Paris in 1789. I mean, it sounds magical... and it is magical! I had such high hopes for this as both the premise and the time period/location seemed perfect for the development of a beautiful story. Unfortunately, I found myself not picking this up and that dragged on for most of the book.

I enjoyed the author’s understanding of the period and the world building. However, I just found the character development lacking and some of the main protagonists a bit “annoying” ( for a lack of a better world).

It hurts to say that I was completely underwhelmed by this book. I had wanted to enjoy it so much! It felt a lot like Stephanie Garber's Caraval - but without the fun.

I know bits and pieces about the French Revolution, this book completely immersed me in the time and I learnt a few things along the way. I love how Gita uses historical fact and then plays with it mixing it with magic. I adored this book so much and cannot wait for the next one.

This book was full of magic and interesting characters. Perfect for fans of The Night Circus, this YA title takes readers to the French Revolution and presents a great and magical adventure

K.M.Lockwood
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#WritersReview: Enchantée
Posted on January 12, 2020


Enchantée written by Gita Trelease

published by Macmillan

480 pages in paperback



. . . let this magical historical romance sweep you up and away . . .

SUMMARY FROM AUTHOR’S OWN WEBSITE
PARIS in 1789 is a labyrinth of twisted streets, filled with beggars, thieves, revolutionaries—and magicians…

When smallpox kills her parents, Camille Durbonne must find a way to provide for her frail, naïve sister while managing her volatile brother. Relying on petty magic—la magie ordinaire—Camille painstakingly transforms scraps of metal into money to buy the food and medicine they need. But when the coins won’t hold their shape and her brother disappears with the family’s savings, Camille must pursue a richer, more dangerous mark: the glittering court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

With dark magic forbidden by her mother, Camille transforms herself into the ‘Baroness de la Fontaine’ and is swept up into life at the Palace of Versailles, where aristocrats both fear and hunger for la magie. There, she gambles at cards, desperate to have enough to keep herself and her sister safe. Yet the longer she stays at court, the more difficult it becomes to reconcile her resentment of the nobles with the enchantments of Versailles. And when she returns to Paris, Camille meets a handsome young balloonist—who dares her to hope that love and liberty may both be possible.

But la magie has its costs. And when Camille loses control of her secrets, the game she’s playing turns deadly. Then revolution erupts, and she must choose—love or loyalty, democracy or aristocracy, freedom or magic—before Paris burns…

FROM A READER’S POINT OF VIEW:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . .

Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities

Enchantée illustrates both aspects of Paris in 1789, though with more emphasis on the best and most enchanting as you might expect. It is a revolutionary era Cinderella in many ways – but our heroine Camille has to be her own Fairy Godmother and the magic comes at a price.

The evocation of the beauties of Versailles and the aristocratic world is charming, but the despair and suffering of the poor are not overlooked. We see both sides of the conflict and to it, Gita Trelease adds a glamorous yet dangerous web of magic. Further entertaining complications are added by both the new science of ballooning, and the attractions of a lively and handsome aeronaut.

It’s a sumptuous, beguiling read with all sorts of perils and possibilities for Camille to negotiate her way through. Escapist in the nicest possible way – takes you to another time and place. If that’s what you fancy, let this magical historical romance sweep you up and away.

If you enjoyed films such as The Aeronauts (2019) for its aerial adventure and back in 1988, Dangerous Liaisons for its cruel yet clever dialogue, this will appeal. On the literary front, readers of Sophia Bennet’s historical works Following Ophelia and Unveiling Venus will probably love the recreation of a different period and its romance. Clearly influenced by Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, it is in no way as voluminous or as difficult to read. (I should point out I loved Susanna Clarke’s novel.) If you liked the TV series, then Enchantée might well entertain.


PLUS POINTS AS AN EDITOR, REVIEWER AND WRITER:
character arcs for both sisters convince
pleasing balance of light and dark
humorous repartee – often with implicit peril
cleverly plotted – all facets come into play
a handy Press Kit on website
a useful Book Club Guide
extract on NetGalley convinced me to give a debut a try
sequel to come out next year
This entry was posted in Review and tagged #writersreviews, Enchantee, Gita Trelease, historical, magical, romance

I do love an alternative history! This story marries historical fact to the magical fantasy world in a successful and immersive way. I enjoyed the courts and all the glitter and glamour of that time. An enjoyable read!

