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.

The Forgotten Garden

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The Forgotten Garden

Kate Morton

Pan Books: 2008, 648 pages

Reviewed by Sheryl Walters

This story takes place over three generations and each chapter alternates between them.  It revolves around the mystery of the birth of Nell and her mother's life and her granddaughter's quest to find the truth.  The reader is taken on a journey to discover Nell's family's past and how she came to be adopted and who her true parents were.  I enjoyed the story and the many layers of secrets that were slowly uncovered between the different points in time.

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The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

Leslye Walton

Candlewick Press: 2014, 301 pages

Reviewed by Jessie Park

Ava Lavender was born with actual wings like a bird.  Unsure of why, she decides to research into her family and see, perhaps, where she got this unusual 'trait' from.  Half of the book goes into Ava's family on her mother's side and how they are all unlucky in love and the other half is spent on how teenage Ava ventures out into the real world, with some wonderful but also terrible results.  The book is considered magical realism and Walton does a great job making the hints of magic real enough to make sense, even if it could never occur in real life.  I would recommend this book to older teens as it does have some strong language, not consistently but sprinkled throughout, and there are scenes of descriptive violence.  There is also a part in the book that can be a trigger warning for those who have experienced sexual assault.