Honestly,I watched the first 2 episodes of the series of this book a couple of years ago and I think I liked it that time,but Idk why I didn't continue it. When a booktuber mentioned that this series is based on a book,I was so eager to read it and the start was amazing but after a while it falls and it never rises again. It wasn't fun anymore,I just had to force myself to read it but I quit. Dnf at 15%

Es ist definitv eine Charakterbezogene Geschichte mit viel Wissenschaft und langsamer Handlung. Aber ich mochte das Zusammenspiel von Wissenschaft und Mystik/Magie. Ich bin kein so großer Freund von der Lovestory aber es gibt ja zum Glück noch viele andere Charaktere und eine Geschichte darum herum. Aber ich bin trotzdem gespannt was Teil 2 und 3 bereit halten ---------------- #spoiler!!!! ------------ Ich habe es auf englisch gelesen und bin gespannt wie es in Teil 2 abläuft. Ob man einen ständigen Wechsel zwischen dem damals mit Diana und Mett hat und der aktuellen Zeit und der Produktion Bzw dem Produkt von dem Stein der Weisen & woher das Blut genau kommt? Wer hat die Ampullen gefüllt? Hat das Haus alles zusammengemixt? Und ich habe etwas Angst, dass Buch 2 ein typischer zweiter Band sein wird.

How can this book be done when the story is only getting more interesting? Damnit! Anyhow, I really like how this story is all about mixing races, overcoming prejudices and free will. The characters a wonderfully quirky and often enough I found myself grinning due to their interactions. The only down part is the seemingly unending traits of Diana. Is there anything she doesn’t have in her genes? But in the end this wasn’t bad enough to lower my rating. Her character flaws are making up for this at least somewhat. Now I’m really looking forward to see the tv show.

DNF // After nearly 300 pages in (which is more than a third of the book) I gave up. It started off interesting with a mysterious manuscript, a world full of witches, vampires and daemons, but sadly, it's a book of its time: the twilight area. Only worse. Matthew, the vampire love interest, is manipulative, controlling and gets on my nerves every page, and Diana is okay with all that, which is even more annoying. Additionally, there's so much detailed description of the tiniest things Diana does - no time skipping at all, we see nearly every hour of her day. Now I know why the novel is so huge! I think I will try the TV show, but sadly, the book was for me.

This was a re-read for me, but It felt like I was reading this book for the first time. I really love the character growth that they go through and still need to go through. I love their relationship with each other and their need to protect each other. It was very entertaining, even more so, the second time. I enjoyed the plot and the magic system along with the characteristics of the other creatures. 

Did not finish after 64% This book reminded me again how much I love stories about witches and how much that does not apply to stories about vampires. At first I very much enjoyed this book and meant to give it 4 stars (the writing is good, I like the magic parts of it, and even a lot of the relationships), but then the romance devolved more and more into tropes that I do not enjoy and as such I decided not to finish this book. Vampire families and dynamics get compared a lot to dynamics amongst animals and as such Matthew takes up the role of the "alpha wolf" or "alpha lion" and is very possessive in ways that squicked me. The two stars are not due to this being a bad book, it's not, it's really well-written and everything else good that can be said about a book, except that I just do not like it.

It took me a long long time to get through this! In the beginning partially because I wasn't too fond of Diana's prodigy character and then in the end, I struggeled with how the last 100 pages or so dragged on. From the time Matthew and Diana reach her home, most of the tension seemed lost to me, and the story became somewhat muddled up. The relationship between both MCs is mainly the stereotypical, expected love story - they see each other, they are drawn to each other, eternal love after a month or so. Then again, I was surprised at the lack of explicut scenes - somehow I expected some of this book based on my initial impression.

