DNF at 51%.

This book was so boring. I just kept waiting for something to happen, and nothing actually did. The stakes for the main character felt completely false, as she is living in poverty trying to take care of her sister and constantly gambles away the money for their rent - and attacks her brother for doing the same thing. Her brother is a bad character, and you're supposed to dislike him, but this just puts the main character down as a hypocrite. The only difference is that she's winning by cheating.

Also, I know that the book is set in France, so I'm already imagining that the characters are speaking French, but then the author sprinkles in random French words all the time? Are they not already speaking French? Am I supposed to think that all this time they're speaking English? Honestly, it really pulled me out of the book every time I saw the French words.

I really enjoyed the setting of this book and the storyline. At times, the book felt long but a lot happened between the pages.

When I started Enchantée, I was immediately swept up into a world that felt so much more real than what I usually find in a fantasy novel. You are on the streets, page one, with Camille as she off handedly steals what she needs to survive. How is it off handed, you may ask? Well, because Camille can turn every day objects like buttons and pins into coins but that magic doesn’t hold. After a while, the coins will turn back into their original form and Camille has to be well away before that happens. Magic is rare and the person in possession of it is at risk of being blackmailed or persecuted.

She and her sister, Sophie, have had a hard time. Their parents died of small pox (I believe) and their brother, who was once loving and kind, has turned to drink and now drinks away any money they bring in to the point that they are nearly homeless. One evening, the brother demands money from his sisters and when she refuses to bend to his will, he beats Camille. After that, she is determined to escape her brother by any means possible, even if that means turning to magic the her mother swore her to never touch.

What follows is a whirlwind of wonder. The magic allows Camille into Versailles where she intends to gamble and use her gifts to change cards, allowing her to win enough money to get her and her sister away from their abusive brother.

I became completely absorbed by Camille’s romps with the gentry at Versailles, even as she soaked them for money. Of course, there is an evildoer out to ruin everything Camille strives for and she has to figure a way to best them without giving up the freedom from poverty she has tried so hard to achieve.

We have a wonderful love story that melted made my shriveled little heart swell, we see the beginning of the French Revolution, and witness a young woman reach for her dreams. Every moment of this story drew me in and made me want more. The atmosphere was rich and the cast of characters fascinating. Being set at the start of the Revolution I expected to see more of Marie Antoinette but surprisingly she took up very little page time. Now that I’m through with the book, I think if she had been featured more it would have taken too much away from the story of Camille and that would not have worked at all so it was the right call.

I loved this book. I loved the writing, the story, the characters, every last part of it. My only qualm is that I wish we had been giving a little more detail about the first riots of the Revolution. They are a significant moment in history, moments that changed everything, and they aren’t given more than a couple of paragraphs that I don’t think truly conveyed their importance.

If you enjoy historical fiction with a dash of something “other” then I think you will fall in love with this book every bit as much as I did. I highly recommend it.

A compellingly beautiful tale of magic, intrigue and deception, set against the backdrop of eighteenth-century Paris on the cusp of revolution. So it says in other reviews and i tend to agree.

Utterly enchanting

Thank you Netgalley for a copy for an honest review

A compellingly beautiful tale of magic, intrigue and deception, set against the backdrop of eighteenth-century Paris on the cusp of revolution.

Yeah, they weren't kidding with this description. I'm not usually one for historical novels but this one just grabbed me and swept me away. I loved the characters, the plot and the relationships but it was the descriptions that really made the book.
From the opulent palace to the dirty streets, the setting almost became a character in itself and I was left blinking whenever I returned to the real world.
I would highly recommend this to anyone, regardless of whether they liked Historical novels or not.

I will not be giving feedback on this book as I couldn’t really get into it but I think others may enjoy it.

The book was actually very good but I predicted everything that happened in the first two hundred pages and that did make the rest of its book lose its charm.

I really enjoyed the setting of this, I feel like Paris is under utilised in historical fiction, and the blend of magic was really well done too. The imagery and descriptions were beautiful, and it made me really like the characters. That said, I feel like at times the book was a bit too meandering and there are parts of the book that do not drive the plot forward making it a slow read, not in a good way.

Overall I enjoyed the book, although I've since discovered this is now being turned into a series and I think I personally preferred this as a standalone and will not be picking up future books.

