A Discovery of Witches

This review contains spoilers!

There were some things I loved: really rich, vivid descriptions of sensory elements – the taste of wine, the scent of skin, the brush of fur or silk. There were absolutely outstanding descriptions of, how do I even describe this? - emotional components of physical activities: the meditative values of sculling (which made me look at my rowing machine in a whole new way); the exuberant joy of horseback riding. The use of setting (Oxford University in part) as a major element in the plot, at least part of it, made me very happy. As I joyfully galloped headlong through the first third of so of the book, I was thinking, "This is one of the best things I have read in ages!"

Alas, that feeling did not last.

What came up next: surprise POV switching; long, long infodumps (really vividly written infodumps, which I would have adored as outtakes or supplemental material, but which slowed down the action way too much), and a complete degeneration of the story from Historical/Paranormal/Fantasy to Paranormal Romance. Lots of people love Paranormal Romance – and if you like Diana Gabaldon's books, you will LOVE this – but I don't, particularly, and I slogged my way through chapters and chapters of unresolved sexual tension (really, seriously, unresolved) hoping that eventually something would happen to advance the plot. By the time I got to the end, (SPOLIER) which was not an end, but a set-up for the next book, I had decided that enough was enough. But then what did the author do but dangle one of my absolute favorite (SPOILER) historical characters in front of me. So of course I'll have to read book two, dammit.