The Bookbinder's Daughter

The Conjurers #1

by Jane Glatt

Faelin Keetley has kept secrets all her she can read, a skill that none but the Conjurers are allowed. And she has taken over bookbinding jobs from her father, when women on the Bridge are forbidden professions. Her father’s death leaves Faelin with even more dangerous secrets. His last words were a spell, and all his life he’s been hiding a room full of hundreds of spellbooks. Worse, his death leaves her to the mercies of the Conjurers and the traditions of the Bridge. Denied her livelihood and facing an arranged marriage or death, Fae takes an ancient family journal and escapes, determined to build a new life for herself. But Fae’s secrets are catching up with her, and the Conjurers will do anything to discover them.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction

303 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 31, 2017

Reviews

[Giorgia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

*Review of Netgalley's ARC*

This book was extremely enjoyable. I loved the storyline as well as the characters. The plot is easy to follow and the characters are well defined. Although this is an adult book - with adult main characters - it reads younger. This is definitely not a critique, but rather a potential for the book can appeal to a wider audience.

My one critique is that the author utilizes elegant variation a lot. Characters are often called both by their name and by their job title which can be confusing at times as it is hard to understand who is who.

A great book overall, I highly recommend!

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Faelin Keetley is the bookbinder's daughter and she is not allowed to step into her father's shoes when he dies even though she has been doing all the bookbinding for years. The Conjurer's control all that goes on on the Bridge and Faelin is going to be forced to marry someone just so she can keep her home.

When she realizes there is nothing she can do to control her fate she takes one of her father's hidden books and escapes with her friend Arik who lives and works among the Rivermen. Together they must find a way to defeat the Conjurers so that each can fulfill their own destiny. Fae as the only female Conjurer and Arik as the only known male Shaman of the Rivermen for as long as their history has been handed down.

Interesting though a little tedious at times. The real excitement begins toward the end of the book. Then it will capture your attention. While I do plan on reading the next book it probably won't be for a while......................as my lists and stacks grow I wonder if I will be buried in books one day! Or maybe, I already am and just can tell!

[Lana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was quite an intriguing story about a woman who could read and who had taken over her father's trade of book binding and who found out that she could also do magic when all these things were forbidden to women. When her father died she was left homeless unless she accepted to marry a bridger which to her was utterly out of the question as these men were brutal but the conjurers who ruled on the bridge left her no choice so she escaped and made her way to her only friend in the rivermen's area! The rivermen were suffering from a curse the conjurers had cursed them with which turned them into almost amphibians so they could not live on land. Faelin and Aric try to fight the conjurers with all their might whilst both of them finding out new strengths which they did not even know they possessed! I quite enjoyed the adventures and i do hope that Faelin and Aric manage to defeat the head conjurer Wailes who was utterly without conscience but the book stops at a cliffhanger and so we have to wait for the next book to find out!

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty good book. The characters are whole and they develop nicely while having some fun adventures and facing some difficult situations. The book doesn’t completely fill you in on all the details you might want and I hate the ending. I mean who leaves a book 1/2 done and tells you to finish reading it in the next book. No, finish writing the book in one book. I’m not going to find out what happened because the story wasn’t good enough to buy the second book but would have been good enough to finish.

[Selaya Morton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not find this to be a "likeable read." Too slow and concentrating way too much on the four or five main protagonists. The only reason I gave it one extra star is that, in this day and age, the challenges to "men only" rules seem to be quite topical. The ideas behind these long lasting regulations need to be challenged and I think the book's good intentions show that quite plainly.

I don't know, as usual, whether I'll proceed with the sequel.

[Nicole Luiken · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the setting--a fantasy London bridge inhabited by conjurers--and the slowly revealed intricacies of the magic system. Faelin had a clear motivation and goal as the death of her father throws her life into peril. This is definitely the larger story split into sections type series, with little resolved at the end of book one. Fortunately, I already have book two loaded unto my ebook reader.

[Bryan Ewert · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and richly detailed setting. The story starts strongly, and the reader becomes attached to the life and plight of Faelin. The magic (or its consequences, at least) is unique, as well, which is a considerable accomplishment in the crowded fantasy realm.

A cliffhanger ending (which I'm disappointed to admit I didn't see coming).

I'll be continuing this series.

[Li · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting premise, but ultimately didn't work for me. There's a cliffhanger-ish ending and this felt more like half a book. Also, this left me feeling slightly uncomfortable: the way physical disabilities were portrayed in the story (as a side-effect of using magic without the right bloodlines).

[Sundeep · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had previously enjoyed reading "Unguilded" by this author, so I was hoping something similar. Unfortunately, this turned out to be too dark for me - with too many deaths and cruelty of the conjurers becoming unbearable to read. That said, the book was well written - the plot and secrets of the magic would keep you hooked.

[Clarissa Gosling · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this story. I can't stop thinking about it. The worldbuilding is brilliant and I really empathised with the characters. The one downside was that the ending was a bit of a disappointment as it didn't really resolve the story. I also think the story is a bit let down by it's cover.

[Stephen Levesque · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a good read this turned out to be. The main characters in this story will grip you while the author builds them and tells the story. Good Reading Everyone!

[Kerry Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting take on magic and fantasy - great read

[Jean Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy the book. It held my interest from start to finish and I will be buying the second one.

[Lorraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an enchanting story! Magic spells, magic books, treachery and romance! A real page turner. Can't wait to read the 2nd book in the series!

[Alejandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book does best what I love about fantasy - it explores a world with an unusual set of boundaries, and what society looks like within those rules. At the beginning, the world is a bridge, populated by craftsmen, prestigious magic practitioners who pay a high price for performing magic, and the people in charge of the traffic across the bridge. Few people venture out or interact with other people not from the bridge. As the plot develops, questions arise, and new elements are introduced to this world, however, the core of what it makes it what it is remains. It reminded me a bit of some works of Ursula K. LeGuin.

I loved seeing the characters as they developed, specially Faelin and Conjurer Hewitt. I'm all for seeing an intelligent, self-sufficient female lead, and I appreciated that she is not the only well constructed female character around.

This book is part of a series. Off to patiently wait for the next installment...

[Victoria Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a quick read. I enjoyed the setting of the novel and how the main characters are fighting the gender norms in their society.

[A.M.]

This was in a boxed set: Witches and Warriors: 6 Fantasy Novels
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
Fae is a bridger and works with her father binding books, until he dies suddenly and leaves her alone. The Conjurers have many rules and insist that she must marry and continue to bind books.
But Fae likes Aric, the riverman, not Hewitt the conjurer.
***
A bookbinder who can’t read? A conjurer who doesn’t have much magic…
A world where conjurers who cast spells are physically misshapen by them so they take on apprentices and make them do it and take the deformities. [except when her father casts one he isn’t changed at all. And that would also imply that you don’t need any training at all to be a conjurer if a base grade apprentice can do it. Is it the spells that hold the magic, not the people?]
*don’t break your own story rules in the first chapter*
Her father casts a spell and makes a copy of every book he binds. They are stored under the house and there are so many of them, that it’s clear his father before him did it, too.
How does she NOT know anything about the world she lives in when it’s so small? It’s literally seven families on a bridge.
So she gets an offer from Hewitt to be his assistant, rather than his wife, and he will teach her spells… and she says ‘no’. Which basically means the head conjurer will force her to marry someone she has no choice at all over.
But Aric can read… and like all rivermen he’s cursed and can’t live on the land. He’s also the shaman’s son.
***
There’s just…I don’t know. This just isn’t working for me and I’m not interested enough in what happens to Fae to keep reading.

Did not finish at chapter 5
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