Enchantee tells the story of Camille, a wielder of forbidden magic in 18th century Paris, who uses her abilities to carve out a meagre living for her sister and gambling, abusive brother. With her brother taking all her earnings to fund his habit, starving and desperate, Camille turns to hiding amongst the aristocracy during a turbulent time in French history, in order to enter the high stakes gambling tournaments to survive.

I loved the magical system in this book, it is like no other magical system that I have ever read about before.
The magical and fantastical elements of the story and the way they are intertwined with the glamorous and the dark details of Paris makes this book especially great
I would absolutely recommend this book!

Thank you to NetGalley, Gita Trelease and Pan Macmillan for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

There's definitely potential here. It just feels like it's either too long for the story or not long enough for the concept. It is beautifully written, but I really struggled to find the motivation to read it and it took me a lot longer to finish than it should have.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC without obligation to review.

I really wanted to love this but I couldn't! I thought this had moments that the writing and characterisation was really good and others were the story was a mess. This had so much potential and I feel like it is 85% complete and needed a little bit more tweaking to be at the next stage,

A beautifully written book centred on the French revolution, a thrilling story of poverty, deceit, magic, hope and love. The characters come to life instantly and the reader really feels alongside, witnessing all. Loved it!

I cannot say how much I wanted to love this book... Having never really read a historical fantasy novel before, and the hype surrounding this book, I thought this would be a good one to try. Unfortunately, I ended up DNFing this book at around 20%. Despite a unique magic system and interesting premise, it was the protagonist Camille and (what I felt was) a slow start that caused me to give up on Enchantee. Perhaps once I have more of an appreciation for the subgenre, I will return to this, as I have heard nothing but praise for this book from many of my fellow bloggers. Nonetheless, for the time being, I have to give this book a two star rating - I enjoyed most of what I read, but it simply wasn't enough to hold my attention.

This book was mind-blowing for me it had it all, stunning writing style, epic romance, stunning characters, the fact it was set in the 17 hundreds made it so much more magical I loved the major historicals points to it and the way the author kept it as close to authentic as she could.
The characters were so different from each other and that's something I loved so much about this book. overall if you're looking for a periodical style book with an amazing cast, storyline and so much magic and action in it this is definitely the one for you.
Writing style 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩
Characters 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩
Story 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩

Enchantee tells the story of Camille, a wielder of forbidden magic in 18th century Paris, who secretly uses her abilities to carve out a meagre living for her sister and gambling, abusive brother. With her brother taking all her earnings to fund his habit, starving and desperate, Camille turns to hiding amongst the aristocracy during a turbulent time in French history, in order to enter the high stakes gambling tournaments to survive.

I really wanted to love this. With such a unique combination of fantasy and revolutionary France setting, I was desperate to see how well the author blended these two major elements together. The concept is certainly creative, and not one I’ve come across before (especially in YA). For the most part, I think the author has taken on too much. There’s too much history and information already around this time period, and when you add on fantastical elements and the associated magical systems that come with it, that’s a lot of information to get out to the reader. And this magical system is complicated, with different types of magic that all do different things - changing appearance, changing objects and making objects sentient. It’s just all too much, and really bogs down the pace of the story, making it very tedious in places as the author spends way too long trying to explain everything instead of moving the plot forward. Simplifying things, such as parring back the magic, may have been beneficial in this case.

The writing itself is good, and reads well, with some lovely descriptions of France during this time period and the various opulent parties and settings Camille finds herself in. Camille herself is also a decent character, who exudes an inner strength and warmth for her sister that’s makes her feel well rounded and developed beyond the stereotypical heroine with secrets. She’s a bit of a hypocrite, hanging out with the upper classes she inwardly despises while watching her fellow citizens starve, but I can live with that given her backstory. The secondary characters, especially Seguin, could have been fleshed out more - again to help drive the plot forward and give it some direction. He’s a bit too black and white and predictable.

Wonderful concept that has so much potential that gets weighed down by a slow, action free plot and an overly complicated magical system. Disappointing.

I didn't finish this as I couldn't get into it. I may try again in the future but at the time of reading it just wasn't for me.

Thank you for a copy of this book Netgalley.

I loved the idea of a historical fiction with fantasy, it intrigued me so much.

I loved the magical system in this book, it is like no other magical system that I have ever read. In parts I feel like it could have been developed a bit better but I enjoyed it all the same. It reminded me a bit of Aladdin and I love Aladdin.

