Title: The Bookbinder’s Secret
Author: A. D. Bell
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: 4 out of 5
Lilian (“Lily”) Delaney, apprentice to a master bookbinder in Oxford in 1901, chafes at the confines of her life. She is trapped between the oppressiveness of her father’s failing bookshop and still being an apprentice in a man’s profession. But when she’s given a burned book during a visit to a collector, she finds, hidden beneath the binding, a fifty-year-old letter speaking of love, fortune, and murder.
Lily is pulled into the mystery of the young lovers, a story of forbidden love, and discovers there are more books and more hidden pages telling their story. Lilian becomes obsessed with the story but she is not the only one looking for the remaining books and what began as a diverting intrigue quickly becomes a very dangerous pursuit.
Lily’s search leads her from the eccentric booksellers of London to the private libraries of unscrupulous collectors and the dusty archives of society papers, deep into the heart of the mystery. But with sinister forces closing in, willing to do anything for the books, Lilian’s world begins to fall apart and she must decide if uncovering the truth is worth the risk to her own life.
I enjoyed the parts of this about bookbinding, and the mysterious hidden letters and story hidden in the bindings of the secret books. I did not enjoy Lily’s penchant for doing absolutely stupid things all the time. I was honestly more invested in the story from the past than Lily’s story, as I was not convinced she’d ever make a good decision.
A. D. Bell lives in Oxford. The Bookbinder’s Secret is her debut novel.
(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)
Tomorrow Is Another Day 