A very enchanting novel indeed!

Enchantée is set in the dying days of the Ancien Regime, and perfectly captures the building dissatisfaction and civil unrest building in Paris while the nobility party away in Versaille with Queen Marie Antoinette. Camille and her sister Sophie are very endearing characters and I found myself rooting for them from the start. Less so their brother, Alain, who I was wishing all sorts of miseries upon! The girls are struggling to get by, trying to scrape together enough coin to eat and to buy medicine while worrying about how the heck they're going to pay the rent, only for Alain to wander in drunk and in debt and ruin everything. It definitely got the sympathy flowing in the girls' direction!

This isn't just a historical novel though, it has magic weaved throughout it. Camille can do simple magics at the start of the book, turning scrap metal into coins that hold their shape just long enough to fool a shopkeeper.; Even with these tricks, life is so hard for them and it's hard to see any way out of their predicament. But desperation leads to other magical secrets locked away by her deceased mother. With a glamoured dress and makeup box she can change her appearance, pretend to be someone she's not, and, ensorcelled like that, she heads to Versaille, the decadent playground of the bored aristocracy, to win her fortune by cheating at cards.

I loved the way Enchantée deals with magic. Even with it, Camille's life is no easier, and using it comes at an ever increasing price. There are other magicians too, and she soon gets pulled into a web of manoeuvres and manipulations. The tension builds dramatically as schemes come to fruition and debts are called in, leading to a very exciting and dramatic climax.

And then there's the balloon. The balloon definitely deserves a mention. For as well as magic, this book has hot air balloons, a fledgling science in the period and one that is exciting, thrilling and expensive! I really enjoyed seeing Camille establishing two new lives, one as herself with the aeronauts, taking to the skies to break out of her everyday difficulties, and one as a mysterious baroness with notable luck at the card tables of Versaille. Watching the tension between these two aspects of her life is quite fascinating, especially when she discovers they're not quite as separate as she'd assumed. I also thought Lazare, the half-Indian aeronaut was a fantastic character. It's great to see more people of colour in historical fiction and I thought the attitudes towards him, and his own feelings, were really well realised.

Enchantée is a book about hiding yourself, whether through 'la magie' or good, old-fashioned pretence. It's about stepping into a role and making people believe that you belong there. But it's also about the dangers of temptation. From the very start, we see Alain struggling, or just losing, his battle against drink, gambling and ever increasing debt. And yet once Camille gets to Versaille we see her go through the same things. The "just one more time" excuse is used with alarming frequency, as there's always a good reason to gamble for one more night, to use the magic one more time, despite the risks and the cost. It's one thing seeing it one of the book's villains. Seeing it in the heroine too is chilling and a powerful statement.

Enchantée, c'est magnifique!

I gave this book a quick try, and ultimately decided to DNF -- my tastes have changed since I requested this. Many thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book!

This historical fiction is set Paris on the cusp of a revolution. However, added in to the story is the element of magic, this magic has a price though. The price is sorrow.
Within the story is an alternating story where young girls sell themselves while the rich enjoy life at the palace of Versailles. It is easy to get swept along within the story of the nobles even when you feel you should hate them. There is also some romance in there with people who don’t quite fit.

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

For Camille Durbonne, living in 1789 Paris is not all parties and elegance. At 17, she is an orphan, and having to look after her younger sister, Sophie, after their brother, Alain, drink and gambles their money away. Using the petit magie that she has control over, she can transform scraps of metal into coins, but only temporarily. As the price of grain continues to rise, and the rich become even more extravagant in Versailles, Camille needs to do everything she can to escape Alain's clutches, and protect herself and Sophie from the revolution that is about to occur. When Alain goes too far, and they are at risk of becoming homeless, Camille uses the burnt box full of magical objects to transform herself into a beautiful widowed Baroness de la Fontaine, able to be received at court, and finds herself swept into the glory of Versailles. What started out as a plan to gamble - and use her magic to ensure she won - to have just enough money for the rent, soon takes over Camille's life, and she finds herself at risk of even more powerful magicians, and losing her heart to the handsome balloonist, Lazare. Will she manage to control herself, or will her double lives destroy her?

