Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy #2) By Deborah Harkness

Goodreads Summary:

IT BEGAN WITH A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES.

Historian Diana Bishop descended from a line of powerful witches, and long-lived vampire Matthew Clairmont have broken the laws dividing creatures. When Diana discovered a significant alchemical manuscript in the Bodleian Library, she sparked a struggle in which she became bound to Matthew. Now the fragile coexistence of witches, daemons, vampires, and humans is dangerously threatened.

Seeking safety, Diana and Matthew travel back in time to London, 1590. But they soon realize that the past may not provide a haven. Reclaiming his former identity as poet and spy for Queen Elizabeth, the vampire falls back in with a group of radicals known as the School of Night. Many are unruly daemons, the creative minds of the age, including playwright Christopher Marlowe and mathematician Thomas Harriot.

Together Matthew and Diana scour Tudor London for the elusive manuscript Ashmole 782 and search for the witch who will teach Diana how to control her remarkable powers...

My Thoughts:

So this book is written for the history buffs. This is the most historical fiction book of the series. All of the books have large doses of history but this book actually takes place in the past. Diana has serious power, so much that her Aunts can't help her and every other witch that she meets can't help her or sees her as a threat. 

Here's the thing about this book. It makes a statement about segregation in gene pools. If you limit where your genes come from it limits evolution. While Deborah Harkness is applying this to witches, daemons, and vampires it could also be applied to humanity. Just look at the weak-chinned royal families we know and it is a case in point that limited genes are not a good thing. I like that she is making this social statement. We shouldn't try to limit where love comes from and we should embrace it when it shows up for us.

Diana and Matthew have to figure out what their love means for themselves and they are given that chance while in the past. Diana can time walk, which hello, hella awesome skill to have. Can you imagine all the awesome times and places you could go?!? Obviously, Deborah Harkness wishes she could go back in time, but that is predictable seeing as she is a historian.

I felt like this read was true to modern characters while also being true to historical characters. I think we see people from the past as stupid, closed off, and incapable of understanding complex thought. This is not how Deborah Harkness writes her characters. They are full-bodied people of their time, open and understanding and whole people. A lot of historical fiction forgets that people are of a time and place, but they are also just people. I guess that is the biggest complaint I have with a lot of historical fiction, too much of it is over the top and not enough of it is relate-able. I like a story that I can see myself in, regardless of the time.

I would recommend this book to historical fiction lovers, history nerds, and anyone who loves a good story.

While writing this review I was waiting for my Indian food. Mmm naan. Also, I have a bitch of a cold and nothing helps a cold like Indian food.