Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

You were only waiting for this moment to arise

The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness

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Deborah Harkness has come up with new challenges for Diana Bishop and Matthew Clairmont in The Black Bird Oracle, Book Five in her best-selling All Souls series. Fans of the first four installments will absolutely enjoy this one, but it is definitely an installment and not a stand alone in a series. New readers need to be encouraged to go back and start with the first installment, A Discovery of Witches, because there is a LOT of world building that you’re kind of expected to already know. The […]

Review #10: If anybody has recommendations for a good fantasy romance, please let me know, because this ain’t it

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

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I read A Discovery of Witches in the midst of a tough project at work, and needed a soapy fantasy to help distract me. It didn’t work! Publisher’s description: “Deep in the stacks of Oxford’s Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the […]

A weird book I had a lot of things to say about.

A Discovery of Witches (All Souls, #1) by Deborah Harkness

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Oh wow I have so many things to say. The vast majority of the time when I go to write a review I have to sit there and think of things to say, when my instinct is just like, I had feelings okay and now you want me to put them into words? But the words are just wanting to flow for this one. So first, because context is important, three things about this book and also me: 1. It was free. A friend was […]

I Feel Guilt Over the Two Stars Rating

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

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I loved this book when it first came out and I have to say that my re-read of this was painful. Why did I like this so much? Did I not see that Matthew was uber possessive which is my least favorite hero trait? The constant endearments in French may me roll my eyes. Also the Mary Sueness of Diana was beyond ridiculous. She gets powers on top of powers and also decides that the only thing that matters is her love for Matthew. She […]

An insult to avocado toast

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katie: I take full responsibility for this one. I somehow missed A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness the first time around. My interest was piqued after seeing a trailer for the new series featuring Matthew Goode. Here. Have some eye candy: Katie: Anyway, I messaged Patty and was like, “we may have a contender.”    

Kill Your Darlings

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Deborah Harkness knows a lot about a lot of things. Her depth and breadth of knowledge on things ranging from wine to Elizabethan England to brewing tea is certainly impressive, but the amount of detail crammed into these books sure does make for some slow going. The All Souls Trilogy is about a world in which witches, vampires, and daemons (in this case, daemons are humans who are more than us regular folk–musical prodigies, artistic savants, financial wizards, scientific geniuses–or sometimes drug addicts or mentally […]



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