The Binding by Bridget Collins

A delicious blend of gothic horror and tragic tale of star-crossed lovers. When men seem to be doing things with the female staff that they shouldn't, young women make unfortunate choices or the occasion when we witness a sad event that we just can't forget - you call on a binder. Easy as pie he/she listens to your tale and removes it from your mind transferring it into your own bound book. Many binders have a strict code of secrecy and trust and it is one of these binders that young Emmett is apprenticed to. It seems like the right path for him to take until she passes away and his training is passed to a less than scrupulous binder. Emmett must wrestle with the right thing to do and his part in the book that took his love away from him. This clever fantasy has all the classic requirements of a gothic romance - an ill-fated love affair, the huge chasm between polite society and the working class and all the moral dilemmas of a Dickens novel. You will feel like standing on the windswept cliffs calling your lover's name and clutching your book of secrets of course.