The truth is that, on the premise level, I am the target audience for this book. It begins with a brilliant scholar, Diana Bishop, in one of the oldest libraries in the Western world, the Boldeian at Oxford, accidentally summoning a spellbound ancient book that has been missing for hundreds of years. Oh, and she's a witch. Witches, libraries, academia - this seems made for me.

Then vampires are introduced. Which isn't necessarily my thing, but didn't bother me, especially since I've seen the series already and can picture Matthew Goode playing Matthew Clairmont, as the 1500 year old brilliant Oxford elite. And as any Buffy (or Twilight fan) knows, there's just something about these undead soulless men who are trying so hard to control their savage desires, and have a fierce desire to protect the woman they love, even from themselves. There's a built-in tension there, and I do love tension.

Matthew is intelligent, rich, “well over six feet,” and breaks into her bedroom to watch her while she sleeps (in the style of Edward Cullen). So, right away we know these two are destined, by the author, to be together, whether we like it or not.

It's hard to tell exactly when the plot began to go off the rails for me, but I think it was around the time vampire yoga was introduced. Call me old fashioned, but even in a modern day setting, picturing a vampire in yoga pants doing downward dog just really took me out of it.

Then we get to the insufferable name dropping. This vamp knew every significant Western historical figure - writer, scientist, philosopher - intimately, over the last 1500 years of his life. Darwin? They were pen pals. Shakespeare? He has manuscripts in his personal library just casually titled "Will's plays." Christopher Marlowe? Well, Kit had an unrequited love for him.

I fully realize that this is fantasy. And Harkness takes advantage of it every step of the way. Every character is the most rich, the most powerful, and has direct connections to every person who could help them in every situation. Everything that is discovered feels too convenient.

While the main plotline shifts mostly towards the romance (boo), there does continue to be some interesting ideas introduced throughout this book - the origins of vampires, witches and demons, and the evolution of mythical species. I'm sure that Harkness did a lot of research when writing this book to try to explain the science and history of these concepts - though it's up for debate whether she pulled it off.  With all the potential of a historical fantasy novel with hints of good ideas, Harkness instead spends tedious amounts of time on things like vamp yoga, what Diana likes to eat, the age of wine, the way things smell. 

A key part of the story is that Diana Bishop has a fear of witchcraft, and doesn't have access to much of her power at the beginning of the book. I think that a story where a woman comes into the full potential of her magical abilities can be so empowering, but, in this case, it's all undermined by how much of her autonomy is stripped away by the romantic plotline.

I probably would have been able to enjoy this as an easy fluffy read if it hadn't been for the way the romantic relationship was portrayed. I really cannot stress how disturbing I found it. I felt they struck a much better balance on the first season of the tv adaptation, though it was still borderline on toxic. The book was just endless examples of manipulation, control, emotional abuse, gaslighting, stalking, physical abuse (the character's internal monologue notes that he's the only man who has ever not listened to her when she's asked him to stop touching her), and threats. Is she in love or is it Stockholm Syndrome?

At one point Matthew says to Diana, "I will kill you myself before I let anyone hurt you." I know everyone has their personal fantasies and desires, and I don't want to kink shame anyone, but... are straight women ok? The bar is in hell.

It's puzzling to me how often Harkness had Diana say things like "it's my choice," and even constantly points out the many red flags about Matthew - and then her personal autonomy is worn down more and more as the story continued, making excuses for his violent behaviour, stressing that she needs to be obedient to Matthew for her own safety. The emphasis on being obedient was reiterated throughout the whole book. It was like Harkness was trying to undermine the idea of independent, academic women, and illustrate that they should become submissive to a dominant man, for their own good.

I mean, if I continued this series, maybe I’d see that eventually Matthew learns to let Diana have some control in their relationship, but it troubles me that the attitude is “I can fix him, no really I can” towards a man who justifies why he HAD to non-consensually drug you within a week or two of knowing you — and he‘d do it again. (Girl, run.)

The writing is very basic, and suffered greatly from not having a better editor. Structural issues, tedious spans where not much is happening - and even a single sentence on vampires yoga is too many for me, thanks. And I hate that Diana, who is supposed to be a brilliant scholar, reads like every bland stock YA novel protagonist.

In the end, this is more or less Twilight, just aged up, and attempting to elevate itself as a historical academia novel, but just isn't quite intelligent enough to pull off it off. 

1.5 stars rounded up to two because there are lesbian witches and gay demons