I really enjoyed this book! If you're a fan of Illuminations by Mary Sharratt or The Greenest Branch by P.K. Adams, you will love this story. Detailed and deliciously true to the period. If you're interested in a great read and would love to enter the world of a strong-willed medieval woman, this is the book you're looking for. Compelling.

“Fear is first cousin to reverence.” - The Bishop. Such is the motto of the Catholic Church in medieval Flanders.

This story is written with such beautiful prose it reads like a song. Not a hymn in praise of righteous religion, but a ballad to the women who fight for the freedom to live outside the narrow confines set by men. Born in Bruges, Aleys is the teen daughter of a draper who arranges her betrothal in order to save the family financially. Desiring a life that transcends the typical marriage, Aleys runs away to join the local friars and devote herself to God.

The characters in this story are so well developed, layered and complex, with emotions and motivations that range from relatable to extreme. We have a bishop who is apathetic toward God and preys on people’s faith to further his political ambitions, and the friar who is so obsessed with God he borders on being unhinged. Aleys is caught like a prize in a tug of war between their opposing goals, yet somehow manages to transcend their self serving schemes. There are the Beguines, a spiritual group of women not accountable to the church, who offer Aleys a loving community and home. Then there is Marte, a woman who questions the morality of sacred biblical stories with such blunt practicality that I can’t help but laugh. No one person is fully villainized or infallible.

While religion features heavily, it is neither endorsed nor condemned. This is ultimately a story of oppression and revolution with religion being the weapon the Church uses to keep the masses subdued. The heroes are the women who have few choices in their lives, with blessing and heartache resulting from the few precious choices they do have in a world run by men. The duality between following personal desires versus what will benefit the greater good is carefully and painfully explored. No choice is innately wrong, but the consequences are far reaching.

I am in awe of the exquisite writing, the humanity of the characters, and objective portrayals of desire and love. There are passages that made me laugh, some where I cried, and times when I was both horrified and inspired. What an astounding debut!

5/5⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Spiegel and Brau for this eArc. All opinions are my own.

Canticle takes us along the religious journey of Aleys, an intriguing FMC filled with certainty, resolve, and passion. We watch her navigate through a world both unwilling to accept a woman as a religious figurehead, and also desperate for her to heal them. This book did an exceptional job representing how life would have been for women, not just in Aleys's shoes, but in general.

Not only do we watch significant character growth in Aleys through the novel, we see those around her grow and change, often in a way that made me feel nostalgic as a reader. Due to Aleys's choices in following her devout path, others around her pass her by, and when she is reunited with them, the passage of time is often a little heartbreaking. We also see several characters transform for the worse - becoming obsessive, changed, and dark.

The character growth in this novel was extremely well done, with each change feeling believable and natural, no matter how ominous. I really enjoyed Janet Rich Edward's writing style. Her descriptive, rich prose plunked me right down in the setting, and I could envision each chapter playing out vividly in my mind.

The pacing felt a little slow to me throughout the book, however, the ending had me on the edge of my seat, wishing I could jump into the book and save a few of my favorite characters from their fates.

What is a 'Canticle', you may say? It's a a hymn or chant, typically with a biblical text, forming a regular part of a church service. I've probably recited them many times as a kid during church, but never knew what they were called.

An impressive debut historical novel set in 13th century Bruges, it introduces Aleys, a sixteen-year-old visionary, who is bright, stubborn, and conversant in Latin, studied in secret alongside her only friend, Finn. When her father promises her in marriage to a merchant she does not love, Aleys rebels by joining a community of beguines, independent religious women who live outside formal Church authority. As Aleys embraces spiritual and bodily autonomy, she navigates mystical experiences, rising miracles, and political danger that threaten her fragile world.

It all starts out when Aleys becomes obsessed with the characters in her mothers' book of Psalms, called Psalter. She's mesmerized by the bright colors, strange fruits, and faraway lands. Neither of them can read, so she must discern their meaning through the pictures. When her mother tragically dies in childbirth, her world is shattered.

The author brings to life the rarely depicted subculture of medieval beguines—women who sought spiritual community and autonomy without surrendering to patriarchal structures. For Aleys, this shift offers not just sanctuary, but a radical reimagining of female belonging and loyalty.

