Shadow of Night: The second unputdownable book in the spellbinding All Souls series

Part of the all souls trilogy.. am hooked

Awesome book

A mind blowing piece of art... Each and every character in the book is unique and the way they have been represented is astonishing. Some pages are little boring but overall it's good

Very unputdownable. The entire series.

Since this is the second book in the trilogy, the following review contains spoilers. Shadow of Night is Book 2 in a trilogy. A Discovery of Witches must be read first.Synopsis:Continuing from the first book – A Discovery of Witches – Shadow of Night moves forward with the story of the witch-vampire duo, Diana and Matthew. Diana is a timewalker like her father. Only now, with Matthew in tow, she timewalks to sixteenth-century Oxfordshire. They have two objectives: one, to seek out witches who would be able to help her learn the art of witchcraft, and two, to get a hold on the hopefully yet unbewitched Ashmole 782 – even before it was known by that name.Review:This book was such a delight to read! Set in Elizabethan London from November 1590 to May 1591, I wonder how wonderful it would have been had the author been my history teacher. The book has been divided into six parts, based on the different locations that Diana and Matthew stay in the past – which includes Woodstock in Oxfordshire, Sept-Tours in France, Blackfriars in London, Prague Castle, with a bit of moving back and forth, and then of course, back to the present.In A Discovery of Witches, it was gradually revealed that Diana could control the elements. But, her technique is indisciplined and hence she needs to learn the art of controlling her magic and using it to her benefit. This is a story fraught with old-world dangers with next to no comforts of the present world. The story continues in Diana's first-person narration and her wide-eyed delight at being a historian who gets to experience history first-hand."The idea of George Chapman playing Henry Higgins to my Eliza Doolittle was enough to make me look longingly at the exit."Time travel is always a tricky concept. But the author has handled it deftly. Before this, all the time travel stories I have read warned of not bumping into yourself if traveling to the past. But this story has introduced an entirely new notion of time travel, at least not something that I have read before.All the characters that are there in this book, especially the historical characters, their role in the story and the camaraderie between Matthew (who was the shadowy figure of Matthew Roydon) and his School of Night 'buddies', it was all so fun to read. Being a literature student, reading about an author's (whose books you have read) personae playing out in historical fiction is so surreal. The author has provided a 'Libri Personae: The People of the Book' at the end of the story which details the characters, their lives in brief, and also their historical significance. The author has weaved the creatures (vampires, witches, and daemons) beautifully into the past, keeping in mind the exact history."My experiences thus far had me planning to throttle the first Tudor historian I met upon my return for gross dereliction of duty."Diana and Matthew go through a tumultuous period in their relationship, something which Matthew's daemon friend, Hamish, had warned her of at the end of the first book. He struggles against his nature, his baser instincts, in order to not hurt Diana. Meanwhile, Diana learns a lot about herself with the help of some powerful witches. She learns that even among witches she is different. There are so many revelations that it will boggle your mind. There are so many secrets that are waiting to be unravelled, which shocks Diana and pains, Matthew. After all, it is his fifteen-hundred-year-old past. But, it is not all bad as their relationship blossoms also, with some shared secrets, hereditary illness, marriage, pregnancy, their life with their kind of adopted children, Matthew's vampire nephew (Gallowglass – a character I loved!), etc."All that children need is love, a grown-up to take responsibility for them, and a soft place to land."More than the first book, this one was such a revelation about Matthew. Especially with him among his family at Sept-Tours (of course, none of those members was present then, whom Diana had already met in her present). This book was all about courtly life, making new (old) friends, discovering oneself, espionage, etc. But, it was not solely about the olden days as the story kept going back to the present, mostly at the end of each of the six parts – where a chapter set in the present linked in mysterious but awe-inspiring ways to the past that Diana and Matthew were in and thereby also kept every character in the loop."Once I was enshrouded in the scent of paper, leather, and stone, some of the loneliness left me. This was a world I knew."Even writing about vampires and witches, I was again amazed by the author's thorough analysis and explanations. Whenever I felt a question arise regarding anything, there was always an answer in the next few pages. If that's not what weaving (pun intended!) a great story is, I don't know what is. There are so many surprises that kept me engaged throughout the story. This was a perfect continuation of the first book.I am not going to say it ends on a cliff-hanger because the entire trilogy is out there:A Discovery of WitchesShadow of NightThe Book of LifeP.S. I have written detailed reviews to both the first book and this one too and yet it seems there's so much that I have left out! I would love to discuss the hell out of it. *goes in search of some fan forums*Again, I wasn't aware of it earlier but there is a free e-book (available on Kindle) called "The All Souls Real-Time Reading Companion". The next time I read the book, I am going to be consulting this simultaneously as it contains interesting details, dates, images, etc relating to the book.Next on my reading list is The World of All Souls: The Complete Guide to A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night, and The Book of Life, which should have been another simultaneous read I guess.Originally posted on:My Blog @ Shaina's Musings

Book #2 in the All Soul’s trilogy which I think should have read immediately after the first one without almost a year gap in between. But after reading the book and catching up with the series on TV, all I can say is this is the first time I thought that the TV adaption was way better than the actual book, which has never happened before for me. I loved that instead of just Diana’s POV as in the book, the TV adaption gives equal weightage to the events happening in the background too.The story is too convoluted, too lengthy, and too Elizabethan to make it gripping like the first book. I felt that the historian in the author went a little too descriptive more than the storyteller. Almost 590 pages and all I wanted was to trim and snip out many of the lengthy descriptions. Diane and Mathew are still my favorite couple and I had a good laugh when the author makes fun of all the vampire books out there that most readers love to devour and the common caveman theme that runs in all of them. From the title, I had thought this book would be focused on Mathew rather than Diana but Mathew once again feels like a shadow to the events happening in Diana’s life. There are quite a lot of secondary characters that add to the bulky material in the book but after seeing that Annie is a character who has been completely cut off from the TV series and then thinking about the vast number of people in the book, I realized that many of them do not add much value to the storyline especially the members of School of Night.I did enjoy the plot even with all that slow pacing and fell in love with Diane all over again for standing up and fighting every bit of the way with Mathew in the face of his jealousies and rages. Though his way with words that are so poetic conveying his intensity of love and emotions towards Daina were, sigh, heart-melting❤️‍🔥 Harkness, however, deserves all the applauds in creating a stunning magical world, the witch’s coven and all that magic inside Diana with the familiar Cora were all beautiful and it is this spectacular imagery that makes me want to pick the next book in the series ASAP.Expected more 3.5 stars 💦 💦 💦 💧

The media could not be loaded.  It’s used don’t buy the condition isn’t good

If u are buying it after reading the first book of the trilogy "Discovery of Witches", then its a big disappointment. The author stoops too low to gratify the common taste and fails to repeat her magic she created in the first one

Couldn't find it at Coles but Amazon had it!

Boa continuação do primeiro livro e deixa um gancho muito bom para o segundo. Excelente continuação, e deixa o leitor afoito para ler a conclusão. Série muito boa, adorei. Abordagem muito singular sobre criaturas. Excelente.

I really loved reading this book and took my time to read it as well because I enjoyed reading it so much and wanted to grasp every detail. Deborah Harkness woves her words together wonderfully and draws her characters interesteringly and with depth and passion. It is a joy reading her work and getting a glimpse into her imagination.I often had goosebumps reading it.

Spedizione veloce, libro arrivato in ottime condizioni. Specifico, per chi non lo avesse notato, che è la versione compatta in lingua originale.

Je suis plus sur 4,5 pour les étoiles. Ce livre est aussi excellent que le premier pour les mêmes raisons (personnages, intrigue, écriture, sujets bien recherchés par l'autrice). Le seul bémol est que c'est un peu trop lent cette fois. Sur certains passages on voudrait un peu plus d'explications, parfois une sensation de coupure abrupte sur un passage ici ou là. Mais sur beaucoup d'autres c'est trop lent et des descriptions qui n'apportent rien aux personnages ou à l'intrigue. L'autrice s'est seulement laissée emporter par un sujet qu'elle adore et maitrise (l'histoire Élisabéthaine) malheureusement c'est étouffant par moments et la lecture devient moins aisée. A part ca c'est toujours une superbe histoire que je recommande