The Conductors takes an idea...what if slaves had magic...and builds something unique around it. If enslaved people had magic, there'd have to be a way to suppress it. If enslaved people had magic, maybe their oppressors had something similar. Also, if enslaved people had magic and got free, there'd be hell to pay once they could tap into that magic.
Hetty Rhodes is one such woman. After getting free but losing track of her sister in the process, Hetty makes several trips back to the south to look for her. Each time, she picks up other souls longing for freedom. She and her partner become the best in the underground business.
The story is a lot of things. At its core it's a whodunnit. There's a murder and Hetty and Benji are on the case. It's a journey to find out whatever happened to Hetty's sister. Despite Hetty being married, there's also an unexpected love story wrapped up in it.
My advise is to keep reading it despite the slow start. The character development is there, and it is good.

A nice historical mystery, with magic added in. Hattie and Benjy are former enslaved people who have worked as Conductors on the Underground Railroad--guides with magical powers who helped other enslaver people escape to the North. Now settled in Philadelphia in the aftermath of the Civil War, they are called on to help newly arrived freed people and solve mysteries. In this novel the couple is faced with a killer who marks their victims with magic commonly thought of as "cursed," and find their own friends and relatives targeted for violence. An interesting concept, and the characters--who are initially somewhat unlikeable--develop and become more interesting and sympathetic as the story progresses.

It was quite an adventure to be able to have the honor of reading this book and without a doubt the fact that it kept me entertained was very unexpected, it is also full of characters that enrich the story that fit together and make the story more exciting, it is a book that It will give you an emotional moment and a story that will stay in your mind for a long time.

This is such a fun historical fantasy adventure, with a fantastically real-feeling cast of characters full of rich personal histories, a beautiful magical system, and a husband-and-wife crime-solving team that is only too horrified to realize they're actually falling in love (several years after their very practical marriage)! I hope there are lots more books to come in this series.

There's a fantastic blend of reality and fiction here and it's glorious!

What if the Civil War wasn't a matter of slavery versus abolition? What is there were added depths that continued well after the war?

What if none of this mattered and it was just how it was and the African Americans moving forward with their lives?

There isn't a white person in this and I love it. It's POC moving on, finding their long lost relatives and moving forward...with celestial magic or sorcery or herbal magic or a dream of the future. It's a magical blend of what could have been, highlighting the fears of irrational folks that still exist today.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3462418812

A great read, with a lot of excitement and tension.
Well written characters , a great storyline and a hole lot of magic in a very interesting setting.

I liked this book a lot and looking forward to share my reading experience with my readers in the library.

Thanks for letting me read this book.

The conductors was a riveting and fun mystery. The characters and setting really helped create a world that anyone could be immersed in. I really suggest this if you love historical fiction and murder mysteries!

Hetty and Benjy Rhodes used to be conductors, helping slaves escape the south using magic, and now have settled in Philadelphia. The opening scene sets the stage with Benjy and Hetty helping release multiple people who had been kidnapped and gives us an insight into the magic of this world. It then slowly transitioned to their current life with everyday jobs and not so everyday missions. I really enjoyed the mystery aspect as the book constantly kept you thinking with multiple suspects, it wasn't the type of YA mystery where someone immediately figures out the real killer. My favorite parts were actually the interludes where we went back to the adventures that Benjy and Hetty got into helping others and trying to get away. I do feel the plot slows down quite a bit during the center, but this is simply because of how much information Glover is carefully weaving in. It all makes sense, yet it does become quite dense. My notebook really helped here! The quips and interactions always keep the book moving. The ending was one I loved but also didn't. I loved the acceptance and family that Hetty and Benjy finally found plus all the extra aspects of the murder were well tied off. I did feel that the murder's reasoning to connect it to Hetty and Benjy felt a bit stretched.

