Deborah Harkness

Historian and witch Diana Bishop and her vampire scientist husband Matthew Clairmont return from a trip to the past still searching for the elusive alchemy tome Ashmole 782 in the final installment of the best-selling trilogy following Shadow of Night.

The Book of Life

Niamh

The #1 New York Times bestselling series finale and sequel to A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night Fans of the All Souls Trilogy sent this highly anticipated finale straight to #1 on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list. Bringing the series' magic and suspense to a deeply satisfying conclusion, The Book of Life is poised to become an even bigger phenomenon in paperback. Diana and Matthew time-travel back from Elizabethan London to make a dramatic return to the present?facing new crises and old enemies. At Matthew's ancestral home, Sept-Tours, they reunite with the beloved cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches?with one significant exception. But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency.

Marcy Pursell 

** spoiler alert **
           The ending to this trilogy. :( I started it immediately after finishing Shadow of Night, but then it got cold outside and for some reason I stopped reading. I picked it back up recently, after watching S2 of ADOW, and had a hard time remembering what was going on. But after a few chapters, I was sucked back in. I'm sad it's over. Wasn't going to read Time's Convert, but I'm intrigued, and want to learn more about Marcus and Phoebe.
After all the build up to trying to get Benjamin, I thought his death was anti-climatic. And I want to know more about what Matthew's recovery was like, and learning about Diana's transformation. And did Gallowglass find a mate?!

Tatiana

The Book of Life: 1.5/5

I'm pretty sure this book gave me blood rage. I did not like this book at all, and I am so disappointed. Everything DH worked so hard to create, fell apart in The Book of Life.

Let's start with the positive, and things I liked about this book. I liked the way it recaps the past two books. I enjoy spreading out my series and not binging them, so it's been about a month since I read Shadow of Night. DH does a great job of weaving the first and second books together by bringing back old characters and reintroducing them to the reader in a natural way. She makes it easy to plunge back into the world without needing to struggle with remembering the past two books. The second thing I liked is that we finally get to see Diana's power shine towards the end. I wish it didn't take three whole books to do so, but at least the reader finally gets to see how powerful she really is.

With that being said... here are some issues I had with The Book of Life. All of the All Souls Trilogy I feel has been kinda tough to get through due to her writing style, but damn this book transcends to another level of pain. Unsure if DH has ever heard of pacing. I think this book could be consolidated down to 250 pages of actual stuff that happens and events that advance the plots. This book is filled with pointless details that made me so angry. Thank god a whole 3 pages is spent on how every single character smells, or the fact that Diana turned on the sink. At that point, I just do not care. DH seems to describe absolutely everything except the actual plot points.

One part that made me so angry, is there are chapters filled with Matthew, Marcus, and Mirium all analyzing DNA. After about 40 pages of analysis that the reader doesn't even need to know about, they say "yeah we know nothing". I almost threw the book across the room. It was so pointless, because it added no substance to the plot, and was not even interesting to the reader. Even if DH wanted to tell the reader about analyzing DNA she could have shortened that whole part to one page. 

Next, Diana and Matthew are always telling everybody their business. They have all these secrets that they kept so close for the past two books and now everybody knows everything because Matthew and Diana simply tell everybody. Then, they have the audacity to question how everyone knows everything. For example, Diana has not seen her friend Chris in months and then he shows up and one minute into their reunion Diana tells him 1. she's pregnant, and 2. Matthew is a vampire. Keep in mind Chris is a human. Then, Chris is just like chill with it all with NO QUESTIONS. This made no sense to me.

The chapters also switch between Diana's first-person POV and then sometimes third-person POV with random characters. There are like 4-5 different POVs that don't need to happen. It feels like DH got lazy with writing Diana's POV and how to make it tie in together, so she just added these random POVs in as well. Usually, they amounted to nothing anyway.

Another instance where everything falls apart is the fact that finding the missing pages to Ashmole 782 has been a key plot point in the past two books, but here Diana takes massive breaks of just not looking for them, then she starts again and instantly finds them. They just show up. I thought these pages were the most sought out pages ever, and they just show up in front of Diana? Make it make sense. Then, Diana goes to find the book in the library and it is the most anti-climactic heist ever. I just wish they didn't make such a big deal about finding this book from the first page of A Discovery of Witches, when actually getting the book was the least important event. I was so upset.

Most of this book is honestly focused on blood rage, yet Matthew takes a few deep breaths and is chill. Genuinely I laughed. This is arguably one of the largest plot points in The Book of Life, and nothing happens with it. It makes me want to rip my hair out.

Overall, there is just too much happening in this book and it all ends up being less than mediocre. I wish DH could stick to one plot and make it incredible instead of adding all this nonsense in and making the reader confused and frustrated. Ultimately, the book came off as weak, sloppy, and underdeveloped. There are so many plot points forgotten, loose ends everywhere, anti-climactic endings, and nothing is really resolved. It seems like DH had a great idea for the first book and then didn't know how to end it or tie it all together, and kept digging herself a bigger hole.

