Jenn's Review: The Book of Life

Author: Deborah Harkness
Series: All Souls Trilogy #3
Publication Date: July 15, 2014
Publisher: Viking Adult
Pages: 561
Obtained: purchased
Genre:  contempory paranormal
Rating: 4.0
Bottom Line: Captivating
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

 Blurb:  After traveling through time in Shadow of Night, the second book in Deborah Harkness’s enchanting series, historian and witch Diana Bishop and vampire scientist Matthew Clairmont return to the present to face new crises and old enemies. At Matthew’s ancestral home at Sept-Tours, they reunite with the cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches--with one significant exception. But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency. In the trilogy’s final volume, Harkness deepens her themes of power and passion, family and caring, past deeds and their present consequences. In ancestral homes and university laboratories, using ancient knowledge and modern science, from the hills of the Auvergne to the palaces of Venice and beyond, the couple at last learn what the witches discovered so many centuries ago.   

Review:  This is the final book in the trilogy and I have been looking forward to it for a long time.  Perhaps too long a time.  I wish I had had time to go back and read the first two books again -or even listen to them as audio books (but the library doesn't have them on tape)- because I think that would have helped to reconnect to the story.

For me the first book in this trilogy, A Discovery of Witches, was spectacular.  The second, Shadow of Night, though cumbersome was really intriguing.  The Book of Life is a good solid finish to the series, but nothing is as stellar as the first book.   Deborah Harkness has a fluid style that pulls you in as a reader.  I loved how things from the last book came into the third book as the travel to the past affected the future.  Some of the major plot points were resolved and tied up neatly however there were so many things I wanted to know more about.  I felt like The Book was never properly explained.  I hated how things ended with certain characters... especially Gallowglass.  I was not satisfied with the conclusion on Blood Rage especially with all the time spent researching it.  While I enjoyed the read, I ended up with a bit of a "that's it?" feeling at the end.  

That being said, I think the All Souls Trilogy is worth the read.  The first two books outshine the last book, but it's still a fantastic story.  Will I read Deborah Harkness again?  You bet.

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