Strands of Bronze and Gold

Title: Strands of Bronze and Gold

Author: Jane Nickerson

Genre: Teen/Historical Fiction

Release Date: March 12, 2013

My Rating:

♥♥

The Bluebeard fairy tale retold. . . .

When seventeen-year-old Sophia Petheram’s beloved father dies, she receives an unexpected letter. An invitation—on fine ivory paper, in bold black handwriting—from the mysterious Monsieur Bernard de Cressac, her godfather. With no money and fewer options, Sophie accepts, leaving her humble childhood home for the astonishingly lavish Wyndriven Abbey, in the heart of Mississippi.

Sophie has always longed for a comfortable life, and she finds herself both attracted to and shocked by the charm and easy manners of her overgenerous guardian. But as she begins to piece together the mystery of his past, it’s as if, thread by thread, a silken net is tightening around her. And as she gathers stories and catches whispers of his former wives—all with hair as red as her own—in the forgotten corners of the abbey, Sophie knows she’s trapped in the passion and danger of de Cressac’s intoxicating world.

Glowing strands of romance, mystery, and suspense are woven into this breathtaking debut—a thrilling retelling of the “Bluebeard” fairy tale.

Via Goodreads

I was strolling through B&N when Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson caught my eye.  I thought, "Hey, look at this pretty cover!" ( I usually buy books on impulse if they have an awesome cover)  I then read the back cover and was hooked.  The cover of this novel may be beautiful, but trust me, the story is definitely not.

I am going to categorize this novel in the "So Boring that It'll Put You to Sleep" section.  Throughout the first couple of chapters, I thought "So, this is pretty interesting", but the farther into the novel you go, the more the chapters start to lag.

Chapter after chapter after chapter talks about Sophia (main character) talking to Monsieur de Cresac and walking with Monsieur de Cresac and admiring Monsieur de Cresac.  I thought it would never end!   Their conversations usually had no significance in the story; it seemed like the author just threw in random conversations to try to take up some space.

Then Sophia developed a crush on her godfather.  That was just a little too much for me.  I mean, he's about twenty years her senior....

About halfway through the novel, Sophia meets a preacher whom she falls in love with (of course) after meeting him about FOUR times.  Way too fast.  There was absolutely no development in their relationship, it was just BANG "I'm in love with him!"

If you guys like action, do not get this novel because the only action is in the last thirty pages, and even then, it lacks major suspense.

So, just warning you guys, this novel put me to sleep every time I tried to finish it.  I literally had to force myself to bear through it.

The pros of this novel are there is a lot of description, to the point where it is just too much; I actually liked the main character, but the narration digressed too much for me; and this plot line had sooo much potential, but the author failed to meet those goals, which resulted in a very boring story.

Overall, I have to give Strands of bronze and Gold a 2/5; the novel did not do it for me and was incredibly boring.