I've had this book on my TBR since November 2018, when I was sent an ARC of it, but somehow it fell further and further down my list until I just realised back in January about it. I found Enchantée to be a book that drew you in, and was lyrical and magical, and you could almost picture Versailles in all of it's finery, contrasted with the backstreets of Paris. Camille had always known she had magic, but it was only really recently, since the deaths of her parents that she had started to use it, but only in small amounts. Now that she's even more desperate, she uses stronger magic, but the price is almost too much - some of her blood to keep the spell alive. I really felt for Camille, and the difficult situation she found herself in. Alain was a cruel bully, who was more interested in finding a wealthy husband for 15 year old Sophie, and spending what little they had on drink and gambling than actually doing his job, and caring for his family. Camille was much better when she managed to get herself and Sophie away, but still, it was a hard price to pay. Sophie has always been told she was beautiful, and would at some point marry a wealthy man. Because of her illness and subsequent recovery, she is still weak, but does become increasingly jealous of Camille, and the stories her sister tells her of Versailles, and the court life. I didn't really like Sophie, if I'm honest, and because of her, there were a lot of hurdles that Camille had to overcome. However, with her young age, and illness, you could somewhat forgive her for it all, as she had been tricked by those wanting to get to Camille's magic.

The romance between Camille and Lazare was sweet, but some times I felt it was a little cliched. Lazare is a balloonist, trying to perfect the perfect airship, and meets Camille when she saves him from crashing. He's living a double life too, as a member of a wealthy family, the Marquis de Sablebois, welcome at Versailles, and hiding this from the world. When they meet up while Camille is in disguise, he's flirtatious, and seems to enjoy the company from the Baroness more than from plain old Camille. The conclusion, and all of the twists and turns there are with the mysterious Victomte de Seguin, did make me want to read on to the sequel, Liberté, and I'm glad I finally got around to this one.

I was so looking forward to this book but unfortunately it just didn't work for me. I can usually handle a slow burn book but I didn't feel there was enough to carry Enchantee. The character development just didn't happen for me although the world building was delightful.

I love historical fiction, but even more so when there is a dash of magic thrown in. Camille uses the magic her mother taught her to help them survive. Yet when the money she had saved to pay their rent is stolen, Camille reluctantly turns to darker magic. She infiltrates the Court of Versailles using a powerful illusion spell to transform her outer appearance. While there she uses her magical skills to win at various games of chance. I loved it!

I had high hopes for this and this sounds right up my street.

However, this didn't tick my boxes. The writing is sweeping and flowery and, while this works for this, I found the slowness of the plot and the pacing a problem. Plus, the lack of urgency over the main characters's situation didn't make me fear or care.

This is a very much "It's not you, it's me" read. I might try again in the future as might not be in right headspace but don't hold your breath on that.

Unfortunately I no longer wish to review this book as the first few chapters did not reel me in. Thank you for the opportunity.

Paris, my favourite city. I wanted to love this book. The blurb drew me in and gave me an excitement about what was to come. Although at times the plot and characters gripped my attention I found that there were places where I had to force myself to continue as the story line just seemed to plateau.

Paris, 1789. Camille is trying her best to take care of her younger sister Sophie, following the death of their parents from smallpox. They are living in poverty, and at the same time having to deal with their older brother Alain who is a violent drunk, and a gambler. Camille was taught magic by her mother and she uses these gifts to change her appearance so she can visit the palace of Versailles and take part in card games for money. The magic also allows her to change cards and she amasses enough money to escape their abusive brother. But the magic takes it toll on her and she grows weaker.

She is also conflicted as she develops feelings for Lazare, a hot air enthusiast but also a member of the aristocracy - she longs to be herself but worries that he won't want to be associated with her when he discovers the truth about her.

Suspense, intrigue, magic and secrecy are key themes in this interesting and mystical tale.

DNF'd at 25%

I really struggled with this book. I was REALLY bored by the premise and I just couldn't find one single reason to carry on with the book. So I decided to DNF it. Really gutted to be honest as I had pretty high hopes for this one.

Unfortunately in the time since requesting this book my reading taste and interest has changed and therefore I will no longer be reading this book. I did read several chapters back then and enjoyed what I did read, and have heard nothing but good reviews from peers and other reviews! The world sounds mystifying and I'm sad that my opportunity has been missed.