The characters really drove this book, specifically Hetty and Benjy's relationship. It was absolutely adorable!!! Their original reason for marrying was out of necessity so that they could continue their missions without being looked down upon. Both of them couldn't seem to realize the other was in love with them until they actually talked about it. Hetty herself had a specific mission to find her sister Esther which drives her actions of wishes. She feels incredible guilt about what happens but had plenty of obligations that kept her there. Hetty is a strong but gentle character, I loved her hobbies of storytelling(I wish we had more) and her sewing. It's really interesting because you want to like her as a character but the others constantly point out that she has heavy biases for or against others so you can't totally trust her. She's constantly running into trouble for others without a second thought. Even when running away as a former slave, she risked her life to help others as well. Benjy was a strong but silent support to Hetty every step of the way. He worked as a blacksmith and while he did help Hetty look for Esther, he also hindered her search by making her wait for certain telegrams. Benjy seems like a very simple character until you learn he has a secret past time which combined with his flashbacks really show he's just as interesting as Hetty. Even more than Hetty, I trusted Benjy. These two were skillfully combined to be a wonderful pair.

I really enjoyed all of the side characters that were part of Hetty's family. Penelope, Darlene, Oliver, George, even Thomas whose appearance was short. Penelope, totally badass(just get out of the way of her pistol) and Darlene, totally sweet, were my favorite but I quickly added Eunice, a combination of the two, to that list as Hetty got to know her more. Each of these characters had their specific role, purpose and past. My biggest problem was a lot of side characters, many who were barely mentioned after their scene. Specifically because many were at the beginning of the book. I didn't know who was important and who wasn't(again thank you notebook). Overall, the important side characters were great but the smaller ones felt too numberous.

In terms of villains, Glover gives plenty of shady characters each with their own reason to be trouble. There was no obvious person to take all the fall or an obvious killer. They were all well rounded.

The found family of this book is what I loved more than anything along with Hetty and Benjy's relationship as I constantly rooted for them.

The magic system of this book is what originally attracted me, I mean who doesn't want magic fighting combined with the underground railroad. The setting of Philadelphia is well set. We see a world of black elite where the Rhodes are in the mix, yet are still reminded of the times when Hetty visits a certain shop or Benjy talks to certain people. Even with these elites, there are a variety of classes, backgrounds, it's realistic. Racism is addressed properly but isn't sensationalized even when we go back to the horrific things Hetty experienced due to her collar(for magic). The magic is a love hate thing for me. I loved the concept and mostly understood how it worked but it definitely could have been explored more. Blacks can cast celestial magic, through drawings in the air or amplified by being put onto something solid(ex Hetty sews them into clothing). The sigils kind of confused me just because I searched them up and couldn't find the specific ones that were described through the book in concrete images. I wish there was a bit more of a background how it originated, but overall, it still made enough sense it didn't hinder my reading. The magic and setting combined were realistic and fascinating of the time period making the reading that much better.

Check out my blog for my book journal in which I wrote thoughts/drew in as I went along!

I received an eARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

An own voices magical surrealism story set in post–Civil War Philadelphia really appealed to me. Unfortunately it was mostly all very one note, the interlude chapters that were dotted throughout were actually more the pace that I had expected from the entire story. They held the most interest and had the sense of urgency and magic that I had wanted going into this story and had expected from a magical murder mystery.

Debut's are hard, and I see so much potential in this book, but there was so much more that I wanted from the main characters, and I really wish that the intensity, magic and dedication in the interlude chapters had been carried through to the main story. I often found myself putting the book down, losing interest and becoming distracted.

I found the constellation based magic such an intriguing concept, and I wish there had been more history behind it to really ground the reader into the world.

Overall those who enjoy a lot more of fictional history and a lot less magic, might enjoy this book.

DNF at 30%

A big thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for providing me with an uncorrected proof of this book.

Unfortunately, I didn’t like this book. I can’t say I hated it because there might be a slight hope for this book. I just hope that it gets polished a bit before the release date.

Reasons why I didn’t like this book:

The magic system. When you start reading it, it becomes clear that only POC can access magic and because of that they were punished and enslaved.
They use constellations, and each constellation has a different use.
Besides that you get nothing. And through reading reviews did I discover that they draw constellations in order to use magic; it wasn’t clearly explained in the book.

I tried so hard to like it and told myself constantly that if I only get through 100 pages then getting through the rest would be easy. However, I couldn’t even get through 100 pages.

I didn’t understand what was going on most of the time and my brain got fuzzy when I was reading this book. I couldn’t concentrate on the story and I wanted to start another book because this one wasn’t able to hold my attention for more than five minutes.
The timeline certainly didn’t help either. It jumped through decades and it didn’t continue from where it had left of.

