The House Saphir by Marissa Meyer
Publication Date: November 4, 2025
Summary from Netgalley:
Mallory Fontaine is a fraud. Though she comes from a long line of witches, the only magic she possesses is the ability to see ghosts, which is rarely as useful as one would think. She and her sister have maintained the family business, eking out a paltry living by selling bogus spells to gullible buyers and conducting tours of the infamous mansion where the first of the Saphir murders took place.
Mallory is a self-proclaimed expert on Count Bastien Saphir—otherwise known as Monsieur Le Bleu—who brutally killed three of his wives more than a century ago. But she never expected to meet Bastien’s great-great grandson and heir to the Saphir estate. Armand is handsome, wealthy, and convinced that the Fontaine Sisters are as talented as they claim. The perfect mark. When he offers Mallory a large sum of money to rid his ancestral home of Le Bleu’s ghost, she can’t resist. A paid vacation at Armand’s country manor? It’s practically a dream come true, never mind the ghosts of murdered wives and the monsters that are as common as household pests.
But when murder again comes to the House Saphir, Mallory finds herself at the center of the investigation—and she is almost certain the killer is mortal. If she has any hope of cashing in on the payment she was promised, she’ll have to solve the murder and banish the ghost, all while upholding the illusion of witchcraft.
But that all sounds relatively easy compared to her biggest challenge: learning to trust her heart. Especially when the person her heart wants the most might be a murderer himself.
ARC provided by Macmillan’s Children Publishing Group via Netgalley for an honest review.
Confession:
I really enjoyed this retelling of the Bluebeard folktale. It was thrilling and creepy and yet oddly funny which made for a delightfully fun read. Lots of fun characters and scary fantastical beasts plus a creepy haunted mansion all of which comes together in a great story. This isn’t a retelling exactly, more of a what happened after the original Bluebeard is killed. Plus a more plausible reason for all the murders than the original tale gives.
Mallory is such a fun female lead. I loved her can do attitude and her sassiness even when facing off against some pretty scary and bizarre monsters. She is brave, smart and very funny but not cocky. But even though she knows she can’t possibly get rid of Bluebeard’s ghost, she still wants to help Armand and the ghosts which shows that she has a good heart. She has a great relationship with her sister Anais and I loved their banter. A romance does slowly grow between her and Armand, but I really liked that it didn’t overshadow the main story. I really liked Armand and thought he was a perfect counterpart to Mallory.
Lots of great secondary characters in this one. The ghosts of Bluebird’s wives were especially a lot of fun and were very entertaining. Triphine is the one we get to know the best and I really adored her and her hypochondria. There are also two other characters who at times stole the show. Fitcher and Constantino save Mallory more than once and I really enjoyed them. They are complete opposites from each other, but work well together.
This isn’t a retelling so much as a what if type of story. If Bluebeard was a sorcerer and his ghost comes back to complete what he started this is what might happen. I loved it though. I loved this sort of alternate France and all of the weird and also scary monsters that inhabit the countryside. The gothic feel of the story was great especially with the very dark and moody mansion which was almost a character in the story. My only issue was that the story did seem to drag a bit in the middle, but otherwise great pacing through the rest.
This story was a perfect blend of scary and humor with a lot of great banter between all of the characters. It is a mystery with a supernatural twist. If you are a fan of the author’s this is a must read. If you enjoy retellings of folktales this is one you might want to give a chance.
Confessions of a Serial Reader 
Great review. This definitely sounds like a great read for the run up to Halloween
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It’s a shame it doesn’t come out till November! It would make a great Halloween read.
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