Published: September 29th 2011
Publisher: Headline
Length: 688 Pages
My Rating: 5 stars
Blurb:
A world of witches, daemons and vampires. A manuscript which holds the secrets of their past and the key to their future. Diana and Matthew – the forbidden love at the heart of it.
When historian Diana Bishop opens an alchemical manuscript in the Bodleian Library, it’s an unwelcome intrusion of magic into her carefully ordered life. Though Diana is a witch of impeccable lineage, the violent death of her parents while she was still a child convinced her that human fear is more potent than any witchcraft. Now Diana has unwittingly exposed herself to a world she’s kept at bay for years; one of powerful witches, creative, destructive daemons and long-lived vampires. Sensing the significance of Diana’s discovery, the creatures gather in Oxford, among them the enigmatic Matthew Clairmont, a vampire geneticist. Diana is inexplicably drawn to Matthew and, in a shadowy world of half-truths and old enmities, ties herself to him without fully understanding the ancient line they are crossing. As they begin to unlock the secrets of the manuscript and their feelings for each other deepen, so the fragile balance of peace unravels…
My Review:
This is a very long book and its initially very daunting to pick up. It’s slow progress in the beginning but I found myself being drawn into the story and becoming enthralled with the story. Once I was hooked I couldn’t out this done so I spent a lot of hours lost in its pages. I loved how the author used her own background to influence her storytelling and make the characters more believable, which is hard to do in a fantasy.
Don’t let the size of this book out you off, you will regret missing out.
*Blurb and cover image via Goodreads.
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