Soon she starts having religious visions and is illegally translating scripture, sparked in part by political unrest and ecclesiastical control. These elements ground the story in a world on the verge of transformation, where faith, power, and language intertwine to create a new world order.

This is an amazing debut, a lyrical historical novel about rebellion, faith, and female community in medieval Europe. Janet Rich Edwards offers readers a richly imagined portrait of spiritual life and autonomy through Aleys’s eyes, filled with curiosity and determination.

In thirteenth-century Bruges, Aleys despises the idea of becoming a wife and a mother from a young age, but especially after the death of her own mother. While her younger sister only wishes to find a wealthy husband, Aleys' only wish is to live a life in devotion to God. After becoming engaged against her will in order to save her father's business, Aleys decides to run away with a friar who is convinced she can help spread their faith. However, something sinister is afoot that is affecting the church's legitimacy, and Aleys could soon find her life to be in danger.

I am not religious in the slightest, so while this was originally difficult to get into, I could not read this book fast enough to learn what happens to Aleys and the others. Her commitment to the things and people she believed in was borderline obsessive, and I was really rooting for her to be content with her life.
For this being Edwards' breakout novel, I am so incredibly amazed at how well put together Canticle is. Definitely brings up the question of "how far would you go for your beliefs." I also had zero idea that the church prohibited the Bible from being translated! That they only wanted holy men to be able to preach or truly understand the meaning behind it. Super interesting!

Thank you so much to Spiegel & Grau and NetGalley for the eARC! Projected publishing date: December 2nd, 2025

Reading Canticle by Janet Rich Edwards is such an interesting religious experience.

Aleys always knew she was meant for God, when she prayed, he listened. But for the mortal men on Earth, she is a tool, a piece on the board. Aleys refuses again and again, and learns how women have always been holy and should be revered, but also unfortunately how they are treated by the men who are afraid of them.

This book made me so angry at the men who only wanted to possess Aleys. Whether they thought she was beautiful, or holy, or demonic, everyone wanted something from her, and all she wanted was to be left alone. I think this is an experience that many women have, where they feel wanted only for what they can provide others. It made a lot of sense to me that she felt safer among the sisters rather than with any man throughout the entire story.

I really enjoyed the book, the storyline was intriguing with extensive detail and obvious research into what the time period was like. I think Edwards is a fantastic writer and can’t wait to read more by her.

Canticle reminded me at times of The Red Tent—not in setting or plot, but in spirit. Both novels are interested in recovering the voices that history tends to sideline, especially women’s, and both treat ritual, memory, and the sacred with a kind of quiet reverence. But where The Red Tent is rooted in the physical world—blood, earth, community—Canticle often floats in the abstract. It's atmospheric, lyrical, and full of intent, but sometimes hard to pin down emotionally.
Edwards writes beautifully. But beauty can become an obscured, and here it sometimes obscures more than it reveals. Characters drift in and out of focus. Plot threads are teased, then left dangling. Symbolism is layered thick, but not always earned. I found myself admiring the construction of the book more than I connected with it..
That said, I don’t regret reading it. There are moments where everything lines up—image, emotion, music—and you get a glimpse of something profound. It just doesn’t happen consistently enough for me to fully recommend it without caveat.

Canticle by Janet Rich Edwards is a finely woven tapestry of a tale about the lives of women in medieval times — something I knew very little about, which made this such an interesting novel. Edwards is deft at choosing characters that bring to life different aspects of this time period and making them relatable for readers.

The story centers on Aleys, a sixteen-years old daughter of a wool merchant in Brugge. For years she’s listened to stories of saints and lost herself in the beautiful illustrations in her mother’s psalter — pictures so vibrant, so colorful, and so alive to her that they sometimes bring visions. When her mother dies, Aleys yearns to be closer to God and dedicate her life to prayer. Her father seems to understand, but then he betroths her to a wealthy merchant as part of a business deal, so she runs away from home. She finds refuge with the beguines, a religious order of women. There her true spiritual journey begins, but it’s destined to be a strange and rocky path obstructed by the dangers of church politics which she knows nothing about.

For me this was a fascinating tour through medieval religious and political landscapes made especially interesting because it centers on the lives of women during those times. The author knows her history and how to use details to bring the thirteenth century to life in the reader’s eyes. It’s amazing that this is a debut novel. Edwards is certainly an author to follow for anyone interested in historical fiction.

