One of my all-time favorite series.Unlike many supernatural stories, the magic here is deeply rooted in history, alchemy, and genetics. Deborah Harkness is a real-life history professor, and she brings a staggering level of detail to the world—from the specific smell of 15th-century parchment to the molecular science of vampire DNA. If you enjoy “learning while you read,” this series will satisfy your intellectual curiosity while sweeping you up in an epic romance. A Discovery of Witches because it is “fantasy for academics.”
- Deborah Harkness
- Adult Contemporary Fantasy
- Rich
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Book 1: A Discovery of Witches – Diana Bishop, a brilliant Yale historian and a reluctant witch who has denied her magic for years, discovers a long-lost alchemical manuscript, Ashmole 782, in Oxford’s Bodleian Library. This discovery triggers a “magical race” as witches, vampires, and daemons descend on Oxford to claim it. She finds an unlikely ally—and a forbidden love—in Matthew Clairmont, a geneticist and 1,500-year-old vampire who is also hunting the book to understand why magical species are slowly dying out.
Book 2: Shadow of Night – To escape their enemies and find a teacher for Diana’s raw, uncontrolled magic, the couple “timewalks” back to Elizabethan London. This book is a treat for history lovers, featuring real historical figures like William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe.
Book 3: The Book of Life – The couple returns to the present day to face the “Congregation” (the governing body of creatures) and finally unlock the secrets of their own biology and the missing pages of the manuscript.
⭐ Reviews
The Chicago Tribune:“Harkness works her own form of literary alchemy by deftly blending fantasy, romance, history, and horror into one completely bewitching book. It is a thoroughly grown-up novel… intelligence and sensuality in equal measure.”
NPR:
“A shrewdly written romp… It manages to be as intelligent as it is romantic. It is supernatural fiction that those of us who usually prefer to stay grounded in reality can get caught up in.”