In Stamchester, an alternate Victorian era city, divided between the haves and the have-nots, blood gives some people extra powers when injected. Rook, a member of the have-nots, is not only a very adept bloodskill but an excellent thief. She is part of a group of women called the Magpies after their leader who are all named after birds and who work to help people get justice in a society that cares nothing for them. There was also a male group called the Jaguars who had been more willing to use violence but, after their leaders were captured, they have disbanded...maybe.

As if the streets on the poor side of the city aren't dangerous enough, a serial killer is terrorizing the inhabitants who have little protection - certainly not from the authorities. In fact, the Governor is quite pleased with this turn of events since, to him, it's just that many fewer he has to get rid of because he has plans for that part of the city and the poor folk have no place in those plans.

A Conventicle of Magpies (The Bloodskill Duology #1) is the first in a new YA fantasy series by LMR Clarke and what a great beginning to a new series it is. It is well-written with plenty of action and adventure to keep the reader glued to the page. There is some interesting world-building and great characters who are easy to either root for or hate. This is a compelling story about friendship, family, and trust and what people are willing to risk for those they love. But Clarke doesn't shy away from dealing with broader issues and underlying the alternate Victorian landscape is some very contemporary commentary on colonialism, inequality, and gender. However, as integral as they are to the story, she never descends into preachiness or allows it take over the narrative.

Overall, I loved this book but I do have one complaint. As the first in a series, Conventicle does end on a cliffhanger so now I will have to wait impatiently for the next book to arrive.

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and Books Go Social for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review</i>

Good historical read about the Victorian era, with the added depth of mystery and intrigue that comes with a thriller. Reminiscent of Jekyll and Hyde vibes.

I enjoyed reading this book but had some issues with it. The first 3/4 were mainly world building and a set up for the last quarter of the book.

The last quarter of the book gave rise to questions that will hopefully answered in the next book.

Also, for a plot concerned with one culture subsuming another, very little detail about those cultures was given. This may be rectified in the next book.

I love a good thief, regardless of their moral status. And Rook is the best thief in the Nest. She is also one of the Saosuíasei in Stamchester and therefore barely even a third class citizen.


LMR Clarke has created in A Conventicle of Magpies a world rife with storylines to pick through and characters to sink into. We start with a clipping of The Stamchester Review about the “plague” of Saosuíasei in and around the city and how they must be stamped out. Already, Clarke is setting up the racial and nationalistic tensions between the Saosuíasei and this world’s version of the Moral Majority, the Avanish. Throughout the story, we are constantly reminded of the placecment of the Saosuíasei–they live in the slums of the city, crammed together as a community, while the Avanish and other nationalities live “properly.”

To make matters worse, there is a serial murderer on the loose collecting Saosuíasei blood, a la Jack the Ripper. See, in this world, another important layer to the social construct, is the idea of bloodskill. Bloodskill is used to enhance the user’s bodily functions: strength, sight, hearing, reflexes, etcetera.

We learn all of this before the story starts properly via newspaper and letters between the politicians on the Avanish side. Then, we meet Rook and the thieves guild, The Magpies. Rook is the best thief in the Nest and adores Mama Magpie, one of the most powerful women in the city as a shadowy figure with lots of stolen secrets used as protection. There is also Kestral, a trans woman with a romance going with a boy who is a turncoat-turned-double-agent for another local activist group, The Jaguars.

Have I mentioned Rook’s being a plant in a important official’s home to try to learn of the Avanish’s plans to wage a war on the Saosuíasei yet? Or the fact the Rook’s sister and father are both at least seemingly dead but with an air of mytsery? I didn’t think so.

A proper review of the story is difficult, because there are many disparate threads woven together and the pacing feels both painfully slow and much too fast. I almost wish this had been pulled into a trilogy, with the spying and fleeing from the possiblity of being caught plotlines filling this novel, then delving into the Jaguars further plans and the Billy the Drainer mystery cropping up in the second, with a wild resolution in the end novel. Alas, as it is, it’s a good story, but a little stilted throughout. Having a serious cliffhanger certaintly helps in leading the reader to want the second book in the serious, but also makes much of what has happened so far feel too far away and over too soon.

I worry about how this will all come together in the end, with the plotlines all so far flung. There is perhaps too much happening all at once with little breathing room for the reader. This story felt very similar to many in this genre of fantasy thief with a found family, but I did love the worldbuilding. The world is full to bursting and feels like the threads will be woven into an actual tapestry. In many ways A Conventicle of Magpies feels like a grand d&d adventure with the world evolving around, but ever revolving off screen in an unknowable way, a ragtag group who are just doing their best to hold themselves and their loved ones together.

