Shadow of Night
Blurb from Amazon.com
A Discovery of Witches introduced Diana Bishop, Oxford scholar and reluctant witch, and the handsome geneticist and vampire Matthew Clairmont; together they found themselves at the center of a supernatural battle over an enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782. Drawn to one another despite longstanding taboos, and in pursuit of Diana’s spellbound powers, the two embark upon a time-walking journey.
Book Two of the All Souls Trilogy plunges Diana and Matthew into Elizabethan London, a world of spies and subterfuge, and a coterie of Matthew’s old friends, the mysterious School of Night. The mission is to locate a witch to tutor Diana and to find traces of Ashmole 782, but as the net of Matthew’s past tightens around them they embark on a very different journey, one that takes them into heart of the 1,500 year old vampire’s shadowed history and secrets. For Matthew Clairmont, time travel is no simple matter; nor is Diana’s search for the key to understanding her legacy.
Shadow of Night brings us a rich and splendid tapestry of alchemy, magic, and history, taking us through the loop of time to deliver a deepening love story, a tale of blood, passion, and the knotted strands of the past.
OK so on to my review of book 2 of what the author calls her "All Souls" trilogy. So if you read my review of her first book, you know that this is a very lengthy book. Again same writing style as the first book, every detail is accounted for and everything is spelled out. And yet again, the book could have been 200+ pages with a good editor verses almost 600 pages but if you liked the first book and the writing style, you'll love this one. This book picks up exactly where the first book left off, it's just a continuation of the story as a whole. Book 1 leaves off with them taking a step into time traveling back to Elizabethan London/Europe. Book 2 starts, as they land at their destination. The entire book is based in the past. You meet famous characters from that time period and the author weaves her two main characters through their lives. Some of the nice points of this book, is that you see the main characters sort of flip the script, so to speak. In the first book, Diana is sort of the newbie and Matthew is the Teacher/Mr. Fix it. Whereas in the second, we see Diana start to come into her own and Matthew fall to pieces. She is definitely a dominant female in this book and Matthew kinda just falls apart. I definitely was more a Matthew fan in the first book more then the second. We really get to see some of the characteristics that have shaped him and get to know more of his demons. We meet more of his family and really get to spend time with them as well. We also grow to love his family. As for Diana, she grows as a character as well although I still find her a bit shallow. We do see how she is eventually accepted and adopted by Matt's family, as well as how they band around the two of them to help. I think ultimately, what saved this book were the secondary characters more then the main ones. The main two are still finding their feet and you don't really walk away liking either all that much but there's such a rich back story going on that by the end of the story, when they return to their own time, you are almost as heart-broken to leave those people/characters, as the main ones are and therefore the homecoming to the present is genuinely bittersweet. It's strange how the author did that because when the first book ended, you as a reader are like "come on, really, we're leaving to travel back in time? I just got comfortable with the story and characters, now you're going to dump a whole new group on me?" then when you finish the second book, you're like "come on, now I gotta go back to the present and leave all these characters behind?". It's almost like when you're a kid and you have to go to summer camp, you don't want to go, then when you do, you have a great time and don't want to leave.
As for the rest of the story, as of right now 9/14/12, the author's website has no information on the third and final book. It's listed as TBA. So that's it for now. My final thoughts on this series......If you want to get totally sucked in and don't mind tiny details being spelled out, it's worth a read although I would highly suggest maybe trying it on audio book, if you have a choice. A 600 page book in hardback might get a bit heavy.
Oh and just as an FYI - There is a movie in the works for this trilogy. Here's the blurb from the authors website: Warner Brothers Pictures has secured the film rights to the All Souls Trilogy. Work is currently underway to adapt the first book, A Discovery of Witches, for the screen. Denise DiNovi and Alison Greenspan are producing the film. Playwright David Auburn, who has received both a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award, has been hired to write the screenplay.
4 out of 5 books
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