Title: Strands of Bronze and Gold

Author: Jane Nickerson

Publisher: Random House 2013

Genre: YA Fantasy

Pages: 352

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Fairy Tales - Bluebeard; Library Love

When seventeen-year-old Sophia Petheram’s beloved father dies, she receives an unexpected letter. An invitation—on fine ivory paper, in bold black handwriting—from the mysterious Monsieur Bernard de Cressac, her godfather. With no money and fewer options, Sophie accepts, leaving her humble childhood home for the astonishingly lavish Wyndriven Abbey, in the heart of Mississippi.

Sophie has always longed for a comfortable life, and she finds herself both attracted to and shocked by the charm and easy manners of her overgenerous guardian. But as she begins to piece together the mystery of his past, it’s as if, thread by thread, a silken net is tightening around her. And as she gathers stories and catches whispers of his former wives—all with hair as red as her own—in the forgotten corners of the abbey, Sophie knows she’s trapped in the passion and danger of de Cressac’s intoxicating world.

Glowing strands of romance, mystery, and suspense are woven into this breathtaking debut—a thrilling retelling of the “Bluebeard” fairy tale.

Last year I read a great Bluebeard retelling (T. Kingfisher’s The Seventh Bride), so I had to go looking for another one. I found a ton of short stories in collections, but I wanted a full length story. I finally found this book and snapped it from the library. Overall, I thought this was really good. Sophia sufficiently grows and changes throughout the novel. Enough so that I could actually appreciate her has a character. From there, we get some great side characters with enough of their agency to make full people instead of tools for Sophia’s story. In fact the only characters that I didn’t love were Sophia’s family. But I get ultimately she has to be left all alone to face her fears and take her agency back. I loved the slow reveal of the mystery and the past, but I do wish that it happened slightly faster and more time was spent with Sophia wrestling with what to do with the information. Ultimately, this was a good readable entertaining retelling of the Bluebeard story.

Next up on the TBR pile: