, as it draws attention to the creatures that humans are meant to ignore. When she meets the enigmatic Matthew de Clairmont, a vampire, she’s put up against someone who challenges her in every way. She, of course, also falls head over heels in love with him (who wouldn’t?) These feelings aren’t acted upon straight away. It’s at about the half way point or even after that, that Diana realises her feelings for Matthew. Does he feel the same way? You’ll have to read the book to find out!
There is a small cast of characters in this book. In the sequel, Shadow of Night, there’s a bigger ensemble but in this novel we see about eight characters present throughout, or at least mentioned, and others that have a part to play but their not overly significant. I like this again, as it means my head isn’t trying to remember lots of characters. I think having the novel told entirely in Diana’s point of view, apart from I think three or four chapters early on, which are meant to show Matthew’s journey helps with this!
I ADORE this story because it brings together everything I love in a book. Great characters, history (the author is a historian, so these parts are accurate), the ROMANCE <3, family dynamics as well as a little humour speckled here and there. Also the novel is written in first person from Diana’s perspective, as I’ve detailed above. There are a few chapters written in third person too but the vast majority is first person. I really enjoy reading from a female’s POV because I think she could be me, without the magic or paranormal aspects in this case, of course. This novel takes place in three of my favourite places in the world as well, England, that I know very well, the US, where I’d like to go back to one day and France, my favourite country. France is where the majority of the book is set, I’d say. It starts in England, then goes to France, then to America.
Spoilers Below
“...But I knew there was something odd about it from the moment I collected it.”
“A Discovery Of Witches” opens with Diana finding this old manuscript, Ashmole 782. She thinks it’s just an ordinary manuscript to begin with, not that it holds secrets kept hidden from the creatures. There are of course, greedy, evil characters that want the information for themselves and not for the good of the creature community. Characters like Peter Knox, who we meet quite early on in the book as well. The novel focuses on this difficult to obtain manuscript and Diana and her cohorts trying to uncover what it holds within its pages.
“I was ready to dismiss him as just another Oxford scholar before my skin tingled to tell me that he was a witch. Still, he was a stranger, and I returned my attention to my manuscript.”
is how we’re introduced to Peter Knox. As I said above, we see things as and when Diana sees them, so we’re not meant to think Knox is any one important, until he starts making threats towards Diana. “...The pressure flitted to my ears, growing in intensity as it wrapped around my forehead, and my stomach clenched in panic. This was no longer a silent greeting, but a threat. Why, though, would he be threatening me?” Diana has no idea just who she is at this point in the novel, as it’s very near the beginning. She can tell that Knox is threatening her, she just doesn’t know why. We learn along with Diana. I really enjoyed this element and how the author was able to keep us in suspense.
Matthew de Clairmont is our other main character in “A Discovery Of Witches.” As I’ve already noted, he’s a vampire, and he’s perhaps my favourite male character of all time! I think Diana is probably my favourite female character of all time too but Matthew is definitely my book husband. We all have them right (and book wives for the men)? He’s a distant character at first. We’re meant to be unsure of him as he’s opposite to Diana in almost every way, other than the fact that they’re both scholars and yoga lovers. They’re different species, who can’t fall for each other, yet, of course, they do.
“Every creature in the library watched me on my way out — the threatening wizard, Gillian, the vampire monk, even the daemon.” This shows how Diana is watched by every creature. They’re watching her because she’s been seen with Matthew. The threatening wizard is Peter Knox.
“Rowing was a religion for me, composed of a set of rituals and movements repeated until they became meditation.” Diana enjoys rowing. She finds a sense of calm in the movements or the oars. This is one of the ways she relaxes while in Oxford. “A figure stood on the bridge, his long coat flapping around his knees. Though I couldn’t see his face clearly, the vampire’s considerable height and bulk suggested that it was Matthew Clairmont. Again.
I swore and nearly dropped one oar.” However, when she sees Matthew looking at her while rowing she starts to suspect that not everything is as it seems. Is it? How is it not? You’ll have to read to find out! Diana and Matthew need to work together to work out what’s going on...can they or will other things and people get in their way?
