Took a break from one fantasy series to turn to another - the first book in Deborah Harkness’ All Souls series, A Discovery of Witches. This is a modern urban fantasy romance featuring a witch and a vampire. That sounds like a recipe for complete schlock and I’m sure such exists somewhere, but this novel actually has depth of character, interesting world-building, and well-crafted (though slow-developing) plotline. Yes, there’s a bit more heart-fluttering and heavy breathing than I like, but it’s not a bodice-ripper and the romance proceeds slowly without hogging all the limelight. The characters aren’t all terribly likable, but all the primary actors are well-rounded and gain plenty of depth through the story. The author weaves evolutionary science and genetics into the magical underpinnings of the world in a way that worked for me (though I’m sure experts in the field would find nitpicks), and there’s enough artifacts and reminiscing from the long life of the vampires to give a bit of historical fiction feel to the story as well. I was less impressed with the bad guys in the story, who get talked about a lot but rarely actually do anything - and when they do, commit the Evil Overlord failures of giving the good guys plenty of ways to escape and recover. The good guys have a whole lot of powers and resources so it’s a bit difficult to really feel like they’re in the danger that the book wants you to feel. It’s the first in a series and the plot is by no means complete in this book, so don’t expect a nicely wrapped ending. I enjoyed it enough to put the next one on my hold list at the library - maybe the enemies won’t be so inept moving forward.