Episode 12: L.J. Thomas

The Bloody Key

Here's the book summary: Fifteen-year-old Anne tends goats while daydreaming of fairy tales—until the day she finds herself in one. When a wealthy nobleman marries her older sister, they’re both swept off to his castle deep in the woods. Upon entering this world of finery, lush gardens, and nightly balls with dashing suitors, Anne believes her own happily-ever-after is just around the corner. She has almost forgotten the rumors surrounding the estate—tales of the castle’s tragic history and whispers of ghosts—when her sister falls mysteriously ill.

To save her, Anne must uncover the shadowy pasts of those who share her new home. Her sister’s husband refuses to speak of the disappearance of his last wife (or possibly wives), the domineering housekeeper hides her own secrets in a forbidden garden, and the handsome, enigmatic gardener urges Anne to escape the castle and leave her sister behind. There are signs, too, that something dark and supernatural haunts the estate.

If Anne misplaces her trust or fails to discover where the real danger lies, she’ll forfeit her sister’s life—and her own.

If you're sensitive to ghosts or supernatural, this book touches on that. Use your own discretion. Honestly, I rate it one out of five ghosts on the supernatural front. 

Link to L.J. Thomas's book: Amazon.com: The Bloody Key: A Gothic Bluebeard Retelling: 9781733261043: Thomas, L.J.: Books

Link to my first book Amaranth: Amaranth (The White Dragon): Davenport, Samantha: 9781639886128: Amazon.com: Books

Are you an unknown author? Please email me at theunknownauthorpodcast@gmail.com with a link to your book.

Music for this podcast is by JuliusH.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Unknouther Podcast. I'm your host, Samantha Davenport. Today's book is called The Bloody Key, a Bluebeard Retelling by L.J. Thomas. This book is 303 pages long. It was published April 20th, 2023, by Forest Edge Press. Here's the book summary. 15-year-old Anne tends goats while daydreaming of fairy tales. Until the day she finds herself in one. When a wealthy nobleman marries her older sister, they're both swept off to his castle deep in the woods. Upon entering this world of finery, lushed gardens, and nightly balls with dashing suitors, Anne believes her own headlight ever after is just around the corner. She has almost forgotten the rumors surrounding the estate, tales of the castle's tragic history and whispers of ghosts. When her sister falls mysteriously ill. To save her, Anne must uncover the shadowy past of those who share her new home. Her sister's husband refuses to speak of the disappearance of his late wife, or possibly wives. The domineering housekeeper hides her own secrets in a forbidden garden, and the handsome, ignomatic gardener urges Anne to escape the castle and leave her sister behind. There are signs, too, that something dark and supernatural haunts the estate. If Anne misplaces her trust or fails to discover where the real danger lies, she'll forfeit her sister's life and her own. Oh my stars, that it's been a long while since I last read a really good fairy tale retelling. Oh my goodness, this is so so good. Alright, so for those who do not know the story of Bluebeard, a Bluebeard is the male version of a black widow. Basically a man who kills his wives. Got it? Okay. I love the Brothers Grimms fairy tales, and Thomas, the author, did a fantastic job of her retelling of Bluebeard. And this is a standalone book. I promise y'all I've been trying to do more standalone books. And this is just so, so good. Ugh. So this is set in 14th century Germany. And one of the many things I loved about this book was Thomas's writing style. So each chapter is either like a diary entry or a letter, and they're relatively short, so it kind of feels like you're reading a lot in a short period of time. Normally this bothers me, depending on the story, but I actually liked it in this setting. For me, it actually felt a little bit more realistic that they wouldn't do like these long diary or letters or anything. Um, but a lot of it is from Anne's point of view, and I just love Anne. Anne is just a cute character. I I I just want to gobble her up. She's just so cute. I just love her. And um now Anne is the younger sister of Lysil. I hope I'm pronouncing that right. I apologize if I'm not. Um, so Lysil is the one who marries Bluebeard, that's Anne's older sister. And now Lysil actually manages to convince Bluebeard to bring Anne along with them. And I really do love the sibling relationship between Anne and Liesl. It's very realistic, typical younger sister with an older sister relationship. And Bluebeard is a really good villain. He's he's one of those who he he makes you wary. Like you know he's up to something good, he's not to up to something good, but you don't quite know what his next move is, and you think he's gonna go one way, but he does something totally outta the blue, pun intended. I absolutely love this book, it was really good. It's going on the shelf. I will want to reread this one. It's if you do love a good fairy tale, you want that classic fairy tale setting, this is the book for you. It's kind of a short episode today, but I don't want to give too much of the plot. It is so, but highly recommend. Well written, fabulous writing. I can't wait to read more of um this author's book. She's got a couple others that I can't wait to read either. Alright, so if I have piqued your interest for this book, please click the click the link in the episode summary to get your copy of this book. Now to end the episode, I'm heading to another book. I'm continuing to reading and finding amazing things to read and think about, and that is the Bible. So today's verse is Romans chapter 5, verses 6 through 8. Alright, here we go. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly, for one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This kind of ties in the psalm I read for the last episode, episode 11. And it's just God's love for us. It's just it's just amazing how it it continuously reappears in the Bible. God says over and over and over again, I love you, you are loved, my love for you has not changed, and it's just so comforting to know even while we were doing our all our own thing, not even paying attention to him, he still loved us, he was still looking out for us, he's still waiting for us to come to him because he wants us to choose him. He doesn't he doesn't want to force us, he doesn't want to make us he doesn't want us slaves, he he doesn't want us mindless robots, he wants us to willing choose him and to follow him. And he still loves us, but you know, like he just continues to love us and I'm just still amazed that yeah, that he he loves us no matter how much we mess up and come to him bruised and beaten, and he just raises us up and like you know what? You're still my child, I still love you. I just have a feeling someone may need to hear that today. I I hope it's you. Alright, let's pray. I'm just listening up those who maybe they don't feel your love. Maybe they've been out of touch, maybe they've been maybe they they haven't even know they don't even know you, Lord. Maybe they don't even know you. I just pray that your love reaches them and they start getting curious, and then that curiosity becomes interest, and then interest becomes fascination, and and that fascination erupts into a relationship, Lord. I just pray whoever needs to hear this that you just let them know that they are loved, that you love them, even at their lowest, even when they mess up, because I know I mess up too, but you are still with us no matter how many times we mess up and we stumble. You hold us steadfast, Lord. I just pray this in Jesus' holy name. Amen. Thank you for listening to today's episode. All information about today's book, including the book summary, my grading system, and links are in the episode summary. I'm also an unknown author. I write young adult fantasy and just finished my first trilogy. Also in the episode summary is a link to my first book on Amazon. You can also find my books anywhere you buy books online. Are you an unknown author? Would you like me to read and review your book? You can send me your book information too, the unknown author podcast at gmail.com.