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Member Reviews

***Special Thanks to Netgalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review***

In this episode, I was more intrigued by the premise than the execution...

Friends, friends, friends.

Welcome back to Teatime Reading where there are books in progress.

When I read this book several months ago, I recall feeling a very specific kind of way about it. I was compelled by the cover on NetGalley and when I started reading the synopsis, I was even more intrigued.

A world where slavery was connected to fears of magic reserved and bestowed upon black people was instantly compelling to me. However, I’ll admit it was a rough start. I just found myself drifting away from the story even as I was trying to get into it.

As I think about this book, I think that it could have used a little more world-building. When I read, I felt comfortable and confident that I truly knew and understood Hetty’s and Benjy’s respective characters and motivations. I wanted even more fleshing-out of the world that this story takes place within.

I could infer a lot from the flashbacks as well as the larger story itself. I felt like there were so many nuggets for author Nicole Glover to pull on.

The premise of The Conductors grabbed me, but the story didn’t quite compel me to hold on as tight as I should have.

It’s a good book that deserved to be great.

That’s just the best I can do with this one.

Until next time, keep your bookmarks close.

Peace, Love, Pages.

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Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review

The Conductors fuses the story of the Underground Railroad, magic, and a murder mystery. We follow Hettie and her husband, Benji, who were called "The Conductors" because they never left a slave behind while moving them along the underground railroad. We get glimpes of this throughout the story, but most of our tale takes place after the emancipation of the slaves. In this world, many African Americans cna do magic, calling upon the constellations for varying purposes. When bodies are found bearing a cursed mark, can Hettie and Benji solve the mystery or will they end up in the crosshairs?

I adore this book. Things I specifically loved: Hettie, Magic system, pacing, the mystery, and writing style. This novel submerges you in a world so rich and diverse you won't want to come up for air until it's over. With non-stop action and deep character development you'll be satisfied from start to finish. My gripes: in the beginning the flashbacks can feel jolting, and my biggest gripe is that this is a standalone. I want more! Even the flashbacks grew on me(which is a feat in and of itself) and I love the grown-up Nancy Drew feeling I got.

I highly, enthusiasticly and emphatically recommend this novel. Five celestial magic stars simply because I can't give it more. See for yourself what there is to love about this tale, you won't be disappointed.

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Quite a good debut! I really appreciated the diversity of the cast of characters but the story and world building didn't totally work for me. Perhaps I was not the target audience, but this book will find its public!

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This book was not quite what I was expecting. I felt a bit confused in the beginning chapters, I wasn’t sure what was going on. It got alittle better and became a mystery.
It had some interesting characters and a bit of a mystical feel to it.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the early copy

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3.75 stars. I think what ultimately does this book in is that the pacing feels like it meanders a bit to me. It made the book feel longer than it actually was. I also was never too sure why the Cursed Sigil was so bad beyond being told that it was.

Now with that out of the way, this book did some fantastic things! I loved the magic system and how it worked. The details that the constellations could be sewn into clothing were a great touch. The spin on the Underground Railroad being partially led by badass magic users? Amazing. Hetty and Benjy's relationship and separate characters development were great to see. To me this book read more like a character study of Hetty with a bit of a mystery on the side. While there is a big mystery throughout the novel, the way Hetty reacts to the pieces and her surroundings seem more important to me.

Parts of this were difficult to read, especially drawing parallels to the real world. The Interludes most of all. But they were so good. They detail the strength and courage Hetty and others had when escaping slavery and running towards freedom. I'd say they were my favorite parts.

All in all, The Conductors by Nicole Glover is a story full of stars, freedom, death, and mystery. It's a great book full of Black representation, awesome characters, and a fantastic magic system. I did feel the pacing lagged in some parts and that some of the minor characters felt more like set pieces, though. Regardless, definite recommend.

Thanks to the publisher via NetGalley for an e-ARC.

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** I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.**.
This book sounded so interesting. I couldn’t wait to read it.
However, I found the characters flat and the book boring.

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this was such a unique read, the characters were great and I really enjoyed meeting Hetty and her husband. The was a great start to a fantasy read and I look forward to more from Ms. Glover.

