Synopsis
The ghost of Bluebeard. A handsome count. A con artist in over her head.
Mallory Fontaine is a fraud. She’s descended from witches, and pretends to be one, although her only magic is the ability to see ghosts. She can barely make a living – but Count Armand Saphir will pay a fortune if she can rid him of his murderous ancestor’s ghost.
Now death has returned to the House Saphir, and Mallory is almost certain the killer is mortal. To have any hope of Armand’s payment, she’ll need to solve the murder, banish the ghost and keep passing as a witch.
Still, that’s easy compared to her biggest challenge: trusting her heart. Especially when her heart’s
desire could be the murderer himself.
Review
This unique Bluebeard retelling was darkly MAGICAL.
I don’t get spooked by books, yet somehow this Young Adult book had me switching on my phone light at 2am.
Mallory Fontaine is a tour guide for the infamous mansion where the first of Bastien Saphir’s murders took place. Her sister is a seer and can heal ailments. The only thing is, they’re both frauds. Neither have the magic their witchy ancestors do. Mallory can see the ghost of the wife who haunts the mansion, but she’s more whiny than scary or helpful.
When Bastien’s great-great grandson and heir to the Saphir estate, Armand, comes seeking rhe sisters’ help to get rid of Bastien’s returned haunting, Mallory must convince charming (and most importantly rich, Armand that she can indeed solve his dangerous haunting.
I always love Meyer’s main characters. Quirky, odd, sassy. The humour in this is spectacularly fun. The bond between the sisters had me giggling and Armand and Mallory’s blustering and blooming romance is sweet as much as it is awkward.
Not to mention, they both must balance desire and trust with disbelief and distrust.
The ghosts of the wives were exactly what I wanted from a campy haunting story (that does get darker). If you’re aware of Six the Musical, there’s three of them, and they gave me those vibes.
Mallory is what made me fall in love with this story though. Spunky and sarcastic and insecure and confident all at once.
I found the climax was too much all at once, but it did play into the tropes you would expect a haunting to. So, yes, the reveals and twists were obvious to me, but I’m also a seasoned adult reader.
The audiobook was incredible. The reason I was up at 2am? I put my headphones in to brush my teeth and then my phone went into low battery mode. I discovered a lot of time had passed, whoops… I did not spend over an hour brushing my teeth, don’t worry.
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