Yeah, I'm really disappointed in this conclusion to the series, but kinda happy it's done. This may be the only series where the TV show is better than the books.

The perfect ending to the series. I feel like everything came together. Diana and Matthew and their kids deserve the world. This series is now my favorite. I just wish we could see how the kids grow up and them as a family. 

Leah Diaz 

Melissa Palmer

Book #79 Read in 2014
The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness

The third and final book of this series is a satisfying conclusion to a great series. Books 2 and 3 picked up where the previous book left off, so reading in order is key. In this book, Matthew and Diana stand up to the Congregation who opposes their marriage and their babies-to-be. Matthew has to hunt his insane "son" Benjamin. The characters that readers enjoyed in the first two books return, along with some interesting new additions. 

Harkness has a masterful wave of weaving stories of several paranormal creatures. These books has engaging plots, great mystery elements, romance, humor and action. I truly loved this series. I received an e-ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review.

http://melissasbookpicks.blogspot.com

Joy Bush

Ayesha W

I listened to the audiobook (which was really good) but I was not expecting the trilogy to end like this. I loved the story, I loved how it was written and read, but I was kinda disappointed because of the ending. I was expecting more parts dedicated to the unique twins. I liked that it was more focused on Marcus and Phoebe, but I also expected to read about how the kids grew up, what they faced etc. 
I'd say that the book is good, but I was expecting something more than that.
Overall I really like the trilogy!

Anna Ureta

One of the best series of ALL TIME has come to an end.
I literally, don’t know what to do with myself.
I don’t know what to look forward too now that this series is over.
It was that big series that you always looked forward too every year – like the Harry Potter books when they came out. You knew there would be another one next year and didn’t worry.
Even if this series was just a trilogy, it was a trilogy that changed my life.
This is one of those series that will change you. Like Harry Potter, like the Fever Series, the All Souls Trilogy is completely magical, completely captivating, and will hold you captive from the first page right until the last word.
 
Matthew and Diana are back from the past and now the pieces are slowly coming together. The war is only beginning and now they have more to protect than just themselves. Old friends return, as new and surprising allies arise as they come together to not only change the rules of the Congregation, but to get Ashmole 782 back. Diana has the power and will soon have all the pages, but a new enemy threatens their work and will stop at nothing to get both the book and Diana at any cost. If there’s one thing Matthew and Diana have to learn, is that family is thicker than blood.
 
This book and series have blown ALL EXPECTATIONS out of the water. This is one of those book series that will change your life. I can’t understand why or how some people would rate this series a three star or less. It’s ADULT FICTION/HISTORICAL FICTION, it’s slow, it’s detailed, it’s magical, it’s wonderful. IT’S LIKE HARRY POTTER FOR ADULTS! Except…more Vampires and Witches and no Werewolves.
 
The All Souls Trilogy, is an amazing book series. The characters are truly amazing, they all grow, they’re all lovable, ALL OF THEM, except the bad guys cause no one likes them… but they’re all multidimensional. It’s not just “this character is this specific type of person” and that’s the end of that character’s development, NO! All the characters are so complex and so diverse, that you just can’t but help love them. Tired of not having a character to relate to or to love, there are TONS in this series. I guarantee you’ll find someone you’ll relate too.
 
Now some of you may be thinking, “Oh, she’s biased.”
…
HELL NO!
THIS SERIES MAKES ME WANNA CREAM MYSELF! (am I allowed to say that? is that inappropriate?)
 
Just think about this for a second.
 
Witches. Vampires. Time Travel. Some of English History’s most famous figures, writers and inventors. Alchemy. Magic. And Science.
Seriously what part of that doesn’t sound amazing?
Oh and did I mention one EPIC ROMANCE.
 
Okay, no, that’s a lie. Maybe like….two…or three…or even four….WELL ONE MAIN EPIC ROMANCE OKAY!

The Book of Life picks up nearly right after Shadow of Night with a surprise first chapter intro from two very beloved characters of the series. From there the story is fast-paced but very exciting, and God love the science… At about the half way point, everything gets so serious, so fast, it’s crazy, and your EYE BALLS FEEL LIKE THEY’RE GOING TO POP OUT OF THEIR SOCKETS. Left and right you’re being thrown these curve balls and you don’t know what to do and it’s exciting, it’s thrilling and your heart….it just can’t take it!

The end of the series is when it gets really serious. After a certain point it just goes down hill from there and everything gets amazing. Think of any great spy movie, where the characters are trying to sneak into a place to reek havoc on the enemy. That’s what this book feels like, that’s how good it is. You’re waiting in anticipation, wondering how it’s all going to go down, and the characters you love so much are in peril and you’re screaming, “JUST DO IT ALREADY!”. This book, this series, this masterpiece, is a roller coaster. A real live roller coaster experience.
 
