Saturday, October 25th

Saturday, October 25th 

Stories Coffee

Shadow of Night pages 155-182

I’ve made it more than 150 pages in to Shadow of Night, the follow-up to A Discovery of Witches, mostly on a Saturday morning after a half-hearted attempt at the gym that involved about 20 minutes of actual exercise and at least that much of wandering around, wishing I was back in bed. In this second book of the trilogy, Diana and Matthew have time-walked back to the 1500s where we’ve been introduced to a dizzying array of characters, few of which I can keep straight. There’s a whole gaggle of white dudes, some famous, some creatures, none of which I can name right now except Kit Marlowe and that’s only because he’s such an ass that he stands out. We also get to meet Matthew’s dad Phillippe, who isn’t really his dad he was just married to his ‘mother’ Ysabeu when he made him a vampire. Phillippe is huge, incredibly intimidating, and hates Diana on sight though, just like Ysabeau, his walls come down waaaayyyyyy too easily making you doubt if he ever was that much of a hardass to begin with. 

I’m wondering at this point if the author has run out of ways to describe kissing as she’s throwing in zingers like this: He kissed me with admirable attention to detail. Really? What does that mean? He flossed her teeth while he was in there? Checked to make sure her tonsils weren’t inflamed? If she’s struggling to describe kisses in a new way now, I can’t wait to see what she comes up with in the third book!

We also have an alarming episode where…wait for it…”Matthew uncharacteristically ran his hand through his hair back to front.” This is apparently to indicate he’s really upset about something. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anyone do this in real life, but then again I’ve never been around any really upset vampires so that might explain it? 

Anyway. After reading and the lackluster gym episode, I get myself together for my Saturday and go see the new Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere. I have more time to kill afterward since my husband has taken his son to the football game in Lincoln, so I head to Stories Coffee for some Roaming Reading. Stories is a familiar place as our office used to be located right across the street and I’d meet people there for work all the time. I also love that they have coffee as well as wine and beer and mixed drinks! Unfortunately, they seem to know what they are doing and don’t fill the wine glasses to the brim for $5 like the other joint used to do, but it’s still a selling point. 

I get to Stories around 2:30 and forego the wine in favor of a glass of water. I fully plan on ordering something and paying for it before I’m done because I’m not, you know, some degenerate who takes up space without paying her way. Except I am that day because I never end up ordering anything. Instead, I lounge in a comfy chair by the door that has…wait for it…a pillow!!! Hooray! Why doesn’t every coffee shop have pillows?? Okay, I know several possible answers to that including spills and germs, but still. I’m really enjoying it. 

It’s now come to light that in addition to being a controlling hoo-hah and, you know, a vampire, Matthew also has something called blood lust (blood rage? Something of that nature) that makes him go nuts for short periods of time. Oh goodie. As if he weren’t dangerous enough, we have to throw homicidal blackouts on top of this simmering pot of bad news. And of course, this just makes Diana love him all the more. Hmmmm. Is anyone else getting some icky vibes here? It’s reminding me all too much of many of my past relationships where I ignored red flags galore because “I’m so wonderful, he’ll be different with me!!!” Guess what? He never was. And the red flags I was ignoring were things like talking too much about the ex and not wanting me to go out with my friends, not murderous berserking.

Matthew is also not quite as appealing in this book. In the first one, he had a blend of possessiveness and protectiveness that was maybe borderline unsettling but he was still pretty hot. In this book, he veers between being a demanding chauvinist and a complete and total weenie. I’m just not digging it. Fortunately, the book is getting more into Diana figuring out her magic and the relationships she’s building with other 14th century witches, so at least that’s interesting. 

My husband texts me to say he won’t be home for dinner like he thought, so I decide to take the opportunity to make this a Roaming Reader double header and take my book out for a wine and dinner date.