I’m fairly likely to read the second book when it comes along. I don’t know if I’ll love the series. I barely know if I love this book in and of itself. But I’m intrigued. Sometimes that’s enough.

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for providing me with a digital galley for review.

I can’t fall in love with the book. Somehow I can‘t fell the characters. I like the setting but the blood skill thing and the murders of the young ladies seems like another story. There are some good points and interesting ideas. Perhaps I will give this book another try in the future.

I was unsure what to except going into this book as I have previously failed to enjoy many historical fiction books, however, I was pleasantly suprised. It was a solid enjoyable book that I felt was more suited for younger teens. It was a really interesting take on segregation. On the downfall, I will say this book was not the best dystopian I have ever read and frankly there are better books. The writing was a little slow at times but the cliffhanger at the end made up for it. I will not be reading the second book.

I’m sorry to say that I found that I just could not finish this book. I hate giving negative reviews because it’s about my personal opinion not about the author themselves. Others have really enjoyed this book based on the reviews I’ve seen so if you like historical fiction with a dash of magic and revolution by all means give it a go! Personally though, every time I picked it up, I got through a few pages before getting distracted by something else. I just couldn’t invest myself into the story enough to keep going and I was getting frustrated by it because I feel like it had so much potential. In the end, I only got half way through before I accepted it for what it was and stopped.

The story is told by Rook, a young thief living in the slums of the city with her family and her gang of female rebels who protect the people around them by robbing the rich and giving to the poor. Robin Hood would have been proud. Rook had everything you could want in a main protagonist, she was brave, clever and always put others first. I just couldn’t connect to her, I wasn’t emotionally invested in her story at all. She was the best of the best but yet every time she went out on a task, something went wrong and she had to rely on others to get her out – it wasn’t exactly convincing and whilst I appreciate the author was giving her a realistic ‘everyone makes mistakes – even the best of the best’ part of her character, it just fell flat for me. Even when she pushed through every situation with her fearless personality, she felt weak. A strong protagonist wouldn’t have relied on her Bloodskill so much in every situation, even if she was one of a few who could possess more than one Skill.

Bloodskill. That was interesting, but I wish there was more information surrounding it, a bit of backstory as to where it came from. It was brought up so often yet I felt like it was just a cheat for the characters when they were in a difficult situation and that’s all. I liked that the Jack the Ripper style character was brought in as an additional villain to focus more on the Bloodskill as he was draining the lives of others for the powers the blood possessed. Just having Billy Drainer would have been enough for me as the main villain to hold interest in the story as it connected so well with the Bloodskill and made it more significant to the plot. He was so much more intriguing than the complete revolution put together that it felt like a missed opportunity.

In regards to the story itself, there was too much going on that the smaller details got lost along the way. You had the Avanish people who came to their land, built a huge city and repressed the Saosuíasei people to the slums of their new city for decades when they found them useless and plans to remove them for good. The Conventicle of Magpies thieving group which Rook belongs too with her fellow bird named members who use their abilities to help the poor when the police won’t. Then you had the infamous Shadow of Jaguars who go beyond thieving to get what they want and have more authority in the slums who suddenly want to team up with the Magpies for a revolution against the Avanish people. THEN you had Billy Drainer who is a Saosuíasei murdering his own in the night for reasons unknown aside from gaining Skills. There was just too much going on, too many characters that came and went that you just couldn’t care about any of them enough to emotionally invest yourself in the story around them. Even Rook’s family was too big that I only remember two of her family members.. one of them being Kestrel her best friend who lives with her.
I wanted to see more of Rook’s family personally, her relationships with those working under Mama Magpie and how they each chose their bird names. I wanted to see more of their slum life and situations to fully put myself in the slums with the Saosuíasei people. I wanted to explore more of the Jaguars and why they went silent for so long, and I wanted to see more of Billy Drainer because he made the story more interesting than the rich Avanish people and their schemes.

I do have to give credit where credit is due, the world building was fantastic. The scenery was great, you could really immerse yourself in the slum life with their derelict building, limited resources, and hopeless environment all the way to the riches of the Avanish city with their working telephones, bright lights, extravagant houses full of riches and their motorcars driving around. It really pushes the revolution to a new level with the distinct differences in the unfamiliar advances in technology and travel.

This novel is set in a dystopian future (?), where the line between the haves and have not is clearly delineated. I enjoyed the fact that the females were the heroines, very strong characters and were not relegated to being arm candy. I look forward to more from this author.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC!

