So these were some of my favorite books, the way she blended history with fiction was done beautifully but I feel like this show just completely missed the mark. I know, I shouldn't be surprised since most adaptations just fall flat but I always hope that this time they'll get it right. They did not. The casting is wrong, why did they frump Palmer down so much? Is it just me or is her voice deeper than usual? I don't find any of the vampires attractive, especially Matthew. And the woman who plays Ysabou is beautiful but her character should be much younger. Okay, so you can't make all of the fans of the book happy with the casting cause even though they have physical descriptions, everyone still has their own idea in their head. So if it were just that I'd be like okay I'm just being petty but the characters are also lacking chemistry between each other and not just Matthew and Diana but everyone. It almost feels like they're over acting to make up for it. Maybe the actors just didn't understand the characters they were playing? Structurally wise they seem to move too fast and yet so slow at the same time. They'll be moving slow giving good details and then all of a sudden they just spit out info or jump through too many things. An easy example would be Matthew and Diana's relationship, they meet and then boom they're all of a sudden together. Like, no, it would've been nice to really see the progression. The books had so much tension and playfulness between them and I did not get that from the show. I get you have to change things a little when doing an adaptation but it's just seriously lacking in so many ways. Lastly, this isn't a huge issue but what's up with the music in the credits? It's so out of place. The show is so mellow with instrumental playing through the episodes and then the credits hit and it's just completely unrelated music and usually way too upbeat, haha just found that so odd and slightly annoying. The best thing about this show is by far the cinematography, the sets and the costumes. I will say it is very visually appealing which is why I continued to watch. All in all this was super disappointing but I loved the books so I watched it anyways. I guess that's all that really matters to the creators though..we watched it.