The Familiar
Leigh Bardugo
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars
3.97
· Steam/Spice level: 3 of 5
Open door [?]
· 131 ratings · 400 pages · Published: 09 Apr 2024
In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to better the family's social position.
What begins as simple amusement for the bored nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain's king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England's heretic queen—and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king's favor.
Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the line between magic, science, and fraud is never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition's wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santángel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.
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Tagged as:
- historical 18
- magic 17
- fantasy 16
- working class heroine 15
- plain heroine 12
- slow burn 11
- m-f romance 11
- age gap 11
- political/court intrigue 11
- childfree 10
- jewish 8
- poor heroine 8
- tortured hero 6
- tortured heroine 5
- class difference 4
- non-human hero 4
- gifted/super-heroine 4
- new adult 3
- height difference 3
- multicultural 3
- competent heroine 3
- 100+ years old mmc 2
- paranormal 1
- early 20s fmc 1
- virgin heroine 1
- immortal hero 1
- Add topics
- content warnings
- torture of mcs 7
- past abuse 7
- nontraditional hea 6
- death / grief 6
- abuse 5
- torture of side characters 4
- misogyny 4
- geography
- spain 9
- western & central europe 8
- europe 8
- southern europe 4
- Format
- audiobook
- dual pov 11
- third person pov 7
- standalone 3
