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The Familiar
A Fantasy Novel by Leigh Bardugo
Subgenres & Tropes:
- Historical Fantasy,
- Spanish Golden Age,
- Court Intrigue,
- Inquisition,
- Immortals
This book is for you if you're into...
- Spanish Golden Age settings with magic woven into daily life
- Servant-to-sensation stories with perilous court intrigue
- Characters navigating faith, identity, and survival under the Inquisition
- Unlikely alliances with immortal familiars hiding dangerous secrets
From Little Stack
If you want a fantasy that feels like stepping into a candlelit court full of danger, secrets, and impossible choices, The Familiar is a gorgeous ride.
At the heart of it is Luzia Cotado, a lowly servant with hidden magic who suddenly finds herself thrust into the glittering, dangerous world of Spanish nobility. And Luzia? She is so beautifully flawed. She’s driven, sharp, and constantly improvising just to survive, making choices that are half brilliant, half desperate and completely human. You’ll root for her even when she’s clearly in over her head, because every mistake feels earned.
This is historical fantasy with real bite: ambition, class, magic, and one very flawed girl trying to survive a world that wants to use her. Expect tension, betrayal, and a heroine who doesn’t always make the right call but always feels real, compelling, and impossible to forget honestly from start to finish, too.
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER * #1 INDIE BESTSELLER * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“An immersive, sensual experience.” —The New York Times. "Essential." —The Washington Post
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Leigh Bardugo comes a spellbinding novel set in the Spanish Golden Age.. 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 improve the family's social position.. What begins as simple amusement for the 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 lines between magic, science, and fraud are 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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