Books Six and Seven: "A Discovery of Witches" and "Shadow of Night"

This is a double-book post for a good reason. Deborah Harkness' A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night are two-thirds of a trilogy whose final part hasn't yet been released. They are fantastic.

In A Discovery of Witches we meet Diana Bishop. She is an historian of alchemy doing research at Oxford. We soon learn that Diana is a member of a family of witches and that she is a reluctant witch. She uses her magic to fix a clogged sink or to repair a broken  washing machine periodically, but refuses to let her magic influence her work as a scholar. One day, she fills out a call slip for a manuscript that is unlike anything she's ever seen and is unwittingly thrown into an adventure that spans continents and millenium.

On the day Diana discovers the strange manuscript, she is being watched by the other player in this story.  Matthew Clairmont is an Oxford scientist studying DNA. He and Diana meet and quickly fall in love. Like Diana, there is more to Matthew than meets the eye. He is a centuries-old vampire. The facts of Diana's lineage and Matthew's status as a vampire mean their  love is forbidden by the terms of an  ancient agreement struck between the three non-human races/ As their love deepens, things start to happen. 

The story continues in Shadow of Night. After discovering that she can travel through time, Diana brings Matthew back to sixteenth-century England to try to find someone who can help her understand her growing magical talent. When they get there, Diana discovers that Matthew is harboring many secrets.

Part Harry Potter, part The Historian, these books are a fun escape. I am very excited to see how the story ends.