Ich habe das Buch im letzten Jahr angefangen, nachdem ich den Trailer der Serie gesehen habe. Nach den ersten 100 Seiten war ich schon so überzeugt von dem Buch, dass ich mir gleich den Nachfolgeband gekauft habe. Ich finde die Ideen von Vampiren, Hexen und Dämen, die mitten unter den Menschen und doch unerkannt leben, sehr interessant. Vor allem weil alles auf einem wissenschaftlichen Stand beschrieben wird und die Magie mit Biologie erklärt werden. Nach den 100 Seiten musste ich allerdings feststellen, dass es mehr um eine Romatasygeschichte a la Romeo und Julia erinnert. Ich fand die Liebesgeschichte ein bisschen zu schnell zu tief und daher unrealistisch. Auf den anderen Seite mochte ich das Magiesystem und die biologische Herangehensweise 🙏🏼 Ich werde auf jeden Fall den zweiten und dritten Teil lesen, auch wenn *************SPOILER***************** ich nicht so der Zeitreisentyp bin und ich oft der Meinung bin, dass Zeitreisen eine Geschichte zerstören, aber ich lasse mich gerne vom Gegenteil überzeugen. Außerdem hoffe ich, dass die Liebe zwischen den beiden ein bisschen realistischer wird. ********SPOILER ENDE************

I was pretty excited about reading A Discovery of Witches at first. I had seen it around for awhile and the title had always intrigued me, but it wasn’t until I saw it in the library that I felt like maybe now was the time I’d actually read it. The description had never wowed me, so it probably wasn’t even the book itself that demanded to be read; it was the promise of returning to more adult fare as YA haven’t been doing much for me lately. Really some points made in reviews should’ve given me pause, but I wouldn’t listen. The opening while far from perfect was satisfying enough, and it suited me well as a Fall read. I enjoyed the Oxford setting, the old library, the crisp English weather, the tea breaks—this certainly had to be a read worth my time. Sometimes the daily minutia of Diana’s life was a bit much: did I really need to read about every stir, sip, and cup of tea she consumed? However there was enough mystery here that I was more than willing to forgive some hiccups in the story-telling. Unfortunately, these jolts got worse with vampire Matthew and eventually the story got so off course it never recovered. Like the story, he started out with enough mystery that I was willing to play along and pretend I didn’t where this was going. I actually liked Diana’s initial aversion to him, the banter, avoidance—it worked. There was still enough semblance of story, he was on the back burner and that’s where I liked him. They had tangible tension, he was willing to put himself at odds with the other paranormal beings (other witches, Daemons, and vampires) that were hovering Diana at this point, but that quickly faded into bland ownership. Diana was put on a leash and she was too dumb to realize it and made little to no effort in preventing it. Sure she postured, claimed to be an independent woman, but in the end it was all empty, meaningless words. I do feel like the author realized this to a degree, so she had other characters tell Diana/the reader how strong, stubborn, and persistent Diana actually is. Sorry, but no, didn’t work. If the author had capped off the “romance” to allow her story to flow I might’ve been able to tolerate this union, however they completely hijacked the book and it became so dull and monotonous I kind of feel like I was in a coma reading it. I actually think they made a mistake marketing this as general fiction it should be in the paranormal romance section. At least 2/3 of the novel was a "romance" and none of it fit with the rest of the novel. I really don’t know what to make of it, was it actually supposed to fit because it was so oddly constructed that I really don’t see any effort made in doing so. I'm starting to think that if a book is popular and/or a bestseller then it's best to be avoided. They never seem to be well-written, coherent stories and I always wonder if an editor actually touched it all. This book is about 580 pages and 250 of those could've easily been shaved off. The last quarter of the book was a rush to bring back some actual story elements, but it was too little too late and felt like an excuse to make this into a trilogy. I think I could’ve read another if the characters were actually allowed to shine and if the story was more developed, but it sounds as though it’s the same mistakes compounded. Also I have little interest in seeing how Diana behaves in Elizabethan England. I rate this a 2: if split in sections, the beginning was a 3.75, the middle (and largest section) a 1, and the end a 3.