The Seventh Bride

By: T. Kingfisher

Narrated by: Kaylin Heath

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.

©2015 Ursula Vernon (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

The Narrator…

The narrator has a lisp, and enough of one to be distracting. Also, the accents she attempted were… not strong. It felt like watching a Disney sitcom rather than reading a fantasy novel.

Interesting

Perhaps the thing that makes this story rather remarkable in YA is that the protagonist does everything for herself. As in, no men come in and sweep her off her feet to save her.

She and the wives eventually group together to get themselves released.

But that still doesn’t really GET them released. That’s more hubris does ole Blackbeard in.

Any way, a charming twist to the Blackbeard story, for once. Somewhat grim, but it IS a Grimm fairytale.

Marriage is highly scoffed in this, which I approve of as too many girls and young women think that’s the endgame for their lives. There’s so much more.

Basically, this was an oddly feminist piece, and Rhea’s courage is what makes her a great protagonist. I liked this. I hope more YA are written like this.

I took away one star for the occasional oddness to the narration and speech. It might be her storytelling style or the fact it’s YA that bothered me. Regardless, it lacked a complete smoothness of narration in parts, but it was still very enjoyable.

Surprisingly good, love the narration!

Got it for free from Prime! Expected a more or less straight up horror version of Bluebeard, but this is more of a classic fantastical adventure with a strong heroine with a varied cast of other characters, but it did start off slightly boring.
The narrator is stellar in her performance, her voice made the boring parts bearable, and really added a lot to building up the personalities of the characters. I looked her up and... can't believe that this is the only thing she narrated!

This is Weird. I Enjoyed That.

This was weird, which is the biggest vote in its favor. It has a middle grade voice, with a YA main character, and most of the other characters are adults. It's a strange blend, but I enjoyed that. I really liked the hedgehog, and I don't always enjoy animal side characters.

Alice and Wonderland Meets Fokelore

Not a bad book. Reminds me of the feeling I get when little kids sing "London Bridges Falling Down"...which is about the plague. Take a terribly adult story about a black sorcerer and cutesy it up by sending it through a tween's eye glasses. Poor Alice and Rhea (pronounced Ray-a) have allot in common. It wasn't hard to follow what was happening to Rhea in the book but it was all so.....weird....and a bit dark. My one complaint was the narrator pronouncing Maria and Rhea so similarly that I had to rewind a few times to be sure I knew who spoke. Other than that, I'd rate it PG for 9 year old's on up.

Original And Hugely Entertaining

A very original re-telling of the Bluebeard fairy tale, A young girl is set to wed a much older man and he challenges her to perform several difficult tasks, if she fails... she must marry him.

I enjoyed this so much more than I thought I would. The narrator is great, but the real kudos here fall to the author who creates something original out of all the disparate tropes of a fairy tale.

Highly recommend.

excellent

The combination of story and narrator was perfect. I'm sad to have finished and will be looking for more from both women.

Great Performance

The narration was so good! A really fun story. I began reading the story from my Kindle but partially through changed to listen on audible. The story transformed. The narrator really brought it to life. I highly recommend.

Such fun!

I think T. Kingfisher is wildly unappreciated. Her humour and writinf are both consistently excellent!

I love her characters, all of which are memorable and tangible.

I'm not sure I am ready for the scary books, but at least I have a decent backlist to go through.

Fun fairytale for adults

While the beginning seemed to slightly drag- the rest keeps you engaged until you are surprised it’s over.