Sophie is in an unhealthy relationship and struggling to cope following the death of her father. Her uncle sweeps in to offer her a job and home but Sophie is haunted by a past she doesn’t remember. Can she finally reveal the secrets fo the past and find out the truth about her mother’s disappearance…?
The Bookbinder’s Daughter is a mixture of emotional self discovery and magic.
Sophie is a vulnerable woman and has a huge sense of loss. Her relationship with Victor has chipped away at her self esteem and her identity whilst the death of her dad has hit her hard emotionally. She dreams about a tree and hears her mother’s voice, to the extent that she questions her mental health.
Her uncle Edward steps in to invite Sophie to a career and lifestyle change. Gradually she adjusts to the changes especially being reunited with her mother’s side of the family as well as her first love Will. There is something magical about the library and her dreams become more vivid: could they be memories instead?
I enjoyed the gentle relationship between Will and Sophie. He is shocked at first at how much she has changed but he still sees sparks of the girl he loved. Sophie needs to find her own self again before she can think about love, and key to this is resolving issue with her mother and the past.
The Bookbinder’s Daughter is an enjoyable mystical and emotional book. I have previously reviewed The Lost Girls of Foxfield Hall by Jessica Thorne.
The song surrounded her now, the murmuring of the library insistent, and her foot took the first step on the winding stairs. She knew it wasn’t entirely a dream. It was the library calling her, its magic driving her.
When Sophie is offered a job at the Ayredale Library – the finest collection of rare books in the world, and the last place her bookbinder mother was seen when Sophie was just a teenager – she leaps at the chance. Will she finally discover what happened to the woman she’s always believed abandoned her?
Taking in the endless shelves of antique books, the soaring stained-glass windows, and the grand sweeping staircase, usually shy Sophie feels strangely at home, and is welcomed by her eccentric fellow binders. But why is the Keeper of the Library so reluctant to speak about Sophie’s mother? And why is Sophie the only person who can read the strange spells in the oldest books on display, written in a forgotten language nobody else understands?
The mysteries of the library only deepen when Sophie stumbles upon an elaborately carved door. The pattern exactly matches the pendant her mother left behind years ago, engraved with a delicate leaf. As the door swings open at her touch, Sophie gasps at the incredible sight: an enormous tree, impossibly growing higher than the library itself, its gently falling golden leaves somehow resembling the pages of a book. Amidst their rustling, Sophie hears a familiar whisper…
‘There you are, my Sophie. I knew you’d come back for me.’
An absolutely spellbinding read about long-hidden family secrets and the magic that lurks between the pages of every ancient book. Perfect for fans of The Ten Thousand Doors of January, The Night Circus and The Binding.
Author Bio
Jessica Thorne saw Star Wars at an impressionable age and life was never the same. She’s loved fantasy, romance and science fiction ever since and spends her time looking for adventure – in the pages of her books.
Sometimes she is Ruth Frances Long and won the European Science Fiction Society Spirit of Dedication Award for Best Author of Children’s Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2015.