The idea behind this book sounded so good to me; a bloody thirsty serial killer is on the loose and on top of that, the characters are taking to keep their loved ones also safe from slavery. There is magic, gangs, and particularly an all female gang! Honestly pretty much any book with a serial killer alone can usually get me to read it so I was excited when I was approved for this ARC.

Unfortunately, I was disappointed. This is a low 3 star or of 5 for me. It might have been a 2 star if it wasn’t for a couple of characters that I really enjoyed.

My main issue with A Conventicle of Magpies was that the book was slightly confusing. There were several parts that I had to reread in order to figure out what was even happening. On top of that, I did not like the main character Rook very much; she was very frustrating and annoying to me.

Something I liked about this story was the concept that blood is magic, that blood is special. I thought that was very unique and the fact that the serial killer is draining magical individuals called Saosuiasei, added a fun level of suspense to the book. I also loved Mama Magpie because she was a strong older woman that protects those she loves and teaches the other woman in the gang that violence and killing isn’t the answer to everything. If I decide to continue with this series, it would honestly be because of Mama Magpie.

I enjoyed the writing style, there were just a lot of aspects of the book that did not work for me and it was overly disappointing.

#AConventicleofMagpies #NetGalley

This is a fantasy novel set in a Victorian-esque setting. The world building is unique and features three different races of people in a London-like city. The most interesting part is that some of the people can use their Blood to move faster, more quickly, be stronger. It's what the main character, Rook, uses to eek out her meager living. She's part of the Saosuíasei community - lowest in the hierarchy. Her father is dead, her older sister is missing, and her mother is sick. She, and her found family sister, are the ones who are keeping their family together.

But Rook has another family, the Conventicle of Magpies, led by the Magpie herself. They are doing whatever they can to help Saosuíasei families - even if that means stealing from the rich Avanish. What's making their job harder is that there is a serial killer on the loose, draining people of their valuable blood. Not to mention the Avanish ruler seems hellbent on driving out or killing the rest of the races. This town is balancing on the knife edge of day-to-day harassment to all out genocide. A fast paced read, that pulls you in.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, BooksGoSocial, for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

There's a lot going on in this book, perhaps a bit too much, but I'm not going to criticise an author for being ambitious. I Iiked it enough to want to check out the second volume and see where the story goes.

Unpopular opinion

Something was off with this book from the start. I tried to like it.

Although the parallels to Six of Crows are strong, this book finds its own voice. Still, I didn't like it. I didn't warm to the main character Rook. I wasn't convinced by her skills, decisions and character arc.

There were too many secondary characters for my liking. And some of the diversity among the cast seemed forced; don't write it if you are not 100% behind it.

One major aspect of the story is 'bloodskill'; blood is powerful and can be used for 'skilling'. Yet this powerful tool is not explained anywhere in the book.

It's a YA novel that does not include a love triangle - a point in its favour.

A solid gaslight fantasy with a unique, well-thought out magic system and a strong female protagonist. Great for lovers of found family and rebel girl narratives,

Slight spoilers to follow.

A Conventicle of Magpies is one of those fantasy books where you are thrown into a setting where the author uses in-world words and terms and you have to figure them out through context only. When it is done well, it can really help immerse a reader into the story. When it isn’t, the reader’s engagement can be squandered by spending too much time trying to figure out what exactly is happening. This book spent a lot of time emphasizing how important these in-world terms were, but in my opinion there were other devices that could have been used to enhance the world building more effectively.

It is also a pet peeve of mine when a plot suffers because the author is trying to cram so much into one story so they can set up a series. This book was rife with things that added no value to the main plot, particularly in regard to the set up of character relationships. For example, a significant amount of time was spent clearly setting up something with multiple characters that had no impact to the resolution of the book or any of the sub-plots, while several characters who were integral to the important action events in act three had had little to no introduction before they were put in positions of vital trust.

I very much liked the LGBTQ+ representation and the way it was included in the book as well as how natural it was set up/executed in-world,

I think the way the magic system was presented did a great job in not glamorizing injectable drug use/addiction themes, which would have been disappointingly easy to do.

Overall this was a fairly enjoyable read, though it felt as packaged as a CW TV pilot.

I probably will check out the next book in the series, if available.

A Conventicle of Magpies is a Victorian era gaslamp fantasy and the first book of a new duology by L.M.R. Clarke. Released 6th Jan 2021, it's 178 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.

