Shadow of Night (All Souls #2)

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Genres/Themes: Adventure, Fantasy, Romance
My Rating: ★★★★☆

(finished April 19th)
Another awesome book! I couldn't put it down. It's been a while since I've read a book as fast as I've read these two.

During the beginning of this book, everyone is still trying to catch Diana. I was still rather confused as to why they were chasing her. Yes, they wanted the manuscript, but it never really said why no one else went after the manuscript themselves after they found out it was at the library. Why didn't they just break into the library and try to steal it? The book was so focused on having to catch Diana than the manuscript itself that it made me suspicious as to the enemies' true objective.

Since I didn't read the book description before reading, I wasn't aware of the time traveling. Typically, I don't really go for the time traveling stories, but this one was absolutely wonderful. Probably because they aren't traveling all over the place and just stayed in one past time.

I really enjoyed the time period Harkness chose. I found it more interesting since I just recently went on a vacation to the outer banks and visited Roanoke Island. If you don't know some of the details of the characters Diana and Matthew meet in the past, I would suggest you do some research on them as you are introduced to them.

It drove me nuts how Diana kept accumulating stuff. When you accumulate things/people, you are going to make attachments. I didn't think she would be able to take much with her if anything at all when she returned to the future. Her only option would be to entrust everything to someone or to hide it. Both choices are chancy and don't ensure a future reunions.

I really loved Matthew's [Show Spoiler] father. I like how the trust he built for Diana was more gradual and built on trials unlike it was with Ysabeau. The final trial he made them go through was a shock, but I could see why he did it.

When things started showing back up in the future and Marcus was buying them back, it drove me nuts. All that money and effort to obtain something to lose it and have to buy it again. I guess they have the money so it doesn't much matter to them, but I know I'd rather not have to pay for the same thing twice.

I loved Matthew's father. It makes me sad that he died more that 50 years before the main story. Ysabeau and Philippe are easily my favorite characters in these books.

I was surprised by the twist at the end when Diana's father showed up. When they first mentioned that he could time travel, I had the thought that Diana would meet him at some point. By the end of the book, so much had happened that I had forgotten about that spark of an idea and was excitedly surprised. I didn't much care for his personality though. I get that he didn't want to mess with time and death, but I would have thought he would want to talk more and spend more time with Diana. His just walking off like that was kind of disappointing.

Elizabeth was absolutely disgusting. I haven't looked into it much to see if that was really what she was like when she was older, but ewww and gross. The part with all the rotten teeth was really disturbing, but I know that things like that were common back then. Thank God for modern dentistry.

An absolutely amazing series. I would definitely recommend anyone to at least try it out even if it doesn't sound like your kind of book. I can't wait for the third book to see how it all ends. I wish this were a longer series. It's going to be sad to have to say good-bye to Diana and Matthew at the end of the book.