Shadow of Night

This review contains spoilers.

There are incredibly long stretchs of this book where nothing at all happens, and the cast of characters is about twice as big as it needs to be. I thought A Discovery of Witches was fun, well paced, and an enjoyable read. This book, however, seems like a bad fanfic of the first installment.

I'm getting incredibly tired of vampires in books that decide to make everything unnecessarily difficult because they need to protect their one true love. Most of the book seemed to be about clumsy communication between all involved parties, and Matthew hiding the truth while constantly professing that he trusts Diana. And Diana just goes along with it. Both of the characters radically change from the first book and become the worst, most shallow versions of themselves.

Also, can someone please explain to me what happens to Past Matthew while Present Matthew is in the past? The book's explaination didn't make any sense to me. It also seemed absurd that with all of the commotion that Matthew and Diana caused, the only reprucussions it has on the present are a few insignificant historical objects being unearthed in the present.

I will end up reading the third installment. I want to find out how the series ends, and I sincerely hope that Harkness stays in the present. Time travel and period fiction do not seem to be her forte.