Matthew offers to take Diana to his home in France to protect her from the creatures in England. Also as Diana is a historian she’s interested in historical literature. She only agrees to go to Sept-Tours, Matthew’s home if he promises to show her his copy of Aurora Consurgens, an Alchemical work that she hasn’t seen before. His copy of the book is special as its one of a kind, with illuminations never seen before. He says she can site these for her conference paper. “Discoveries on this scale were rare. To get first crack at an unknown, fourteenth century illustrated copy of Aurora Consurgens represented the opportunity of a lifetime for a historian of alchemy.
“What do the extra illustrations show? Is the text the same?”
“You’ll have to come to France to find out.”
“Let’s go, then,” I said promptly. After weeks of frustration, writing my keynote address suddenly seemed possible.
“You won’t go for your own safety, but if there’s a manuscript involved?” He shook his head ruefully. “So much for common sense.”
“I’ve never been known for my common sense,” I confessed.” We as the reader can see how excited Diana is at the prospect of seeing this historical artefact! She won’t go to Sept-Tours for her own safety, as Matthew points out, but when theres an alchemical manuscript waiting to be discovered, she’s right there! I laughed at this, too!
In France, Diana is introduced to Matthew’s vampire mother, Ysabeau de Clairmont. When Matthew is deciding on whether to protect Diana he discusses it with his vampire son, Marcus. “I have no intention of leaving Diana,” Matthew said icily. “I’m taking her to Sept-Tours.
“You can’t possibly put her under the same roof as Ysabeau!” Marcus’s voice rang in the small room.
“It’s my home, too,” Matthew said, jaw set in a stubborn line.
“Your mother openly boasts about how she’s killed and blames every witch she meets for what happened to Louisa and your father.” Marcus doesn’t think Ysabeau will like having Diana under her roof, as witches killed her husband, Matthew’s vampire father, Philippe. Matthew doesn’t care, though. This is seen in “it’s my home too.” He just wants to keep Diana safe, and he knows she will be at Sept-Tours.
“...It will be just the two of us, along with my mother and her housekeeper.”
His. Mother.
“Matthew,” I said faintly. “I didn’t know you had a mother.”
“Everybody has a mother, Diana,” he said, turning his clear gray eyes to mine. “I’ve had two. The woman who gave birth to me and Ysabeau—the woman who made me a vampire.” This is the moment Matthew tells Diana about bringing her to his home and meeting Ysabeau. Diana is of course nervous about meeting her, as anyone would be about meeting their significant other’s mother. Of course, Ysabeau is a vampire too.
“You’re doing the right thing,” he murmured before he released me.” This is a tender moment between Diana and Matthew. I LOVE all the romance in “A Discovery of Witches,” and there’s a lot of it! In this moment, Matthew is telling Diana she’s made the right decision about joining him in France, even if it was because of a manuscript!
When Diana meets Ysabeau, there’s of course, some hostility. “Remembering Matthew’s French mother, I slipped in one presentable shirt and pair of trousers.” Diana made the decision to pack one outfit that would hopefully meet with Ysabeau’s standards.
Then on the plane to France, before Diana meets Ysabeau, Matthew wants Diana to feel comfortable. He says she should sleep. “He crouched next to me, the blanket hanging from his fingers. “What is it?”
“I don’t want to close my eyes.”
Matthew tossed all the pillows except one onto the floor. “Come here,” he said, sitting beside me and patting the fluffy white rectangle invitingly. I swung around, shimmied down the leather-covered surface, and put my head on his lap, stretching out my legs. He tossed the edge of the blanket from his right hand to his left so that it covered me in soft folds.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“You’re welcome.” He took his fingers and touched them to his lips then to mine. I tasted salt. “Sleep. I’ll be right here.” This is what convinces Diana to try to sleep. After her ordeal earlier in the book, she’s frightened to close her eyes as she doesn’t want to relive the moments that scared her. I don’t want to spoil what happens so I’m not going to delve into it. I love this moment, as it just shows how much Matthew cares about Diana’s wellbeing. He doesn’t want to hurt her, only save her from more pain.
