Marissa Meyer is back on her retelling old stories vibe.
This time, she’s giving Bluebeard a romantasy twist in The House Saphir [Buy Bookshop Amazon LibroFM]. Our main character, Mallory, can see ghosts and has found a way to monitize it. She gives tours of a home where Count Bastien Saphir killed his first wife, with a little help from her ghost. When Bastien’s great-great grandson shows up, he could out her for some fraudulent behaviors, but instead, he offers her and her sister a job. Armad’s current home, where Bastien killed two more wives and almost a third, is haunted by Bastien and Armad wants the ghost out. Mallory initially sees him as a mark offering a paid vacation, but there could be more between her and this hot, rich guy, right?
This book started really slow for me. I’m not familiar with the original story or the French mythology that is wove through the story, so it was harder for my brain to get invested. I switched to audio after about 100 or so pages just to help my attention span, and it still took a while to take root. That might be because the narrator is Rebecca Soler, and she lives in my head as the voice of Violet Sorrengail from Fourth Wing, so I repeatedly had to remind myself that this was a different book and I did not miss the introduction of salamanders into the world of dragons. As I listened, I did get more pulled into the story, just in time for things to get chaotic.
Overall, this was a decent read with some fun twists. It’s the most I’ve enjoyed a Marissa Meyer book in a while, so I’m counting it as a win.
Literary Hypewoman 
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