The atmosphere is the main focus in this book which is done so well. I do feel that because such attention was given to the atmosphere the plot somewhat fell a bit flat at points. Description is great in this book, it is done so well, but sometimes I feel like pages and pages of description was a bit pointless and urged the author to get back onto the plot and develop it further.

I';m not sure there should be a sequel to this book, I feel like a sequel may appear forced and ruin the enjoyment of this book. I think it personally should be left where it is.

I would recommend this book and I would read another book by this author, just not one in the same series.

I was really looking forward to this as the premise was so good. Unfortunately, it is far too long, full of cliches and incredibly repetitive. It tells the story of Camille, a young girl living in Paris in 1789, who uses magic to transform base metals into coin to support her siblings. When given the opportunity to attend the parties at the Court of Versailles, she finds herself in a completely different, and dangerous, world. Sounds great! Unfortunately, the magical elements are not explored in any great detail and instead are simply used as a plot point to move the glacially paced narrative forward. The characters are really one dimensional and their motivations are inexplicable at times. The narrative jumps around and feels disjointed, with the same things happening again and again. This is a 400+ page book and honestly, there is enough plot here for about half of that. There are some beautiful descriptions of Versailles and the decadence of the parties, but other than that, I found this really disappointing.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I'm torn on my feelings concerning this book. On one hand I feel as though I should love it and I can't deny that the writing is beautiful. But at the same time I couldn't quite get myself to care for the characters. I feel as though the set up concerning the magic system and world building is very interesting but the more I read the less interested I became. I feel as though a lot of people will love this but sadly I just didn't. If you enjoy very slow paced historical fantasy you might love this but I just didn't feel it sadly. I am however interested to see what Gita Trelease releases in the future as she has a wonderfully lyrical writing style and I think she has great things ahead of her.

La magie ordinaire needs sorrow to work and Camille has plenty of her own sorrow to use to help her turn scrap metal into coins. Her sister Sophie is still recovering from the smallpox and brother Alain drinks and gambles with what little money they have. Life is so different after the death of their parents.

Camille is a fabulous lead. She’s resilient and has plenty of grit, seeing opportunities and taking them. The way she acts in the field to avert disaster is brilliant. She already had my emotions hooked in and from that moment on became my heroine. I loved her sense of adventure and how she pushed past limiting boundaries. She has a questing spirit and is not afraid to commit to a cause that she believes in. A positive role model for us all. 🙂

I loved:

the workshop and all it represented
the printing press and how it worked
the dress and the power it had

So very unique.

This story absorbed me. I tried to slow down to savour it. Leading up to the climax I just couldn’t – it was exciting and terrifying in equal measure. I had to keep reading putting everything else aside.

1789 Paris and Versailles come to life with all its finery and glitter … and shadow side too. There was so much secrecy and layers of undercurrents in the etiquette of court. The court debauchery was magnificent. I was captivated.

A stunning debut for all ages.

This is a really solid book - it tackles a lot of different "big questions" against the backdrop of the start of the French Revolution with surprising ease; what does the face we show the world mean? does nobility matter? do we make our own luck? should we marry for security if we need to? how can we convince others not to judge us for the face we have to show the world?

This is well written - and by that I mean, it isn't patronising in its tone despite being aimed at a YA audience, which I really appreciate. Combine that with the subject matter and I would say this is a good book for anyone interested in French history, magical fantasy and/or YA fiction to pick up. I would, however, say that this felt a little long for me.

That said, this book definitely suffered from me reading it in a week where I struggled to concentrate on anything - it took me a really long time to get into it and I don't think that was the fault of the book, so maybe it only felt long because I was being ridiculous.

This was a disappointing read, I was fully prepared for a fascinating magical story set in historical France, a whimsical location. But I was utterly bored throughout this entire novel, there was nothing to keep my interested.
The concept sounded brilliant, a very cute and at times dangerous story of a young girl weaving magic to enable her & her sister to afford to eat. But it was such a plain story, there was hardly any drama or risks, nothing powerfully gripping. The supposed twists were so predictable and lacked any kind of surprise.
There was also far too many characters, it was hard to keep track of who was who and what was happening with each person. Especially considering most of the characters used their formal titles rather than simple names.
I did like the MC Camille and the biracial side character Lazare as well as the magic but the plot wasn't good enough for me.