Enchantee a historical fantasy novel set around the eve of the French revolution. Camille and her family are incredibly poor and the only chance of survival is if Camille practices la magie ordinaire. But changing coins only lasts so long and soon she has to change herself and step through the gates of Versailles to have any hope of surviving.

The Good

The world building in this book was phenomenal! The magic was so interesting and fantastic. I loved all the courtly intrigue and learning about the cost of magic as it went on. Some of the description was so interesting and I found the idea of the glamoire really interesting. It’s something that I’ve only really seen with the fae in the past so it’s interesting to see how it can be used in a different light.

The characters were also really interesting and the whole story was a pretty fun journey. It also seemed historically accurate but…I don’t really know that much about French History. But honestly, this book made me want to learn more.

The Bad

Near the end, I did start getting a little bored. Lying was a common theme which made sense. But when it’s the same unnecessary lie over and over and a character is agonizing over it…things get a little dull.

It wasn’t enough to put me off the book but it did make me roll my eyes a little. I know the lying was so certain things in the plot would happen but I just get so tired of it.

Final Thoughts

This was a pretty damn good book. I’d like to think this book was the end of my slump. I truly enjoyed it.

4/5 stars

This book was BEAUTIFUL. The writing was lush without being stifling, the heroine was flawed without being unlikeable… honestly my gripes with this one are very minor.

This one has a very fulsome blurb. 17-year-old Camille Durbonne is dealing with an alcoholic, abusive older brother and an ill younger sister, Sophie, so she needs all the money she can get. So far the family have just been using la magie ordinaire, little magic: it can turn scrap metal into coins for just long enough to push them onto unsuspecting vendors. But they can’t do this forever, because all the shopkeepers in their neighbourhood are wising up. The next step is to use glamoire, a bigger magic, which can disguise not petty objects but people.

There’s just one problem. Magic always has its price. The petty magic uses sorrow and tears to fuel itself; glamoire uses sorrow and blood. But Camille has no choice, so she’s disguised herself as their ancestress Cécile, Baroness de la Fontaine and taken herself to Versailles. There she uses la magie ordinaire to win card games by cheating. I loved Camille’s no-nonsense attitude here. A lot of YA heroines you see are burdened by scruples, but not Camille. (Okay, I sound like a total criminal right now, but honestly, I love the unrepentant bad-girl heroines). She has a problem, and by God, she’s going to get herself out of it. There’s no squeamishness – quite refreshing.

But when she gets to Versailles she discovers she’s not the only cheater there – or even the only magician. She falls into a friendship with the aristocrats Chandon, his lover Foudriard, their friend Aurélie… and the Vicomte de Séguin, a dangerous, unpredictable young man. Incidentally, for anyone who’s read Les Liaisons Dangereuses, I could see the influence of the Vicomte de Valmont very clearly in Seguin. And I’m not just pulling that out of nowhere – Liaisons is actually referenced in the book!

Seguin is a fascinating villain, charming and utterly opaque. I did knock a star off my rating because of him, though – one of his crucial actions at the end of the book seemed nothing like his character whatsoever, it felt very deus ex machina.

But the sisterly bond between Camille and Sophie was nicely done. Camille’s not a perfect sibling; there were many times I wanted to scream at her for not showing more care about Sophie’s whereabouts and actions. I mean, this is Paris, 1789! She needs to look after her! But Camille’s kind of like one of those people who think they need to work more, earn just a little more money, and then their family will love them more – not realising it’s them the family loves, not the money. It doesn’t help that gambling holds an allure which Camille is not immune to.

The romance was pretty cute. Slightly fast, perhaps, but I loved how it was complicated by all manner of disguises (and not just on Camille’s part). The setting was, mostly, very well realised. I sat a three-hour exam on the whole French Revolution a few months ago, so it’s still very fresh in my mind, and I do think Trelease has captured the dizzy atmosphere of Versailles well.

In short, this is a strong debut (if not perfect, especially at the end).

The synopsis of this book sounded very interesting to me but unfortunately it didn't quite deliver.

I liked the descriptions and images that i could conjure from this book, which were fantastic. However, i felt the story progressed too slowly and the events in the book just weren't exciting enough for me to really get immersed into this story. The better part of the book is in the last 20% or so. I was also expecting a more branched out use of magic from the protagonists and antagonists.

The writing and plot was easy to follow, but there are a lot of French words and phrases and some of them are a little less familiar to know off the bat - although there is an index at the back of the book which provides these. It could mean going back and forth from the story if you're not familiar with them already though.

I felt the villains were underused and had the potential to show much more action and show more depth to just how villainous they could be, but at the end they were a little underwhelming.

For these reasons, i rated this book 2/5.