Review: Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness

BOOK STATS

Rating: ☆☆☆
Title: Shadow of Night
Author: Deborah Harkness
Series: All Souls #2
Genre: Paranormal Romance/ Historical
Audience: Adult
Format: Audiobook
Narrators: Jennifer Ikeda
Length: 24 hours (584 pages)
Publisher: Viking Adult; Recorded Books
Release Date: July 10, 2012
Source: Library
Recommended for fans of: Twilight, the Elizabethan era
Content Warnings: miscarriage

SYNOPSIS

Picking up from A Discovery of Witches’ cliffhanger ending, Shadow of Night takes Diana and Matthew on a trip through time to Elizabethan London, where they are plunged into a world of spies, magic, and a coterie of Matthew’s old friends, the School of Night. As the search for Ashmole 782 deepens and Diana seeks out a witch to tutor her in magic, the net of Matthew’s past tightens around them, and they embark on a very different—and vastly more dangerous—journey.

MY THOUGHTS

I think I enjoyed this a bit more than the first book, becoming more invested in the story despite myself. HOWEVER, this book suffers the same slow pace, unnecessarily long lengh, and maddening lack of urgency as the first. Diana and Matthew travel back to 1590 with two very specific goals: find a magic teacher for Diana and find Ashmole 782 in the past. They spend MONTHS making little to no progress toward those goals, instead getting bogged down in the minutiae of 16th century life and acting very irresponsibly for two individuals who are out of time, repeatedly interacting with sovereigns of multiple nations and other significant historical figures instead of keeping a low profile. I enjoyed finally learning more about Diana’s powers, but this book really needed better editing to keep the story focused.