A Discovery of Witches

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A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy #1)

Deborah Harkness

Viking Penguin: 2011, 579 pages

Audiobook length: 24 hours and 2 minutes

Read by Jennifer Ikeda

Reviewed by Jessie Park

Diana Bishop comes from a long line of witches (think back to Salem, Massachusetts) but refuses to give into her magical heritage.  She focuses instead on her work as a historian, spending the year in Oxford for her latest research.  When she unknowingly comes across a magical manuscript thought long lost for centuries, the creature world becomes abuzz with excitement.  Soon there are witches, vampires, and daemons coming into the Bodleian Library in droves, including one Matthew Clairmont, a very old and very intense vampire.  They all believe Diana holds the key in unlocking the bewitched manuscript but Diana doesn't want to be a part of it, at all.  Soon events bind Diana and Matthew to work together while facing increasingly dangerous enemies.  Audiobook narrator Jennifer Ikeda does an excellent job creating a soothing voice in Diana while also managing a wide variety of accents.

Red Rising

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Red Rising (Red Rising #1)

Pierce Brown

Del Rey (Random House): 2014, 382 pages

Reviewed by Tori Lyons

The Earth is dying, so Mars is being colonized by a brave group of pioneer Reds.  Darrow is one of these pioneers, mining for Helium-6 deep under the surface of Mars.  After Darrow’s wife is executed, he is recruited by a secretive group of rebels who open his eyes to the truth: Mars has actually been colonized for generations and Reds like Darrow are toiling away to support the extravagant lifestyles of the Golds living on the surface. Fueled by his rage and a sense of justice, Darrow is reformed into a Gold and sets out to overthrow the colorful caste system from the inside. 

A Great and Terrible Beauty

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A Great and Terrible Beauty 

Libba Bray

Simon and Schuster: 2003, 403 pages

Reviewed by Jessie Park

Sixteen year old Gemma Doyle lives in India with her mother and father, miffed at not being able to go back to London for her first season.  Suddenly there is a horrible family tragedy and she is sent not only back to England but straight to Spence's Academy for Girls.  It's the quintessential Victorian boarding school, focused on educating girls on how to be great wives, hostesses, and mothers.  But Gemma isn't like the other girls; she has a secret, a power that she doesn't understand and doesn't know how to control.  She tries to ignore it while she learns to navigate her new surroundings.  Gemma tricks her way into the mean-girl clique consisting of power-hungry Felicity and Pippa, the most beautiful girl in the whole school, bringing along her roommate, Ann, the scholarship student who is constantly picked on.  When the girls find a hidden diary of a long-ago student who shares the same powers that Gemma is experiencing, the foursome decides to try their hand at this new and unusual magic.  Are they just having some fun they wouldn't ever be allowed to have in the real world or are they acting beyond their control?  What is the price to pay for such pleasure?  Readers should be aware that this is the first book in Bray's trilogy.