alchemy

I am not one that is normally drawn to the fantasy genre.  I mean, sure, I read all of the Harry Potter books (because they were fantastic!).  I am a huge fan of the Xanth series and don't even get me started with the Incarnations of Immortality series (if you haven't read that series, I highly highly recommend it) but I find myself drawn more to thrillers or mysteries or anything with vampires and witches.  So, with that being said, I love how this book drew me in from the get go.  

Just the blurb on the jacket alone got me excited to read this book:

Meet Roger.  Skilled with words

Sixteen-year-old Victor is brash, arrogant, and brilliant—much like the scowling Frankenstein ancestors who built the looming Château Frankenstein on the shores of Lake Geneva.  Together with his twin Konrad, their cousin Elizabeth, and their friend Henry Clerval, they spend their days learning in their father’s vast library or exploring the beautiful world outside the Château.  All that changes the day Elizabeth discovers a hidden staircase and a hidden library, full of dusty alchemical books.  Contained in that dark abandoned room are the secrets to changing lead into gold, to making

In her thrilling second installment in the All Souls Trilogy, Deborah Harkness is back with Shadow of Night. The novel takes place immediately where Discovery of Witches left off, with Diana and Matthew successfully traveling back through time to 1590 so that Diana may better access her powers and together they can find the elusive manuscript, Ashmole 782. Harkness does a wonderful job of not overly rehashing the events of the previous novel. Oftentimes, authors will spend endless pages discussing the previous novel’s events, and readers can become very bored. Instead, Harkness throws her