The House Saphir by Marissa Meyer (Cinder; Heartless) is a witty, romantic, and satisfyingly gory retelling of "Bluebeard."
Seventeen-year-old Mallory and 19-year-old Anaïs Fontaine are "descended from a long line of powerful witches." Unfortunately, due to a badly botched spell at age 10, Mallory is now "without a drop of witchcraft" of her own; instead, she is dubiously gifted with the ability to see ghosts. Mallory and Anaïs--who hides her own powerful death magic--have been on their own for six years; they run a shop where they perform fake séances and phony fortune tellings to get by. Additionally, Mallory conducts illicit midnight tours through the derelict and haunted House Saphir, where once, long ago, the "devilishly handsome" Count Bastien Saphir (known as Monsier Le Bleu because "his hair and beard were so black... they were said to appear almost blue") brutally murdered his first wife, Triphine.
The night Mallory takes Count Armand Saphir himself on a tour, undercover police threaten to arrest her for trespassing and fraud. But Armand, descendant and lookalike of Count Bastien, is convinced Mallory can cast magic and offers to hire her instead of pressing charges--he needs her to rid his château in Comorre of Le Bleu's ghost, who has been haunting them for seven years. Since the sisters are being threatened with eviction, Mallory demands an exorbitant fee. The sisters, along with the ghost of Triphine, travel to the "sprawling" Comorre château. Mallory and Anaïs set about performing "faux witchcraft" to convince Armand Mallory is capable, but time is short: servants are being maimed and murdered, actual monsters roam the halls, and Mallory has suspicions that Le Bleu's haunting is "very much [her and Anaïs's] fault"--they may have accidentally released Le Bleu during their botched spell seven years ago.
Meyer's bloody, beguiling version of the Bluebeard story is replete with a fraudulent witch, a handsome count, not one but two haunted mansions, four dead wives, and an array of mythical French monsters. The House Saphir is magical, spooky, and romantic and suspensefully unfolds through the actions of feisty characters with unexpectedly excellent comedic timing. Meyer's powers-less witch Mallory exudes plenty of verve and attitude, and readers may well believe she, along with the quirky cast of allies she gathers, is a match for whatever monsters may come her way. --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author
Shelf Talker: The House Saphir is a spellbinding Bluebeard retelling, complete with a coterie of ghosts, a gutsy heroine, a mysterious, handsome count, and a satisfying amount of gore.