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Don't judge this book just on ARC reviews. I suspect it will improve.
I enjoyed the story, setting, characters, world, and plot. I would read more by the author.
The ARC, however, needs more editing. Some editing is for pacing and organization and what happens. There's barely time to process new information before yet another new thing happens. My working memory was working over time, making the book feel very slow. My long term memory had a hard time learning new facts and characters and piecing everything together. There were three separate mysteries, for example, multiple flashbacks, amd different daily activities that were unclear if they were distractions, backstory or clues. The arc also had a lot of typos and grammar mistakes leftover from revisions.

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This is the first time I have read a mystery and while I really enjoyed it. It had a slow start and didn't really pick up through the book. It was also difficult for me to follow along with the many characters introduced closely together at the start of the book. The magic system was also difficult for me to grasp. It's also non-linear with flashbacks, that sometimes felt disjointed.

I loved Hetty as the protagonist though. She was a fantastic character. She is intelligent and driven, and I liked her relationship with her husband. While not a marriage built on love, they respect each other and that was nice to see. They solve crimes the White authorities ignore, but I was expecting more of a gritty mystery than what this is.

Most of my issues with this book, is the pacing, it was just really slow and made it hard for me to stay engaged. I don't know if this is a common thing for mystery books, or if it's just me not being used to the genre.

I found it odd though that there were no Native American characters at all, considering it's set in a Post-Civil War America. There should have been some beyond a brief mention.

I am just unsure if I like this book or not. It has a very interesting premise, but I just don't know how to really feel about it as a whole. It's all about the pacing, it never picked up for me. I think a lot of people who regularly read Mysteries might like. And it has a very interesting Historical Fantasy twist.

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The problem with getting such early arcs (got the book in July, book not out until March 2021) is that when you read the book and you have issues, you don't really know if you should point them out because clearly they might still be editing the book. So I will only say this: I like the main ideas of the book and I like the story arc, I think if they fix some of the dialogue and tighten the narrative a bit, then this could be an absolutely excellent debut. The mix of fantasy/speculative historic fiction was interesting, some of the ideas refreshing and I am looking forward to see how the book will do once published next year.

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Thank you, NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this novel!

I struggled a little bit in the beginning with getting into the book, however, I am very glad that I'd pushed through because this turned out to be an amazing read.

I don't think I have ever read a book with a similar magic system to this one. The use of star constellations is an incredible idea and I would honestly love to read more about it. It's new (to me, at least) and exciting and I loved it. It's not the only source of magic though, which is more destructive and performed through the use of a magic wand.

Another thing I really enjoyed was the main couple. Hetty, the protagonist, is married to Benjy, their marriage was more of a convenience thing, rather than a whirlwind romance. Still (or maybe because of that), their relationship is something I adored, they have been through a lot together and they have so much understanding, respect and love for each other. They make a great team and have great chemistry, the scenes where they were together were one of my most favourite to read.

There is also a lot of side characters with interesting backstories and while I do appreciate their complexity and dynamics within the group, I did find myself lost and confused on some occasions. Especially towards the end, where the murder mystery began to unravel.

All in all, I can definitely see myself getting my hands on the book once it's available and I'd definitely be up for reading more stories set in this world.

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The Conductors took me many times trying to read through and unfortunately I just couldn't get into it. I read about halfway through, but I just found the pacing way to slow for me and the character development wasn't enough to keep me interested in them.

Thank you Netgalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

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Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!
I was very intrigued by this book. I thought the concept was amazing! The concept of former conductors of the Underground Railroad solving crimes was really interesting to me. Not only that, but they would be magic users! I was really excited to read this.
Sadly, The Conductors kind of fell flat for me.
I found the pacing of this book to be extremely slow. The murder mystery aspect of the book felt pushed to the side in favor of other side plots that I didn't care about. I also didn't find myself caring for many of the side characters. I found myself trudging through this book and it nearly put me in a reading slump. The magic system, while an interesting concept, isn't explained. That made it very confusing to read.
One thing I did enjoy was the atmosphere. Post-Civil War is a time period I read very little about and I thought the setting was very strong. However, it wasn't enough to save me from the slow pace of this book.
I feel like this books just didn't live up to my expectations.

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As a debut novel, I was really surprised at how well the story was developed from a plot and character standpoint. While the pace is on the slower side of things, I really enjoyed getting to know these characters, and the events that happen at different points in time that help the plot move along some as well. Over all, I really enjoyed this one. Especially the bit of romance we got between Hetty and Benjy, who really only got married out of convenience and had no expectations for a relationship past that of necessity.

