The Seventh Bride
Ratings28
Average rating4
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.
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Fun read. Love a good fairytale retelling. This read is especially for a middle grade/ young adult reader.
Everyone seems to love me so I'm wondering if I should just give up on fantasy! I honestly thought there was going to be a higher mystery element on this though which is why I picked it up
This tale is in the tradition of “the fractured fairy tale”–it has echoes of traditional stories (for example, “Bluebeard” and maybe “Rumpelstiltskin”) However, the reader does not have the “once-upon-a-time”, magical distance from the characters in the story as in a traditional tale, because the protagonists–especially the “seventh bride” and the previous brides too–are more real and fully developed individuals than in the classical tales. There is, moreover, an interesting mix of genres: a certain “realism”; fantasy; sci-fi (the clock and theories of time). Altogether a good read and an interesting experiment in combining many kinds of entertaining fiction!