“Ysabeau stood in the doorway of her enormous château, regal and icy and glared at her vampire son as we climbed the stone stairs.”
This is the first foreboding impression we get of Ysabeau, from Diana. Ysabeau looks young, too young to have a son that looks the age of 37, how old Matthew looks. Diana considers her “regal and icy” at first, which is exactly how she comes across in “She turned and surveyed me from head to toe. Her perfectly formed mouth tightened.
She did not like what she saw—and it was no wonder. I tried to see myself through her eyes—the sandy hair that was neither thick nor well behaved, the dusting of freckles from being outdoors too much, the nose that was too long for the rest of my face. My eyes were my best feature, but even they were unlikely to make up for my lack of fashion sense. Next to her elegance and Matthew’s perpetually unruffled self, I felt—and looked—like a gauche country mouse,” This is where. Ysabeau first looks at Diana. Diana doesn’t feel as if she measures up to Ysabeau or to Matthew, either. As is quoted above, Diana feels and looks like “a gauche country mouse” in comparison to Ysabeau and Matthew. Will this change in the novel? Will Diana feel more on Ysabeau’s wavelength as the novel progresses? You’ll have to read to find out!
Another secondary character is Marthe. She’s Ysabeau’s housekeeper and confidante. She’s also a vampire but looks older than Ysabeau or Matthew, as she was turned when she was older.
“Lines crisscrossed her face, and the joints of her hands were so gnarled that apparently not even vampire blood could straighten them.
“Welcome, Diana,” she said in a husky voice of sand and treacle, looking deep into my eyes. She nodded at Matthew and reached for my hand. Her nostrils flared. “Elle est une puissante sorcière.” she said to Matthew, her voice appreciative.”
“She says you’re a powerful witch,” Matthew explained. His closeness somewhat diminished my instinctive concern with having a vampire sniff me,” is what happens when Marthe is introduced to Diana. Marthe generally speaks in French. I liked having French included as I studied the language for many years at school. There are also Occitan lines, the old French tongue infused into “A Discovery of Witches.” These generally come from Marthe too in the form of poetry, although sometimes Ysabeau and Matthew use the language too.
“We’re not that far north,” Matthew said with a smile. “Once, Paris was nothing more than an insignificant borderlands town. Most people spoke Occitan then. The hills kept the northerners—and their language—at a distance. Even now people are wary of outsiders.
“What do the words mean?” I asked.
“You are the tree and branch,” he said, fixing his eyes on the slashes of countryside visible through the nearest window, “‘where delight’s fruit ripens’” Matthew shook his head ruefully. “Marthe will hum the song all afternoon and make Ysabeau crazy.” Matthew is referring to a song that Marthe sings around the house. She can tell Diana and Matthew have feelings towards each other, even if they don’t know it themselves yet! Marthe warms to Diana straight away, unlike Ysabeau, who of course, judges her from when she first meets her.
“Ysabeau’s nostril’s flared slightly. I do not like the way witches smell.” Her English was flawless, her glittering eyes fixed on mine. “She is sweet and repulsively green. Like spring.”
Matthew launched into a volley of something that sounded like a cross between French, Spanish and Latin. He kept his voice low, but there was no disguising the anger in it.”
This is the first time we hear from Ysabeau. She says that she doesn’t like the way witches smell, and as she’s a vampire, she has a profound sense of smell. Matthew considers this rude, which it is and he tells her so in many languages. I loved the back and forth of the mother/son relationship between Ysabeau and Matthew. It’s clear that Ysabeau just wants to protect her son but it’s also clear that Matthew has lived for a long time, so thinks he can judge for himself who to be friends and more with. In real life, I think that most parent/child relationships have this sort of relationship at some point! It was good to see it reflected here, with perfect, supernatural creatures.
“I felt like an idiot—and underdressed, too. I didn’t bring a single thing to wear that will meet with her approval.” I bit my lip, my forehead creased.
“Coco Chanel didn’t meet with Ysabeau’s approval. You may be aiming a bit high.”
I laughed and turned, my eyes seeking his. When they met, my breath caught. Matthew’s gaze lingered on my eyes, cheeks, and finally my mouth. His hand rose to my face.