There is a lot to unpack here. Overall, it's a well written and engaging YA paranormal fantasy with an ensemble cast of (mostly) female protagonists. They belong to a motley gang of the local ethnic minority who are sneak thieves, cat burglars, pickpockets, and "problem solvers" (but no murder). The paranormal element comes from blood based magic (trigger warnings for blood, violence, suicide, trauma, etc). The characters are well rendered and distinct. I had no trouble remembering who was who. There is a Jack-the-Ripper subplot whose many victims are exsanguinated carefully (blood magic, again). There are several intertwining plotlines and not all of them are resolved by the end of the first book, strongly foreshadowing the second book in the series.

I liked the LGBTQ+ positive character portrayal and found myself engaged and invested in the story. There is some strong language and mature content here (mostly violence and mature themes, not for the sexual content which isn't egregious).

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I think this book is interesting—it has some pretty good world-building and the writing style is nice and fits the story well. But I did have a hard time following what was going on and found myself a little bored at different moments. I think for the right person this could be an incredible book, but I'm just not that reader.

I absolutely LOVED this story! The characters are real and gritty and hopeful despite the immense hardships they endure on a daily basis. The Nest of Magpies is such an interesting concept, and along with their male counterparts, I found to be very enjoyable to read about. There are so many points from our own reality that can be seen in these pages, and I'm glad the author chose to take a few difficult subjects and invite the reader to not only ponder similarities, but apply empathy to circumstances and relationship dynamics from another point of view.
Excellent writing, and I do hope we will get to meet the Magpies again in the future!

Actual rating: 3.5 out of 5

Rook is a thief under the all-female organization of the Conventicle of Magpies. She’s known to be the best in the Conventicle and she’s sent on missions done often in the dark. Aside from her, a serial killer who drains the blood of his victims to be used for Bloodskilling is also doing his own work in the dark.

I have never read a fantasy book with an element like the Bloodskillers. They use their blood, and some extra blood, to enhance their skills. I really liked that element in this book because it was so interesting to read something unique and new for a change. It was a little confusing at first, but I adjusted to the world pretty fast because the author did an excellent job of describing the world to you in a simple way you could understand easily.

Because of the description of the book, I thought the focus would be on the serial killer and figuring out who’s behind the mask. But it actually focused on the oppression the people are experiencing from the Avanish people. The serial killer definitely played a part in exposing how much the Avanish didn’t care about those different from them thus pushing those who were oppressed to fight back.

The all-female Conventicle of Magpies was a good element too!! I always love a book written with powerful women, I just hope they remain powerful and independent until the next book/s. There’s also a LGBTQ+ rep in this book and I love how it was inserted in the book. It did not put too much weight on the sexual orientation of a character so you wouldn’t think about that character just based on their orientation.

The twists were a little predictable but the book left me with a good ending that made me want to read the next book and find out whether or not my guesses are correct.

Set in a fantasy victoriana world, Rook is a young girl from a minority that is oppressed by society. She and her people are seen as lower class citizens that have been removed from the cities and forced to live in the outskirts to fend for themselves. Rook is part of an all female gang who work together to bring justice to those in need. They use infusions of their own blood to enhance their bodies and abilities such as increased strength, stamina, super sharp hearing, speed. They decide to team up with the Jaguars to protect their people from a devastating attack from the higher powers.

I found myself really sinking into this book and finished it quite quickly because I wasn't able to put it down. I really enjoyed the blood powers element. It added a really exciting twist to the story. The characters were all easy to relate to and likeable. Rook herself is a great role model. She's loyal, brave, hardworking and cares for her family and friends fiercely. It's great to read about a team of women working together and showing their strength and bravery and fantastic teamwork.

If you have read and enjoyed books such as the paper magician then this will really appeal to you. It has the same magical qualities to it.

I can't wait to read the next one!

The cover really caught my eye and I love the premise for this book: a victorian England-inspired fantasy setting with Jack the Ripper-esque murder mystery.

It has an intriguing world with relateable social conflicts, a compelling atmosphere, a cool magic system and likeable the characters. I have a weakness for thieves with a strong sense of justice, so I loved the protagonist Rook.
The story is fast-paced with a lot of action and cleverly constructed.


I was a bit irritated by the weird formatting of some parts of the book, I'm not sure if there was a incompatibility issue with my Kindle or if it's meant to be like that. There were some newspaper texts in it that were hard to read, as well as pretty confusing and overstuffed with information in my opinion.

My main point of criticism would be that all that happened didn't really lead anywhere. Being a pretty short book it felt kind of unfinished, which of course it is, because it's only the first book in a series, but I missed the entire build-up reaching a point that made this first volume seem conclusive in itself.

Although I didn't love the book I liked it overall and would read the next installment and see what happens next. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me access to the ARC!

This was just ok. I won’t be recommending it. It was a quick read and I wanted to like it so much more than I did.