Have you ever had a book that you were so engrossed into that you felt like you were there? So engaged that you felt you needed your own glass of wine at dinner? This book is one of those. This trilogy is my favorite amongst so many that I hold dear to my heart, and its because of the wonderful writing of Deborah Harkness.
To start, Diana and Matthew have traveled into the past (to 1590), and are making plans to find a witch for Diana, and the Ashmole manuscript. However, Matthew made a few errors in his walk through memory lane, and now Diane has to endure his many deceased friends. From the history books themselves, Deborah Harkness introduces such figures as Walter Raliegh, Christopher Marlowe, and Henry Percy (Lord of Northumberland). Diane also meets and befriends Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, and has audiences with Queen Elizabeth I. However, Diana also meets members of Matthew's vampiric family, members she never thought she would ever meet. Diana must find a way to learn her magic, learn this new world she has to survive in, and learn about the man/vampire that is her husband. No pressure, though.
I found myself wishing for the old-fashioned library with the old-fashioned fireplace and a glass of wine. I did have the glass of wine and I did read by candlelight, so it was close but not quite the same. Deborah Harkness brought the figures to life, and I could see them being the playful, loyal friends that she portrayed. I ordered books from Amazon onto my Kindle to read about the different icons, like Mary Sidney, and I found myself searching for maps to see the streets and alleyways that Diana and Matthew walked. I looked over maps to see the distances they traveled from London to Prague, etc. And I never felt like an outsider reading in. I felt Diana's frustration, fear, sadness, happiness, and love.
I also found, to my joy, that there is a "guidebook" to the All Souls Trilogy, and I have bought it. Now I can go into this book and see the rooms and the chairs (for there are beautiful illustrations to give the reader a better of idea of everything. After I finish the 3rd book, I will make it my due diligence to read the "guidebook" thoroughly.
I will end by saying that Deborah Harkness does an excellent job of capturing the intimacy of Diana and Matthew's love. For those who wished for a more explicit consummation, please remember: Diana and Matthew are about more than sex, they are about life. Their relationship is intimacy, relationship, and life and death. To ask or even to want more would be to defeat the purpose of the plot and its philosophy. I, for one, rate this novel 5 out of 5 stars, because of those things I just wrote. And sincerely hope, that everyone finds their own "Matthew" one day.
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