![\"book](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-pB623sPf8bI\/UT9FAUWS0xI\/AAAAAAAAKkM\/ZKwN_DUhzmg\/s200\/Strands%2Bof%2BBronze%2Band%2BGold.jpg?resize=132%2C200\")
Rescued from a life of drudge work,\nCocooned in luxury,
\nNo visitors welcomed or allowed, at all.<\/p>\n
Rescued from a life of drudge work,
\nCocooned in luxury,
\nNo visitors welcomed or allowed, at all.<\/p>\n
An old English abbey transplanted with all its contents into the sweltering Mississippi woods, secrets behind every locked door, mysterious names etched into hidden corners of Sophie’s bedroom furniture… four wives tragically lost<\/a>, M. Bernard’s only child dead, ghosts murmuring in her room.<\/p>\n The Bluebeard legend<\/a> is lushly retold by Jane Nickerson, who lived in Mississippi several years before moving to Canada. She shared her writing inspiration in a Nerdy Bookclub blog post<\/a> on her novel’s publication birthday, and I saw a tweet that it’s the first in a trilogy!<\/p>\n How do you know when something is too good to be true? Book info<\/b>: Strands of Bronze and Gold \/ Jane Nickerson. Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2013. <\/span>[author’s website<\/a>] [publisher site<\/a>]<\/p>\n My Recommendation<\/b>:\u00a0 Whisked away to her godfather\u2019s mansion after her father\u2019s death in 1855, auburn-haired Sophia envisions plenty in place of her family\u2019s genteel poverty. She is startled by the luxury she finds there, unsettled by slavery supporting the rich, sensitive to the ghost women wandering the halls, yet slow to heed the dire messages they try to convey.<\/p>\n The seventeen-year-old couldn\u2019t have prepared herself for the magnificence of Monsieur de Cressac\u2019s estate, a real English abbey shipped to America stone by stone and reassembled at his rural Mississippi plantation 25 years ago. Nor could she have imagined that her bearded godfather was so handsome, so much younger looking than always-ailing Father, nor that Madame de Cressac was deceased and that Mrs. Duckworth the housekeeper would be her chaperone in this vast mansion.<\/p>\n Monsieur insists that Sophia call him by his first name, that she cast off her mourning for the finest clothes, that she try every dish the chef prepares. Mrs. Duckworth cautions her against defying him, as his temper can get the better of him, so she allows the new lady\u2019s maid to help her dress for dinner and plays the piano pieces he prefers.<\/p>\n But amid all this opulence, strange details emerge: M. Bernard has lost not one wife, but four. Their spirits appear to Sophia when she visits the long-closed nursery, as she pretends to sleep when Bernard taps on her door in the middle of the night, as her nightmares begin to outnumber her dreams.<\/p>\n By chance, she meets a young minister and an old former slave woman in the Abbey\u2019s extensive woodlands; both warn her of Bernard\u2019s very dark reputation. She writes many letters to her sister and brothers in New England, yet receives none in reply. Bernard decides that they must be married, despite their age difference and her misgivings \u2013 and will not accept no for an answer.<\/p>\n What truly happened to M. de Cressac\u2019s wives?
\n**kmm<\/p>\n
\nDid he choose to court each one because of her red hair?
\nCan Sophia escape this house of darkness before it is too late?<\/p>\n