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Jul 17, 2018catherineband rated this title 0.5 out of 5 stars
This is one of maybe three or four books that I hate with every fiber of my being. I hate nothing more than a book that claims it is something that it is not, or that its characters are something they are not. In this case, the heroine is billed as “smart” and yet she falls into every single stereotype imaginable, and while she’s studying at Oxford, and we’re supposed to believe how she’s smart, she never does anything intelligent or makes a smart decision. The heroine bears an eerie resemblance to the author herself, as if she just wanted to make a perfect version of herself and live out some fantasy. The love interest, a vampire named Matthew, is also a shallowly developed character, with no truly endearing features apart from like, his beautiful breath (I am not kidding about this). I think the world could be relatively interesting. I wish the author spent more time developing this than describing Matthew’s breath. There’s an interesting concept about how science and magic are connected, and I think that’s a cool idea. But it just kind of… fizzles away, and the whole plot becomes secondary to the budding romance. There are so many elements clumsily thrown together in a disorganized hodgepodge of a plot. Think of a stereotype, any stereotype. It’s there. It's thriving. It's almost comical. I want to really be mean about this book, and so everything past this point is going to have some SPOILERS. There are serious flaws, and I can’t really illustrate what’s wrong with this book without discussing them. 1. Characters. -Diana. She’s smart! She’s pretty! She rows! Colleagues respect her, and clearly want to date her. Despite this, she’s irrationally weird about magic, kind of oblivious to everyone who’s stalking her (except Matthew and his breath). She just sort of exists as a placeholder. Of course, though she doesn’t use magic, naturally she’s super powerful and perfect. She gets EVERY POWER EVER, including time travel. -Matthew! Guys, he literally has known EVERY HISTORICAL FIGURE EVER. Everrrrrrrr. Science, religion, art, you name it. There is no limit to what he knows and has experiences. How convenient! He’s got a rich family, who of course tolerate and seem to like Diana. I will say, I liked Diana’s aunts. They were the best, and most believable/realistic characters, in the book. If there was a better book, written by someone else, in this universe, about them… I’d probably read that. 2. Plot. It sounds exciting, but it isn’t. Magic, and vampires, and missing books, and all that but… Diana spends a lot of time rowing and going to yoga and not doing magic. Then a bunch of weird stuff just… happens. It ends with… time travel. 3. Romance. So, I am not a romance reader, and have tried to be fair here. If I like a plot, some romance can really supplement and enhance the story. Here, the weird romance devours every semblance of a plot and story. Matthew, despite being so beautiful, is mean and stomps all over Diana every time she disobeys him, and she doesn’t really care at that point. And this is all dismissed as part of the “that’s how vampires are!” trope. They were like… surprise married. I know, it doesn’t make sense. There is some bit at the end and they blather on and on about how vampires can’t have natural children or something and she’s been drinking contraceptive tea, so of course I expect that Diana will become pregnant. Probably twins. I’ll stop now. This should be enough.