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Ellaroo

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  • A Discovery of Witches

  • The All Souls Trilogy, Book 1
  • By: Deborah Harkness
  • Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda
  • Length: 23 hrs and 59 mins
  • Unabridged
  • Overall
    4.5 out of 5 stars 564
  • Performance
    4.5 out of 5 stars 529
  • Story
    4.5 out of 5 stars 530

It begins with absence and desire. It begins with blood and fear. It begins with a discovery of witches. Diana Bishop, a young scholar and descendant of witches, discovers a long-lost and enchanted alchemical manuscript deep in Oxford's Bodleian Library. Its reappearance summons a fantastical underworld, which she must navigate with a vampire, Matthew Clairmont. This manuscript, Ashmole 782, holds the secrets of their past...and the key to their future. 

  • 5 out of 5 stars

  • Fantastically captivating

  • By Monique M. on 28-03-2015

Controlling disturbing relationship

Overall
1 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
1 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 20-11-2018

Great narrator.

Story with good potential

Terrible relationship spoils it all for me.

Minor spoilers ahead.

I’d kept hoping this book would improve. Diana is intelligent, independent and powerful and I kept hoping she would unleash her power or at least Stand up to Matthew.

Instead the red flags in their relationship get more disturbing and are framed as romance. Matthew gets more controlling of her and I couldn’t go any further when about half way through he grabs her pushes her onto the couch and tells her he will kill her before allowing anyone else to hurt her. This is not long after he man handles her off a horse because he didn’t like the way she was riding. Gee how romantic.

Seriously. Narratives like this help abusive relationships begin and continue. It is harmful to frame a mans control and treating you like a helpless child as romantic because he just cares so much about you.

8 of 9 people found this review helpful