You can finish this book in less than a week. Rhea, the protagonist, gets a strange marriage proposal from wealthy man name Lord Crevan. She doesn’t want to accept but she thinks about her family’s well-being and the social norms of “never” turning down a Lord’s offer. Had this been today, Lord Crevan would get a door to the face and a restraining order. Anyway, she half-hearting agrees and gets thrown into a world of chaos. She meets golem birds, a friendly little hedgehog, and five other wives. It would be six but one them is dead. She has to do all these task Lord Crevan assigns her or else he will marry her.This book literally made me shout for joy when the antagonist, Lord Crevan, was hurt (Rhea stabbed him) and eventually killed (demons took him away). He deserved it. I liked this story and was able to follow along without a problem. The plot is a reinvention of the usual trope, young girl gets put in a dire situation and must become stronger and smarter to succeed. Apparently, magic is a common thing in this era. There are gremlins, witches, demons, sorcerers, and beings other than humans. What makes this plot crazy is the fact that Lord Crevan’s sinister plan is quite petty. He takes certain attributes from his victims that HE feels is being wasted on and gives them to other people who need it. You would think this was a generous thing but he takes them without regard for the people he takes it from. He took the Clock wife’s death, Sylvia’s eyes, Maria’s magic, and Ingeth’s voice. It is unclear why he did these things and what his whole agenda was. I would have liked the author to elaborate more on that. Also, I would have like to see the other wives’ backstories. How and why were they chosen by Crevan? Apparently, Crevan was a smooth talker with some of them. It was never acknowledged by Crevan that he was going to take Rhea’s youth, though it was suspected by both Maria, Rhea, and the Clock Wife. Last thing. At the end, Maria tells Rhea that she could possibly be a witch and should consider training under her; one indication being that she had a hedgehog who was her familiar. The author hinted at the possibly of Rhea having some type of magic ability twice in the book. I figured this was coming and was glad the author did not do the stereotypical “at the last second the main character realizes they have power and uses it to kill the villain.” There would not have been enough character development to justify it. However, the end result was not that exciting. The Clock Wife came out and basically ended her contract with Crevan, thus nullifying their marriage. This makes me think that Crevan continuously makes contracts with women in order to postpone the agreements he had with the demons that took him away. I would have liked an explanation about that.I see that a lot of other reviews have said that this tale is based off an old fairytale called Bluebeard Tale. I have never heard of this. Maybe I should go and check it out.