A Discovery of Witches

For her research on the history of alchemists the young professor Diona Bishop calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript. Descended from an old and line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery. Though she feels the strong magic in the book, she sends it back to the stacks - very much to the annoyance of all kinds of witches, vampires and daemons. As she is threatened by creatures wanting to put their hands on the manuscript nobody has been able to call up in centuries, she has to confront her own magic and gather support from unexpected sources.

As we start into the book the world seems to be a pretty normal scholarly environment, with a tiny dash of magic thrown in. Along with Diana, who has refused the magic after her parents died when she was very young, we discover that there is much more to magic than she suspected and get pulled along her in this discovery. As the story progresses, she meets other players in the magical world and finds herself pulled into a world of power plays and ages old feuds. I found the world she builds intriguing and enjoyed a heroine who has passed her 20th birthday for a change and can hold her own against powerful adversaries.