“You’re so alive,” he said gruffly. “You should be with a man much, much younger.”
I lifted to my toes. He bent his head. Before our lips touched, a tray clattered on the table.”
I found this cute and funny. This is the sort of small talk that Diana and Matthew have throughout the novel. I loved seeing their friendship and then relationship develop as it seemed very real to me, even though he’s a vampire and she’s a witch. This is clearly a point at which they’re going to kiss but Marthe’s food tray interrupts them.
“Matthew’s keen ears had picked up the sound of my movements, and he met me on the landing. When he saw me, his eyes lit up and his smile was wide and slow.
“I like you in blue as much as I like you in black. You look beautiful,” he murmured, kissing me formally on both cheeks. The blood moved toward them as Matthew lifted my hair around my shoulders, the strands falling through his long, white fingers. “Now, don’t let Ysabeau get under your skin no matter what she says.”
“I’ll try,” I said with a laugh, looking up at him uncertainly.”
From there we see Diana get to know and come to love her time in France with Matthew’s family. It all seems perfect to her, until she actually tells Matthew how she feels about him, after dancing with him in front of Ysabeau and Marthe. Diana flies while dancing with Matthew because she feels safe with him.
“Aware of Ysabeau’s disapproving presence downstairs, as well as her acute, vampiric hearing, I tried to pull away. It wasn’t convincing, and Matthew’s arms tightened.
“Matthew, your mother—”
He gave me no chance to complete my sentence. With a soft, satisfied sound, he deliberately fitted his lips to mine and kissed me, gently but thouroughly, until my entire body—not just my hands—was tingling. I kissed him back, feeling a simultaneous sense of floating and falling until I had no clear awareness of where my body ended and his began. His mouth drifted to my eyelids. When it brushed against my ear, I gasped. Matthew’s lips curved into a smile, and he pressed them once more against my own.”
“Your lips are as red as poppies, and your hair is so alive,” he said when he was quite finished kissing me with an intensity that left me breathless.”
This is one of my favourite parts of “A Discovery of Witches,” where Matthew kisses Diana because he can’t help himself. When she kisses him back she feels complete, like they’re one person.
“I like that you’re not a vampire, Diana.”
“And I like that you are a vampire, Matthew.”
A shadow flitted across his eyes, gone in a moment.
“I like your strength,” I said, kissing him with the same enthusiasm as he had kissed me. “I like your intelligence. Sometimes I even like your bossiness. But most of all—I rubbed the tip of my nose gently against his—”I like the way you smell.”
“You do?”
“I do.” My nose went into the hollow between his collarbones, which I was fast learning was the spiciest, sweetest part of him.” Matthew and Diana are both telling each other that they love each other here without saying the words. I thought this was perfect for creatures that aren’t meant to fall in love. It was nice to have a little preamble before one of them actually announces their feelings.
There are of course still threats, even in France for Diana and Matthew to overcome. One of those is Domenico, a vampire sent from the Congregation, the organisation that keeps the creatures in check, that Knox is a part of too. It’s also the reason why Diana and Matthew can’t be together.
“...But the covenant clearly forbids any liaison between a vampire and a witch.”
is what Domenico, a member of the Congregation is at Sept-Tours to enforce. He doesn’t like the idea of Diana and Matthew together. He feels threatened, like he claims all of the other creatures on the Congregation feel. They don’t want their laws to change as they feel things have worked up until now. They think that if Diana stops seeing Matthew then things will go back to normal, and it will be easy. Of course, this doesn’t happen...
“Diana, go back to the house immediately.” Matthew’s tone suggested that we would have a serious, unpleasant talk later. He pushed me slightly in Ysabeau’s direction and put himself even more squarely between me and the dark Venetian.” When Matthew or anyone he loves or cares about is threatened he becomes stern and harsh in his words. He’s just trying to protect Diana, who he cares a lot about but it’s seen as a negative thing in Diana’s eyes, who thinks she’s strong enough to stand up to anyone who wants to rival her. Diana’s power is undisciplined as she grew up not wanting her power. because she lost her parents, Rebecca and Stephen through the fault of witches, so she never learnt how to use it. She was scared of it up to this point in the novel, however in seeing Domenico and realising the threat he and others pose to her life with or without Matthew she finally accepts who she is, a witch, and promises to learn how to use her power.
