Review: Shadow of Night

Title: Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy ~ Book 2)
Author: Deborah Harkness
Publication Date: July 10 2012
Publisher: Viking Adult
ISBN: 0670023485
Length: 584 Pages
Link to Synopsis: Goodreads
Source: Purchased (Kindle Edition)
Buy It: Amazon US / Amazon UK

My Rating: 5 Stars

This is the moment I dread the most... When I have finished a wonderful book and realise that the next instalment is more than likely several months if not a year away.

Shadow of Night has not disappointed me. It picked up immediately where A Discovery of Witches left off and I was enthralled from the first word to the last. I read a lot of books and those books cover a lot of different genres. I can honestly say that these books have fast become my favorites.  I am enamored with the world that Deborah Harkness has created.

What I find the most fascinating is that my love does not simply lie with Matthew and Diana. The side characters are just as enchanting as the main. I would in a heartbeat read any spin-off novel which featured any of Matthew and Diana's friends or family. This says a lot about the level of writing that has been achieved. Yes you can like other characters and want to see more of them in the main story... but to have such characters so loved that people would read entire novels of their own story? Like I said before... amazing writing. I simply adore Marcus and Gallowglass, I am very excited to see what the future has in store for these two in book 3.

I loved being able to get to know a bit more about Matthew's life. Him being able to spend time with his old friends, the new friends Diana made and of course the children in their care while they were in 1590. This also gives Diana a small glimpse into the loss that Matthew feels as he has had a lot of goodbyes in his long life. But I do not want to say too much about the story itself... as Matthew would say "This is not my tale to tell..."

I will be reading these books again in the wait for the final book in the trilogy. Now that I have completed book 2 I already feel a depression starting  as though I have lost a good friend.  I can only imagine how I will feel after the final book is read.