Posted on  20/08/2024 13:44:44

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

3 stars for a solid start - 1 star for becoming downright ridiculous after
so 2 stars as an average and I'm calling it quits - no more All Souls books for me!

I'll try and keep it short and sweet and tick some points to tell you why:

A solid start:
- a library, a nerdy smart witch and a mysterious intriguing manuscript. Yeay! Who doesn't love those right?!

But then it all gets fucked up and becomes downright ridiculous because: (and let me take them as they came)

- Diana Bishop is a smart witch who had vowed to not use her magic after the tragic death of her parents. And she doesn't use magic! Except when she calls a book to fall in her hand because she's in no mood to go and fetch a stool or a ladder, or when her washing machine breaks down because calling for a plumber may take too much time??? If that is the way smart people keep a vow then why vow in the first place?!

- the library where she works becomes all of a sudden populated by vampires, demons and witches, with hardly a few humans mixed in between. Don't normal people also read books?!

- Matthew de Clairmont is an ancient vampire, dark, brooding, mysterious and sexy and of course Diana falls for him - which is kind of sexy, I'll give you that. And we are non stop being told how cool and great and awesome and sexy macho the brilliant Matthew is, except that he doesn't actually do anything cool and great and brilliant and lets others do it for him. Oh yeah! How could I forget?! He does Yoga!!! And I rest my case.

- Diana turns from a little scaredy book mouse to a super-duper extra special wonder woman superhero witch who can do everything you ever dreamed about. Duh! Give me a break woman! No one can really be THAT perfect!!! And still, let's say we swallow all that extra-special-talent-power-whatever-crap. Who the heck can believe that it goes hand in hand with the fact that our Diana is running behind her protector/husband/master Matthew like a little small puppy not even able to think for herself and letting him call all the shots. People are talking AROUND her even about the clothes SHE is supposed to wear for crying out loud!!

- then we get to the food. My oh My - the food!! And in particular the tea! Cause that woman sure drinks a hell lot of tea! Take Hobb's books for instance, and in particular The Soldier Son trilogy, because there the food was present on almost every page. Not once but countless times while reading those I felt the need to raid the fridge and get me something great to munch along. Because the food Hobb described sang straight off to my tummy! :D The food in this book however made me wanna sleep! Or frustrated me to no end because come on!!! - Enough with that damn tea!!

- the inconsistencies in character behavior are endless. And I'm just gonna give a few examples. Yoga and rowing are so important in the first part of the book, but then they are completely ditched and we get riding instead. Diana is distressed about her not-sexy appearance but dresses with whatever's in the cupboard and doesn't even bother to look in the mirror to say apply some make up. And I could go on and on, but I believe by now I've made my point.

- and will someone please tell me who in their right mind would choose to spend eternity cleaning houses of all things!!!!

Check out this book and more of Deborah Harkness on deborahharkness.com