I finished A Discovery of Witches a week or so ago.  It was so absolutely wonderful, I immediately grabbed the second book in the trilogy that was just released in July, Shadow of Night.  These books are written by USC professor of European History and the History or Science, Deborah Harkness.  The Discovery of Witches was such a fun read.  You have vampires, witches, love, and adventure unfolding in a perfect cadence (at least for me).  Her research is thorough but not to the point you pass through a paragraph because the details of what that old ‘whatever’ looked like gets in the way of the story.

Unfortunately I’m finding more of that in Shadow of Night.  It’s just not as much fun as the first book.  The story is moving slowly and I’m not nearly as vested in the supporting cast as I was in the first book.  Discovery grabbed my attention within the first few pages.  Then I shunned the leading character’s independence and excessive energy.   It seemed a little too ‘girl power’ to me and of course the vampire was wonderfully beautiful so I resisted this stereotype as well but it didn’t take long before I was sold.  Bought in completely.  The characters became visual.  When they walk in the room, you see them and you know them.  Again, the same thing can’t be said for the second book.  It feels like Ms. Harkness wants to bring the past to life so badly, I don’t have much of a story to cling to although I’m nearly half way through.

So Is it a good story?  I don’t think anyone could read Discovery of Witches and not purchase Shadow of Night.  So my advice is to wait for the paperback price.  There’s always the hope that the last book in the All Souls Trilogy (her name not mine) will be the best of them all.  We’ll just have to wait and see.