The Seventh Bride by T. Kingfisher

Title: The Seventh Bride

Author: T. Kingfisher
Publisher: Amazon Publishing / 47North

Genre: Horror, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Retelling

Publication: November 24, 2015

My Rating: 4/5

Source: Publisher on NetGalley

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.

**I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

Rhea, a fifteen year old miller's daughter, gets a very unexpected proposal from Lord Crevan, a man she's never even met before. She doesn't want to marry him, but she doesn't really have a choice, you can't just turn down lords, unless you want to face the consequences.

So poor Rhea ends up engaged to Lord Crevan, and gets invited to his house before the wedding. There she meets a few other women who live at the place, and she soon finds out that they're all Crevan's wives...

This is loosely based on Bluebeard. I was already familiar with that story and I actually kinda like it. Even so, this book is very original and the writing is incredibly good.

There's a lot of magic and some of the weirdest stuff going on (like potatoes coming out of the ground and finding a corner to sulk in). Humans and animals can also communicate with each other. Which brings us to this story's true hero... the little hedgehog.

This guy is just precious. PRECIOUS. It was always helping Rhea and made the story so much better. And I loved how it always put its paws up to be picked up by her.

At some point, there's even a whole army of little hedgehogs!

Rhea's also amazing, mind you. The little hedgehog just stole my heart. But yeah, Rhea's actually very smart and mature. Usually, in creepy/scary stories like this, you just want to smack the main character on the head all the time, but she made very good choices and never behaved like some silly young girl. She knew this was serious business.

To be able to buy some time before they got married, Rhead had different tasks to complete every night before dawn. But Crevan liked to make things interesting and more difficult for her...

That man is the worst. He's never even at the house, but he keeps his wives there. They all have to obey him and never make him mad or go against his wishes, and he basically marries whoever he pleases, just so he can hurt them later... where it really hurts. He also likes taking what is not his.

Seriously, what does he think women are?? Fucking slaves?? He made me freaking mad, man.

Definitely a really good villain. Especially if you have to marry him and the only enemy you've had is a crazy swan.

So, like I mentioned before, the writing is really good, and I loved Rhea's way of thinking, so I thought I'd share some quotes with you :)

"Marriage was like death. You knew it'd happen eventually, but it wasn't something to dwell on"

"Rhea had learned everything she knew about hate from her encounters with this swan"

" 'Last chance', she told the swan. 'Last chance to call it quits, bird' "

"He smiled. 'Supposed you had something that you did not need, Miss Rhea.' Like a husband? she thought grimly"

"It always works with monsters. They can't get you under the blankets"

I do recommend this to anyone who's looking for an original story to read... especially if you like them to be a little creepy.

Do you know of any other books like this?

Thank you for reading! Bye-Bye! ♥