A Reader's Guide to Books and Reviews

Title: The Seventh Bride

Author: T. Kingfisher

Genre: Retellings, Young Adult, Fantasy, Magic Realism, Horror, Fairytales, Paranormal, Witches

Warning: Body Horror

Date Started: January 12th, 2023

Date Finished: January 12th, 2023

Status: Finished

Rating: 2.5/5

Sypnosis: Young Rhea is a miller’s daughter of low birth, so she is understandably surprised when a mysterious nobleman, Lord Crevan, shows up on her doorstep and proposes marriage. Since commoners don’t turn down lords—no matter how sinister they may seem—Rhea is forced to agree to the engagement.

Lord Crevan demands that Rhea visit his remote manor before their wedding. Upon arrival, she discovers that not only was her betrothed married six times before, but his previous wives are all imprisoned in his enchanted castle. Determined not to share their same fate, Rhea asserts her desire for freedom. In answer, Lord Crevan gives Rhea a series of magical tasks to complete, with the threat “Come back before dawn, or else I’ll marry you.”

With time running out and each task more dangerous and bizarre than the last, Rhea must use her resourcefulness, compassion, and bravery to rally the other wives and defeat the sorcerer before he binds her to him forever.

Review: This is a retelling of Bluebeard. A fairytale that may even be based on a 15th-century serial killer named Giles da Rais or it could be based on an early tale of the Breton King named Conomor the Accursed and his wife, Tryphine.

An early biography of St. Gildas that had been written five centuries after the death of the king in the sixth century describes how when Conomor married Tryphine that she had been warned by ghosts of his previous wives. He had murdered them when each one had been murdered the moment they had become pregnant. When she becomes pregnant, Tryphine flees but Conomor catches her and has her beheaded, but St. Gildas miraculously restores her life. He brings her before to Conomor, but before he is able to do anything to either Gildas or Tryphine he is killed by his castle when it collapses on him.

In this book, we meet our fifteen-year-old heroine, Rhea, a lowly-born child who is surprised to learn her parents have married her off to Lord Craven. Rhea has no desire to marry the lord and tries desperately to convince her parents otherwise, but they set her out to marry the lord. Upon her arrival, Rhea is given leave to explore the castle while her husband goes off to tend to business. But Lord Craven is hiding many secrets within this house and some of these secrets have to do with his last wives.

When Lord Craven gives Rhea a series of tasks to complete, she must do them in order to avoid becoming his next bride. Rhea is forced to do his bidding at least to not be his bride, but can Rhea manage to survive these tasks?

This was a second book belonging to T. Kingfisher. Although I liked The Wizarding Guide, I was not too fond of this book. I felt the female lead was a weak character who cried. And though I understand her situation because of how her life has been turned upside, I also felt she should have looked for other means to better her situation.

But Susie, she was just a child!

Yes, she is and unfortunately, during these medieval times young women were married early. It did not matter how young they were. They were expected to marry early and bear heirs to their husbands.

And this is where I felt sorry for her. No young woman should be forced to marry at such young ages but that is how things were. The situations were different and most women were lucky to marry into wealthy families.

Rhea was forced to do the same. She had no choice and she had already heard the rumors about her future husband. So, I understood the reason why she would cry so much, but she had his other wives to help her out and navigate her life. They treated her well and even sought to help her out one or more times. This should have given her the strength to find the means she needed to complete her tasks.

And sometimes it did help.

I admit this book was a struggle to get through. I had hoped the ending would have been a lot more but it was the least anti-climatic ending I have ever seen. It was completely flat and I felt that this book had been a waste of my time.

This book is rated low because, to be honest, I almost DNFed it many times. I just could not connect or like the main female character. She was whiny and complained about how weak she was. Instead, she should have been more determined to find a way out. The same whine - but she's a kid!

Yes, she is and most girls have been through hell during this time period. She should have grown up just a bit.

So yeah, I was not a fan of this book.