DNF at 32%. I am making an exception in my normal star system and giving this two stars when normally a DNF for me would be one. I just found the pace to be slow and mundane. And the characters just all felt flat to me.
However, I can see the amount of research that went into the story to make it as connected to real life as possible and I can appreciate that.
Just because it wasn't for me doesn't mean it won't be for you.

This historical novel is set in Bruges in the year 1299. Sixteen-year-old Aleys, intelligent and devout has learned to read Latin with the help of her friend, Finn. When her father betroths her to a merchant she does not wish to marry, she flees to Father Lukas, a Franciscan Friar who believes she does indeed have a religious calling. He hopes she will eventually found an order of Franciscan nuns, he places her, for the time being with a group of Beguines (groups of women who led celibate, Christian lives but were not part of an officially sanctioned religious order).

In short order Aleys performs miraculous healings, becomes an anchoress, has religious visions and is eventually burned at the stake when she leaves the anchorage and confesses (falsely, to save her friends among the Beguines) to translating the Scriptures into Dutch and allowing these unauthorized copies to be circulated. I felt the author tried to cover too much ground with one character!

CANTICLE is a thought-provoking and entertaining novel. The author has seamlessly woven her research about 13th century Bruges into the narrative. The time and place really come alive. Ultimately this is a story about the place of women, the role of the church, the arbitrary nature of power, and the devastating impact of corruption. What does it mean to live a fulfilled life? Why would church leaders keep religious texts to themselves and out of the hands of the "common" people? The protagonist, Alyse, is young but ultimately relatable.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance e-galley; all opinions in my review are 100% my own.

It's late 13th-century Bruges, and Aleys is on fire for God. She dreams of a contemplative life; she dreams of being wedded to God; she dreams of being a martyr. She's resigned to a quiet, faithful life at home, but when her father goes back on his promise to let her remain single, things change...and she's catapulted into a role where she is suddenly much more visible to the people of Bruges and much more visible, it seems, to God.

But people are fickle. Fame is fickle. And favor is fickle...and Aleys might find that getting exactly what she wanted is more than she bargained for.

"She wonders which is worse—to be idolized or despised." (loc. 3773*)

I picked this up out of curiosity about beguines and beguinages, which I'd heard of but never read in detail about. Beguinages were ~medieval European institutions not too dissimilar to convents, housing groups of women (beguines) who had committed to a communal religious life without taking formal vows. I read it as a way for women to live independently in a time and place that did not afford many options for single (widowed, separated, poor, etc.) women.

As it turns out, Aleys's stay in the beguinage is temporary—beguines are not, to her, particularly respectable, and in any case a life with them is not what she has dreamed of. I was fascinated by the material about anchorites (another role I'd heard about but not read about), and just all of the details about the influence of religion in that time and place. Buying discounted pardons and "stocking up for a life of depravity" (loc. 386), the power of a confessor over a confessee, the church's gatekeeping of the Bible, the use of belief to consolidate power. (Some of these things are not so different today.) I wouldn't have minded a little more about the paths of Aleys's siblings, but the book makes strategic shifts between points of view to keep things fresh and let the reader see a bit more than a cell. A good one for fans of historical fiction and for those curious about beguines, anchorages, mystics, and saints.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

Thanks to NetGalley and Spiegel and Grau for this free copy of "Canticle."

This book soared in its portrayal of Aleys of Brugge in the late 1290's who saw the joyful dancing bits of God and knew something special was waiting for her. Was she a saint? Did she perform miracles? She wasn't sure, always questioning her selfishness versus her calling.

Authors Edwards wrote a story that is lyrical and melodic, while also being brutal and cruel. Ethereal one moment, then teary and heartbreaking the next.

Featuring the begines, women who lived in religious communities without taking orders and the beautiful way they expressed devotion and service, but were constantly hounded and persecuted by the male Church leaders.

Such a contrast between those who would loose arrows at those who just wanted to fly.

And the ending.... let me know if you read it and what you thought!

Imagine you're a sixteen-year-old girl. It's that time where you have to decide what you're going to do. Get married? Have children? Live at home? Oh, did I mention it's the Middle Ages? It's enough to make you want to run away and, I don't know, join a nunnery. Okay, not that. Anything but that. You feel like you are being called to something though. And so, when suddenly backed into a corner, you make a decision that is unheard of and that will forever alter the course of your life.