The historical parts for me were very interesting and I now have a better understanding, or at least a good thought process, about how important the conductors were for the Underground Railroad. Even though this was a fictional story with magical elements, it was an interesting narrative. The side of magic that these characters possessed was the MOST intriguing part for me as a fantasy reader. The ideas this author had and created were so fresh and new to me, using the ideals of celestial magic and sigils.

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I liked this one. The pacing was a little slow, but the characters were well fleshed out and the magic system was pretty cool (though a little confusing).
**,Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy of this novel

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<i>Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC to review.</i>

The Conductors has rather a lot going for it -- a story of POC triumphing over the great evil that was the South in the Restoration era of American history. The general plot is about two underground railroad conductors solving a series of murders in their hometown. Oh, and there's magic.

However despite the extremely promising premise of the novel, I found this book to be lacking more than a few ways.

First off -- the magic system is FRUSTRATINGLY vague. There is literally no explanation of how magic works. There's two different kinds of magic in The Conductors. Celestial and Sorcery. Celestial is only done by Black people, and Sorcery usually only done by white people. There is almost no explanation as to why. No explanation of what specific spells do, or how magic is controlled, or who has magic, etc. Celestial magic has the makings of a REALLY cool system...if we had more information. This is my biggest complaint of the book. We didn't need an info dump, or pages and pages on it, but some information sprinkled here and there would have done a WORLD of difference.

Secondly -- The Conductors is supposedly in the adult novel category, but I found the writing to be more on edge with a YA or new adult novel. The writing is a little towards the simpler side, with very, very few descriptions of anything. I had no idea where the novel was set until I was already 40% of the way through the book. I would have love more descriptions on what the Philadelphia of this time period looked like. What did their boarding house look like? What was the weather like, how do the characters appreciate/hate their surroundings? It made the novel feel very bland.

Third -- the relationship between Hattie and literally any of the characters was TOLD rather than shown until over halfway through the novel. Hattie calls several people her friends, and we see almost nothing to prove that true. Hattie is rather standoffish throughout the whole book. It makes her less than likeable as a character UNTIL we finally see her open up a bit. Her relationship with Benjy wasn't believable until (again) towards the end of the book.

The Conductors is a slow read -- things happen but they happen in far apart beats. Nothing is seemingly urgent, there's no real page turning action in here. This could be a great book! It has the makings of one! There's just a lot missing. Two and half stars, rounded up.

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The Conductors is a book I so, so wanted and expected to love. I did like it, but for me the first half of the book was pretty slow and I had some difficulty connecting with it. The second half of the book was much better both in pacing and interest level and I found myself enjoying it much more. Conceptually I adored this book, the addition of magic to the underground railroad is spectacular. And the use of sigils and the descriptions of the magic and how it comes to life was spectacular. I think I would have preferred that the book focused more on when they were actually Conductors instead of their lives after but I still enjoyed the story.

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This book took me many attempts to get through, I kept coming back hoping to just get pulled in and blast through it. It wasn't bad but it for sure wasn't my style. A lot happens in the beginning, but not a lot where you just have to keep reading. It's a lot that then leads to a quick change of location and characters that you are now being introduced to, and then there's more build up but not at a pace where I could keep track of everything. I wish I could have liked this more, the premise is great. There's potential with that alone, maybe I'll give it another go later on from the start and see if maybe now that I finished it I just wasn't in the state of mind when I started it to get into it like I wanted to.

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I absolutely loved this book! I've been looking for something like this for a while now and it had everything I wanted. It's historical with a unique magical system and with diverse characters.

We follow Hetty and Benjy as they try to solve their friend's mysterious murder in a world where only slaves have magic but they're forbidden and enslaved because of it. Hetty and Benjy will have to rely on their wit and magical powers to solve these murders and to keep their community safe.

The story moves a bit slowly and jumps to different timelines but it never confused me and by the end of the book I got a better appreciation for the characters and what they've built and gone through.

Yes, this copy of the book had some issues but my ARC was uncorrected proof so I'm actually looking forward to reading it again after it gets published to see the changes.

I loved the story and the characters and would love to meet them again in the future.

* I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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Well written and researched. I think this will be a hit with the children. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher!

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