The characters were bland and one dimensional.
I think the author wanted to make this book more exciting for the reader and therefore decided to forgo a character development. Yet in my opinion the book wasn’t even exciting; yes there is a murder mystery but it was done very poorly.

I understand that it is her debut novel and I think if she were to write another book, I would read it, because I think her story did have some potential. But unfortunately for this book, it’s a big no from me.

I really enjoyed this book! The premise is awesome. The main character is great - she is sure of herself, her skills, her place in the world, and what she values in others. I really appreciated that. The magical elements make complete sense, and the murder mysteries are intriguing. I think that because I just finished They Were Her Property that this was extra meaningful and interesting to me. I hope it becomes a series/sequel because I'd like to return to this world. I really liked the flashbacks and would have liked a whole novel just about that (a prequel maybe?).

I would hope that the mystery elements next time have fewer red herrings, and I wish the family / sister issues hadn't been wrapped up at the end of the novel.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

If you're looking for a good murder mystery with likable main characters, then I'd recommend this book. The history the author wove throughout was also interesting and really added to the book's narrative. So, if you enjoy murder mysteries in historical settings, that's an added bonus.

The Conductors has a really intriguing premise—two former conductors for the underground railroad solving crimes for people the police would normally overlook. Hetty and Benjy are lovable characters who you can really cheer for, and I enjoyed how ride or die they are for each other. They kind of yo-yo on who's the most softhearted of the two. Together, they usually end up in the middle of the storm, trying their best to help their friends and community.

When one of their old friends, a man they helped escape from slavery, ends up dead, they feel obligated to investigate.

What I liked:

--Again, the main characters are great! They remind me of those people who try to come across as gruff but are really total marshmallows and everyone knows it. As a result, they end up with several side projects throughout the course of the book. I also loved the fact that they have passions/interests outside of detective work. Hetty is an accomplished seamstress and Benjy a blacksmith and a boxer. In a lot of murder mystery books, it feels like the characters live and breathe to solve crime. I thought it was refreshing to have a book where they have other interests.

--The magic. The magic system was super interesting. I don't think I've read any other like it. I do have some notes that I would have liked to see more development on this front, but that's only because it was so cool.

Notes:

--Normally, I'm not one to complain about this... but the book had A LOT going on in it. The subplots, while really interesting, seemed to distract from the main plot, which was the murder mystery. Sometimes, this really slowed down the pace of the book for me. The sister's story line, for example, could have been its own book. It wasn't that the other stories were dull; it's more that they competed with the main plot for attention.

--I really loved the magic system but a lot of it seemed to go unexplained. I think this is one of the most interesting parts of the book, and I wanted to see it further developed. Like, did certain constellations have certain functions? What did the cursed mark actually do? I wasn't totally sure.

*I received this free ARC from Netgalley"

I had been looking forward to this novel and was thrilled to get an ARC. This did not disappoint at all!! I want more of this, as in this could easily be a series. I'm going to need more adventures with Hetty and Benjy and definitely more of Penelope and Oliver's sass. I absolutely loved the imagery of the sigils and would love to have a novella on them and the celestial magic. This is a great read for folks who like a little magic with their murder mysteries.

The magic system and the idea of Conductors solving crimes was a huge hook for me. While neither disappointed, it was the romance angle and the characters of this story that shone brightest.

I would have loved more information about how the magic works: limits, costs, patterns, etc. Everything in the book was tantalizing and fascinating, but I never felt like I could grasp it. That felt like a lost opportunity.

The interludes with flashbacks were strong and the most emotional parts of the story. Each one was its own tale and could lead to its own book. I hope the author gets the chance to create an entire series - something akin to Nancy Drew would be amazing.

There were a lot of clues and people and much running about. Maybe more than I could keep straight. I honestly found that the mystery became background noise to the people and their relationships. I found much of the sleuthing disjointed and haphazard. I grew frustrated with the lack of follow-up, so I just stopped paying attention to the mystery and focused on the community and their problem-solving.

There were probably three books in this one. If each had been given room to breathe, I would have given this book 5 stars. It's a brilliant concept with strong characters and a fascinating perspective. I look forward to more work by Glover.

Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I can't quite decide how I felt about this book. On the one hand, the pacing is sort of slow, it tends to get a bit lost in itself, and it feels like it's the fourth book in a series - like you should already know the characters, history, magic system, and backstory. A lot of things weren't explained and were just alluded to, which was frustrating. But it's still fascinating, with interesting characters, extremely cool magic, and an important historical setting. I loved the relationship between Hetty and Benjy. It has an interesting plot and the pacing improved markedly past the halfway point. Overall, I enjoyed it, and think it's an important work from a POC author.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC - I received it in exchange for my honest opinion.

I struggled to get into this book, but by the end of it I had fallen in love with it. It starts off with some wanted/alert style ads about people running away from or helping others escape slavery, and when we join the actual story it was right into some intense action involving an entirely new magic system. In the first few chapters, I was constantly going back to the start to remind myself of the names and times and events.

However, it really took off when we settled more into the main characters and their lives. The characters were all so distinct and lifelike, and the magic system in this book is so fresh and new - I absolutely loved it. By about 40-50%, I couldn’t put it down.

I loved the friendships between everyone and how real they are with each other. There was a really strong sense of community. I loved the evolution of Hetty and Benjy’s relationship. The mystery was intriguing. I will definitely add a copy of this book to my collection.

I really enjoyed the concept and world building in this story. It felt like a fresh take on a historical topic. I wish the magic system had been a little more fleshed out and that the secondary characters felt a little more unique so that it was easier to keep them distinct in my head, but otherwise a solid read.

A truly original and fascinating tale of magic practitioners solving a murder in 1870s Philadelphia. I loved the world-building and the two different magic systems. The characters are three-dimensional and I really appreciated that their relationships were complex, especially the different types of friendship. I especially loved Hetty, the main character: a bold, competent woman who knows what she wants but is shy in social situations, hiding behind the performance of storytelling. Who is loyal but prickly, who has hurt her friends but recognizes it and apologizes. Hetty is a masterpiece. And kudos for having gay and trans characters and making it absolutely no big deal to anyone. I loved that.

The mystery they need to solve has plenty of false leads and red herrings and lurking bad guys. The pace of how information is revealed to the characters - and the reader - felt a little choppy. It felt like Hetty or Benjy occasionally shrugged off some questions they should have followed up on, but the solution/”reveal” wasn’t hurt by this.

Looking forward to the author’s next books!

The premise of "The Conductors" is amazing. The world-building and historical setting is particularly strong. This story has a lyrical feel and is perfect for readers who want to immerse themselves in a historical novel. I enjoyed the main characters Hetty and Benjy for both their personalities, their arcs, and also their relationship with each other.

While the magic was new, I struggled with it not being a soft magic (like in The Girl Who Drank the Moon) nor hard magic (anything by Brandon Sanderson). It felt like it wanted to be on the hard magic end of the spectrum, but didn't explain the system well, and I couldn't ever quite grasp the difference between the types of magic which made the ending harder to follow.

The secondary characters (all the suspects) tended to blend together. And while the story language was lovely, the tension was lacking. I wanted the mystery element to be a page-turning, but I found myself struggling with both the mystery, the cast of characters, and the slow pacing.

As an aside, this probably would work better if pitched as an adult historical novel, rather than a YA mystery. Young adult readers will expect a fast pace with a dialed-in mystery element. While a reader looking for an adult book will probably be more patient with a thoughtful pace while enjoying the historical aspects.

I was so excited to get his book. The concept was inventive and fresh. I had never read a book like it and couldn’t wait to get started. I love fantasy, history, mystery, and romance so I really thought it was going to be a match made in heaven.

However, I found the pace to be slow, the overall plot not very exciting and many of the supporting characters were hard to remember and keep straight. Hetty and Benjy’s story was my favorite part. I loved their dynamic and was really rooting for them. I was happy with their personal resolution at the end. Also, I really enjoyed the flashbacks, more than the actual main story itself. I found those much more interesting and exciting.

There was just a lot happening the took away from the plot and at times I found my self working to get through it. I really feel like this idea is amazing. This book could have been so much more than what it was and I was left feeling a little disappointed. I applaud the author for her ingenious inventiveness. I just really think the editor should have helped her add more excitement, organization, and less filler.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Overall I enjoyed the book- interesting storyline, and well-written, believable characters. I wish that there had been more explanation of the different magic systems earlier in the book, especially "white people magic". I did feel that it dragged a bit at times.

I would recommend it- a fascinating storyline, and great imagination. I'll certainly read other books by her.