“By ‘mixing,’ you don’t mean dinners and dancing.”
“No dinners, no dancing—and no kissing and singing songs to each other,” Ysabeau said pointedly. “And what comes after the dancing and the kissing was forbidden as well. We were full of arrogance before we agreed to the covenant. There were more of us, and we’d become accustomed to taking whatever we wanted, no matter the cost,” is Ysabeau explaining what the Congregation is to Diana. It’s what comes before Diana promising to learn how to use her power. This conversation with Ysabeau also brings to the forefront Diana’s feelings for Matthew and confirms what she feels for him. This isn’t some silly, fake relationship but the real deal for Diana. As is seen in, “He’s yours, a strange voice whispered. You mustn’t let him go.
“I know,” I murmured impatiently.
“What do you know, Diana?” Matthew took a step towards 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 sing to him. Marthe looked startled, suggesting she could hear it too.”
Diana tells Matthew finally how she feels towards him. Vampires have “a strange attitude toward time” because they’ve lived so long and so feel on the outskirts of time itself. Whereas, for Diana, the witch who doesn’t have centuries to fall in love, she knows how she feels. She doesn’t like being told that her feelings have no substance, which is what she feels Matthew is telling her.
“The Congregation will try to stop me, but they won’t tell me who to love,” is what Diana vows. She’ll fight to be with Matthew who she knows is her forever love.
Matthew leaves to give Diana time to think without him there. He also thinks too. While Matthew is away Diana and Ysabeau become closer, almost a mother/daughter bond forming between them. It’s the same with Marthe and Diana. When he returns a few chapters later, he’s ready to commit to Diana and their lives together, no matter what the Congregation wants or thinks. He’s ready to take charge and be what Diana deserves. I, personally love this sort of hero, one that thinks they’re not good enough for the one they love but come to understand that it’s only by working together with their loved one that they see what they can be with them, and that without them they’d be miserable, and life wouldn’t be worth it, certainly not a long drawn-out vampire life anyway.
“Dieu,” he whispered in wonder, “I was wrong.”
“Wrong?” My voice was panicky.
“I thought I knew how much I missed you. But I had no idea.”
“Tell me.” I wanted to hear again the words he’d said on the phone last night.
“I love you, Diana. God help me, I tried not to.”
My face softened into his hands. “I love you, too, Matthew, with all my heart.”
This is the moment Diana and Matthew are reuinited. It’s clear just how in love they are. Matthew phoned Sept-Tours the night before, and told Diana how he felt on the phone when he tells her he’ll be home in a few hours in, “Am I dreaming?”
“You’re not dreaming,” Matthew said. “And Diana?” he hesitated. “I love you.”
It was what I most wanted to hear. The forgotten chain inside me started to sing, quietly in the dark.
“Come here and tell me that,” I said softly, my eyes filling with tears of relief.
“You haven’t changed your mind?”
“Never,” I said fiercely.
“You’ll be in danger, and your family, too. Are you willing to risk that for my sake?”
“I made my choice.”
This is just so romantic, I think and why Diana and Matthew are my favourite couple ever! I’ve blogged about other favourite couples before I know but these two are IT for me! Diana and Matthew have made their choice to be together but what does that mean for them and for every other creature they know? You’ll have to read to find out!
I kind of want to leave the in depth reviewing there and just some up the rest of the novel quickly, as there are surprises and reveals that I don’t want to spoil. What happens after Diana and Matthew reveal their feelings is obvious in terms of them, I feel but for Diana, she needs to learn to harness her power to fight the ones who want to end her relationship with Matthew. Can she? How does she?
Diana and Matthew go to America to seek answers from her aunts. Do they have the answers she needs or will Diana and Matthew have to go elsewhere to find answers they need to Diana’s power and finding the elusive Ashmole 782 manuscript??? You’ll need to read to find out!
Stand by for my next review coming soon...(sooner than this one did, I promise)!
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