The amount of caps-lock and bold in this review is uncanny, but I promise you if you take the time, read this series – read it, understand it, and immerse yourself in it, you won’t find anything more magical.
Thank you so much, Deborah Harkness, for writing this amazingly beautiful series and sharing it with the world.
I just wish you made more money than J. K.
 
10/5 Hearts of Love

Cindy McKee

It has taken me awhile to begin this book. I loved the first one so much, and was thrilled it would be a trilogy. After a long and anxious wait, we got book two. I was disappointed. It was a whos whos guide to that time period and Matthew and Diana's story was utterly lost in it. So much so, that I honestly could not remember anything other than their arguments, which all ended with" well, now we have no more secrets between us." Only to have four or five more arguments, ALL end the same way! The whole trip to the past seemed pointless. So, reluctantly, I finally got around to the last story. With a sigh of relief, this is a better story! It has all the excitement, charm, and magic of the first book. Diana and Matthew are front and center of their large brood. The story is back on course to finding Ashmole/Book of Life/ ect., and what it means for the entire world of vampires, witches, and daemons. There is a horrible villain, otherworldly politics, scientific studies, a birth, christening, reunion, heartbreak, and laughter. This, this is why I loved the first book. My only caveat, ms. Harkness could benefit from a decent editor. The book could have achieved the same wonder and ending in a sleeker story. It rambled into pointlessness on a few occasions. About 50-100 pages less would have served the story better.

Jessica Ford

I loved this book just as much as I loved the first two in the trilogy. Lots of action, and an odd, but satisfactory ending.

THE NO.1 SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES HARDBACK BESTSELLER *A Discovery of Witches is soon to be a major TV series - immerse yourself in the ALL SOULS world* Fall under the spell of Diana and Matthew once more in the stunning climax to their epic tale, following A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES and SHADOW OF NIGHT. A world of witches, daemons and vampires. A manuscript which holds the secrets of their past and the key to their future. Diana and Matthew - the forbidden love at the heart of it. 'Rich in arcane detail, fans will relish this exotic cauldron of romantic fantasy' Sunday Mirror on THE BOOK OF LIFE After travelling through time in SHADOW OF NIGHT, the second book in Deborah Harkness's enchanting series, historian and witch Diana Bishop and vampire scientist Matthew Clairmont return to the present to face new crises and old enemies. At Matthew's ancestral home in France they reunite with their families - with one heart-breaking exception. But the real threat to their future is yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for the elusive manuscript Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on a terrifying urgency. Using ancient knowledge and modern science, from the palaces of Venice and beyond, Diana and Matthew will finally learn what the witches discovered so many centuries ago.

(All Souls 3)

Alyssa 

Okay, now I'm really sad cause this series is amazing and I want more of this universe! But now I'm finished, and I'm sad

Vilde

Mary Rose Luksha

I thoroughly enjoyed the final installment of the All Souls Trilogy. DH had A LOT of loose ends to wrap up and I think she finessed it as well as she was able. 

This book was a little less meandering than the previous two, I think because she had a more definite plot. There was a clear antagonist as opposed to the other books their enemies are all moving in shadows. 

I was satisfied with the ending for the most part, though the one cheesy moment where (view spoiler)[ Diana realizes that the one thing the Goddess is making her give up is fear was too schmaltzy for me.  (hide spoiler)]

The magic was my favorite part of all the books. I think DH's take on that was fresh (at least from what I've read previously), and I really enjoyed the magic and science connections. I've never read a book where that concept was explored and I found it fascinating. 

The only thing I have to say negatively about the ending is (view spoiler)[ SO DOES DIANA JUST LIVE HER HUMAN LIFE?! Like, Matthew can live forever, obvs. She has proof her kids are going to live for a couple hundred years at least. And here's this 38 year old woman like, YUP 50 MORE YEARS TOTES ENOUGH FOR ME. Can't wait til my husband is all hot for me AT THE AGE OF 80. Seriously. If anyone out there is reading this spoiler and you know or speculate whether Diana will try to live longer, please please please take pity on me and comment. Please. I need to know. I'm not even kidding.  (hide spoiler)]

Fraser Simons

Not having much luck with ends of trilogies this month, apparently. While I still really like the voice, worldbuilding and prose, generally, the plotting and pace felt very strange in this. And because so much—too much, imo—of various things from the past are incorporated in this one, it feels very contrived and convenient at time. Combined with the strange need to bring in every character from the first book, it simultaneously feels like a lot is happening when actually very little plot occurs. 

