The House Saphir
Marissa Meyer
Feiwel & Friends
Published November 4, 2025

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About The House Saphir

From the #1 New York Times bestselling “Queen of Fairytale Retellings” and author of Cinder and Heartless, this is the tale of Bluebeard as it’s never been told before—a thrilling romantasy and murder mystery.

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 learning to trust her heart. Especially when the person her heart wants the most might be a murderer himself.

My Review

First of all, I have to say I love that this is a standalone book. The story is nonstop, so there were a couple of moments where I wondered if it would be a duology, which would have been okay. I love that it’s a whole story in one book, though.

Writing a story centered on a character like Mallory strikes me as a little bit of a risk. We’re often so hard on imperfect female leads, even when they’re sincere. Here, we get this girl whose whole success plan is based on lying and swindling. Yet, I think Meyer really makes this work.

At first, Armand’s sincerity and open heart had me worried that he and Mallory together would lead to his broken heart. And, had things unfolded differently, that might have been true. I don’t want to spoil what happens, but I will say that I thought that as characters, they were well-matched.

I appreciated the way that the story centered around the female characters. To tell a story about essentially a serial killer while not letting him overshadow the whole story can’t be easy. Through the ghosts of his victims appearing as characters, the story reminds readers that these women have more significance than the moment of their deaths. I thought that was nicely done.

The magic in the story also feels pretty unusual. The mythical creatures are based in French mythology, which is neat. The book includes a glossary describing the different monsters that appear in the story. Different characters have different types of magic. The system feels pretty intricate in its creation. Though the whole story is wrapped up in this one book, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a companion novel about Mallory’s sister and her adventures. It seems like there is more to explore with the magic system and a side character with a quest to break a curse.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used a few times.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. One character transforms into a human, and appears nude.

Spiritual Content
The story contains mythical creatures/monsters. Some characters are ghosts. One character can summon the dead and communicate with them for five minutes. Seven different gods gift some humans with different kinds of magic. Characters try to summon the ghost of a person who has died.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. References to murder. Some characters appear as ghosts that bear the wounds that caused their deaths. Monsters attack characters. Someone stabs another person through the back with a sword.

Drug Content
Characters drink alcohol as part of a funeral ritual. One character drugs another without their knowledge/consent.

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