Reviews

The Conductors by Nicole Glover

kkaaccyy_'s review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.25

melinda_and_her_books's review

4.0

Thank you netgalley and librofm for my gifted copies. I loved that this was a perfect mix of history and magic. I loved that the author centered the story around the underground railroad but added some fantasy and magic to it. This one took me some time to get into but I enjoyed it.

promiscuousreader's review

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

jess_mango's review

4.0

What a tale! The Conductors is set in the years after the American Civil War when newly freed slaves are trying to make their new lives. But, there's a twist, magic is real. Hetty Rhodes was a former conductor on the Underground Railroad. Over the years she helped guide many slaves to freedom using her magic and wisdom. Now, she and her husband have settled in Philadelphia where they solve mysteries in the black community. After they find one of their own friends dead in an alley, they begin to dig into his murder.

This was a fun blend of history, magic and mystery. Hetty was a strong non-nonsense character who knew her stuff with magic and kept her wits about her. I loved that there were historical and cultural observations woven throughout that can be both uncomfortable and important.

Thank you to the publisher for the review copy!

lurker_stalker's review against another edition

4.0

It took me a little while to become fully immersed in the story, and there's a lot going on with a lot of characters but, by the end, I had a good handle on who everyone was and how they were related to each other. But, wow, there's a lot going on.

I think I would have given this a 5 star rating except the motivation and plan of the Bad Guy seemed a bit of a stretch to me. I'm not giving anything away but when the reveal happened, I was left scratching my head wondering, "What? Really?"

With that said, I came to love Hetty and Benjy and their friends. I definitely want to continue with their adventures so I hope the next in the series is coming out sometime soonish.

We're discussing The Conductors on the next Cocktail Hour (10/1/22) so you can check that out if you want a much more in-depth review from all three of us.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ebook ARC. Of course I waited so long to read it, I was able to borrow the audiobook from Hoopla and my local library. January Lavoy is great as the narrator, by the way. I bounced back and forth between the audio and ebook as I had time for eyeball reading.

tatyanavogt's review

4.0

I LOVED this, very fun, very cozy. Loved the magical aspect and the cozy mystery vibes. Now it does have some serious themes in it as well but regardless it still felt very cozy and low stakes.

This is about a couple who had helped to free slaves before the emancipation, now they help solve mysteries and give their various serious to different people. In this story a few deaths lead to a mystery that hits close to home for which they must figure out whats going on.

Loved the vibes and excited to read the next book in the series.

pam2375's review

3.0

2.5 * rounded up to 3. This is a debut for Nicole Glover and the premise of the story is intriguing for sure; Hetty and Benjy are ex-slaves that worked with the underground railroad using magic.

Now, after the Civil War they are still using their magic to solve murders.

Many thanks to Netgalley and John Joseph Adams/Mariner Books for this advanced readers copy. This book released in March 2021.

kimberly28's review

3.0

There was so much promise here! The actual product I didn't love, though. There were a lot of characters introduced at once that I couldn't distinguish, some things were over discussed and some were under discussed and I didn't know what was going on. 
I think I want to read the sequel, still. This is a debut and I hear it was  NaNoWriMo project (so impressive!) but I think a more experienced version of this author working under less pressure could put out a really great product. 

ketutar's review

5.0

This is an alternative history story about people helping slaves to freedom. In this reality, there is magic. Fascinating magic, based on constellations. There are also other kinds of magic, healing, and sorcery, and probably other kinds as well.
The story follows a couple of "conductors", Hetty and Benjy, and I love these people :-) The side characters are wonderful as well.
It's not only about the freed slaves, it's also a murder mystery.
I know I'm not making much sense, this is probably a very bad review, but I love this story, and I cannot wait to read more about these people and this world.

laelyn's review against another edition

2.0

I admit I had a hard time with this book. The premise is so interesting and the story started off so well, and I loved the combination of a real historic event with fantasy elements. I've never read a fictional story set during the times of the Underground Railroad (or at least I can't remember one), Sadly, I didn't enjoy the world building and the magic system too much. The magic was never properly explained, so while we know that white people can use sorcery and black Americans, who are banned from using wands and sorcery, can use celestial magic. But how any of this actually works? I have no idea. There is also an overabundance of dialogue, and I know this is a weird thing to say because who doesn't love dialogue? But the dialogue in this book often consists of the characters repeating what we already know, telling someone else about what they, and we as the readers, have already learned. That is pretty boring and I caught myself skipping a few lines here and there.
The main character, Hetty, has so much potential and I really do like her. She's a protagonist I enjoyed following and I wanted her to succeed. The other characters, sadly, weren't fleshed out at all - I honestly had a hard time distinguishing between them. There was just no meat to them so I simply didn't care. The same goes for the romance between Hetty and her husband Benjy. While I really like the concept of two characters that once married for practical reasons and then develop romantic feelings later on, I just didn't feel the chemistry between them.

I really wish I liked this book more because there is so much potential here, but in the end, I had to force myself to finish the book because I wasn't excited about the murder mystery aspect of it either. This is a debut novel and it reads like one, but I'm sure that with more in-depth exploration of the world, the magic system and the characters this could turn into an interesting series.

Thank you to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/John Joseph Adams/Mariner Books/Netgalley for the arc!