This sort of feels like the second Kvothe book, where it’s just like bizarre wish fulfillment. Some of which does hit, but more often than not noticeable plot holes are never explained and other things, for sake of theme, I think? generate various new B plot tangents that weren’t what I was interested in. The found family aspect feels especially contrived sometimes because it is mired in archaic honourifics and time jumps to that attempt to create artificial community and intimacy. 

What does land is the world building aspects that I’d been waiting for since the beginning. How spells work, the titular reveals of the Book of Life, and the core dynamics of the main characters, all work well for me. It’s just too puffed up and mired with all this other stuff. 

But the main reason it didn’t work for me was the antagonist, which felt like a caricature and a contrivance from the past. And Diana just doesn’t feel like she should have such a firm grasp on everything, mostly because she basically never fails. Coupled with Matthew’s hereditary “blood rage”, as a blood wolf vampire, it feels like initially a good counter balance until actually examined. The wolf dynamics are really weird, and completely lacks empathy and understanding of actual wolves but is repeatedly reiterated. I like it somewhat as a metaphor for toxic masculinity… but I just can’t stand Matthew regardless due to his wildly shitty behaviour and the posturing of the family dynamics with the wolf pack mentality, which focus solely on when a person is perceived to be in danger, pretty much. And then the toxic elements aren’t actually addressed with Matthew at a character growth level regardless.

If you’re in it to find out the large reveals, you’ll leave happy. But I’m not sure anything else about this, other than the general pleasant readability that, if you’re on book three, you probably already know you like, I can’t say you’ll find any other stand out aspects of the book.

Magda Silva

Dear lord, I love this book. Loved Diana, Matthew still needs to grow up a bit (let's be real). The relation between Marcus and a female introduced in book 2? Amazing, loved everything about them and the character that reapeared from book 2? Loved, loved. We met a very impressive villan in the story. Gebert and Knox were good antagonists but this guy? A full fledge villan. The type that you love to hate and that you really want to die but at the same time you want more from. And Baldwin just became the character that I wished that he had been on first one. Because in there he was boring. Gallowglass and Fernado are 2 pearls. 

It was as good as book 1? No. It was a bit better than the 2 one. I maintain my opinion when it cames to compare the series with twilight. The explanatin of how the whole thing was possible was not really good, it lacked something. I don't know it felt weird this time around. This second read made me realize the good part but it stand out some awkwards parts but still a 5 star read. Still a favorite book for life? Not sure. But seriously, if you like vampires and witches read it.

Sabetha Danes

This book was a great conclusion to the series, it was hard to put down because of the continued build of pressure on the main characters! I just wanted to know if they were going to survive this craziness or not! At some points I felt it really could go either way. 

I LOVED that the series dived so deep into the science and background of the "creatures." It made it feel so much more real/relatable for me. The series was well researched and well written, it was apparent in the writing the time that was put into building this world and making it feel as real life as possible.

Sarah Ryan

Enjoyed this final instalment. Diana becomes who she was always meant to be and the plot was satisfyingly tied up while leaving room for you to imagine their lives after ‘the end’. Gallowglass needs his own book!

Sophie Hutchings

Beautiful writing. Plot Perfection. Magical. Vampires & witches. Action packed. Historical and romance. 

What more could you want? Nothing. But this book gives it to you. I can't wait to re read all three books, just amazing. I love that this is an adult book about vampires and witches without being a sex filled trilogy... Yes there is steamy sex scenes but it's more then that, so so so much more. Must reading.. 5* everyday.

Julie D.

a lil rushed but it was a good ending to a series

Robin M Cabana

This was a very satisfying end to the trilogy. I am really going to miss these characters! I don't want to give anything away, but I really love how Diana grows into her power and the message of acceptance in this final chapter.

Alexis Schwulst 

A wonderful conclusion to a wonderful journey through different times with fascinating characters.

a.girl.a.dog.and.books

This is yet another final of a sequel that did not disappoint! Deborah Harkness just keeps surprise her readers about how much thought and research she put into her book. It is full of actions and sweet moments ans revelations that can't possibly be foreshadowed! This book is also very thought-provoking by its revelations and makes you think about differences among people in a new regard!

Trula Rockwell

Out of three main books of the trilogy, I can say that this is my least favorite. But then again, I always hate when a series that I read in a week and a half ends all too quickly. This whole series was much better than The Twilight Saga was a whole. And I hope to read many more side books for this series in the future. 

However as I said before, it is the least favorite I suppose due to the mundane things that took place in this book. Where there was much more information and actions pumped into the other two books, this felt lacking as the finale.

Tracey O’Rourke

I admit I am a bit disappointed in this book, perhaps because of my high level of expectation, but the story simply didn't pack the punch I was hoping for. The revelations about the book of life seemed to play second fiddle and I felt that much exposition had been cut in order to keep the page numbers down. I still enjoyed it, but I was not riveted as I had been with the previous books.

The Book of Life

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