This is the 13th century, so there are no car crashes or shootouts, but there are battles. The clashes are within oneself and with the men who want to bend the girl to their will. The author ably describes these conflicts from different characters' viewpoints and shows the struggle one can face when following one's heart against the threat of oppression.

Thank you to Net Galley and Spiegel and Grau Publishing for an early copy of Canticle by Janet Rich Edwards

Canticle offers so much to appreciate regarding faith and beliefs as the novel offers a deep and challenging look at Medieval Christianity, specifically the Catholic Church's misplaced and oftentimes evil plans to maintain control of its followers. While practices such as purchasing indulgences, falsifying relics, excommunicating and torturing those who question religious authority and ruling in fear by denying followers access to the written word all abound in the novel, Canticle reaches out by featuring a group of religious women (beguines) who labor in Brugge to understand and translate the Latin Bible against the express forbidding by the Roman Pope.

Aleys, a young and literate woman growing up near Brugge, feels a strong calling to devote herself to God, and upon refusing to partake in an arranged marriage, she leaves her family and "joins" the beguines where she reads from the psalter her dead mother has left her. Within a short time, she experiences voices and visions which will lead the public to declare her "sint". (saint). Under the protection of the local priest, she will be forced to cloister herself as the ultimate act of faith. Rome has its own plans for Aleys which lead to both tragedy and ultimate joy.

Reading Canticle will spark interest in the religious women of medieval Europe and debut author Janet Rich Edwards has included non-fiction suggestions sure to satisfy.

Canticle blends historical fiction, the autonomy of women during the 13th century, and corruption in the church. Edwards does a great job showing the limited choices that women had during this time period, and how even those choices could lead to unfulfilling lives. The story also deals with corruption and hypocrisy among the leaders in the church, and the hold they had on keeping scriptures out of the hands of the people in the church.

I really loved the medieval setting of Bruges in the 13th century and learning about the Beguine community. I did find it hard to connect with the FMC, and I think it was because of her young age.

If you love historical fiction, with women who struggle to make their way under patriarchal society, political and religious agendas, a community of women, and miracles and saints, then you would enjoy Canticle.

I knew little about the subject of this book, other than reading the synopsis that intrigued me.

I liked the writing, the explanations of faiths, and the development of the story.
However, I was mystified and bewildered as to the direction of the story.
The initial passage, before we, as readers, learn the aspects of Alyse's life, are a little distorted. She seems to have a happy, inclusive life, so why is she so determined to change it?
Yes, she has her faith and a higher calling, but she is promised by her family to marry, which would enhance her own family's standing. All of which go against her own feelings and drive her to make a drastic decision.
Despite this and giving up her loving family, she follows her calling. This is perhaps to her own detriment. Is she really going to be better off without them?

I know little of this historic period, and certainly found the religious factors hard to negotiate or understand but the knowledge expressed by the author and the complex terms she addresses make this a powerful and intoxicating book to read.

I am left with many moral questions to address, remembering the timeline in which the novel is set. The author addresses these issues easily, but I struggle, not knowing enough of the history, nor understanding fully the cultural and religious aspects of the 13th century.

Be prepared for some challenging and mind provoking ideas that make us readers question where our own religious morals stand.

Thank you, Netgalley.co.uk, for an e-arc of this book.

While this book is about the main character's Christian faith, the book itself isn't Christian. Aleys is a young woman in medieval Europe who feels called to give her life to God. She is strong both in faith and personality while at the same time immature and impulsive (due to her age). The author's prose beautifully describes Aleys' prayers and visions as well as the physical world in which the story takes place. It's not often that you read a book that so vividly describes details without bogging the story down. While this is a work of fiction it did seem like the author did portray the culture of the town and the political corruption of the Catholic church accurately. Ultimately this is a book about a strong young woman who defines herself, even if it goes against what society deems appropriate.

it explores religion, definitely, but it isn't religious itself. the book is really more an introspection and analysis with a lot of soft meaning. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

This book was just not for me. I enjoyed parts of it but mostly I was bored. I should have known better than to pick up this book, I don't generally enjoy books about religion.