Enchantée by Gita Trelease is a YA historical fantasy set at the time of the French Revolution. The story has elements of fact with events and people from history, there is also magic….

Camille family had never had much money and when her parents die of smallpox (prevalent at that time) Camille and her siblings are left alone.

Camille’s older brother is abusive to Camille and her sister and to protect them, Camille begins to practice dark magic…..and transforms herself as a baroness to enable her to enter the Palace of Versailles to try to make money by gambling..

An involved story that’s slow to build with lovely, descriptive writing by Gita Trelease, with some great characters and the relationship between Camille and her sister, Sophie is very strong and emotional. I loved the historical part too….of Paris at such a turbulent time.

I would like to thank the Author/the Publishers/NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book for free in exchange for a fair and honest review

A really enjoyable read of two young sisters and how they navigate their way through family dramas and sadness, experience romance for the first time, as well as the magical ability they rely on changing into something greater.

I did not delve into this book aiming to criticise the well traversed route of young adult fiction and magic; instead I felt like the setting of Paris gave the story a slightly more interesting edge in a saturated market. The gritty undertones and reality of life in that era that we glimpse, particularly at the beginning, made me far more interested in the story than others I have read recently. The shift to decadent balls and the wealthy side of Paris kept my interest and I really just enjoyed being swept away to a different time!

Will be recommending to some of my students who I know enjoy this genre.

Was really intrigued by this book, the description and cover pulled me in and I was not disappointed.

If you love Night Circus and Caraval then this book is just for you.

Magic, history this book has it all

Enchantee is one of the best books I have read for a while. Gita Trelease has set this book in 1789 in Paris, and tells the story from the perspective of Camille. Enchantee sees Camille growing up after the loss of her parents, and taking her younger sister under her wing. Camille faces a number of twists and turns over the course of this book, and each one kept me wanting to know more.

Camille is the typical female protagonist, as she is the scrappy main character making a sacrifice in order to protect her family. As a reader, I have read this trope numerous times, yet Gita seems to write it excellently. I enjoyed seeing Camille turn into a strong and independent character, and I fought for her so much.

The magical aspect was well-written, and a magical dress is something that could have been over-played. However, this book writes this in such a way to differentiate from other fantasy books.

There are plenty of characters to fawn over, with my favourites being Lazare and Chandon. Lazare is fascinating, as he shows that people are not who they seem. Whereas Chandon is the character who I wish was my best friend.

There was definitely the issue of social class through this book, and how appearances can definitely be deceiving, both for Camille dressing up, and Lazare dressing down. The book shows that anyone can pretend to be whoever they want, as long as they look the part.

Enchantee is the debut for Trelease, who is an approachable author via social media. Trelease has clearly done her research into Paris, and France in general. Trelease has included translations in her bibliography, which I thought was handy. I am excited for whatever she publishes in the future!

Enchantee is definitey a book I plan on re-reading in the future. This book is suitable for fans of The Night Circus and Caraval. I will no doubt be shouting from the rooftops about this book for a long time.

Enthralled and captivated, I couldn't put this book down. Paris is on the brink of revolution but the decadence of the Royal courts still exist. Camille is orphaned and left to raise her 15 year old sister. They are destitute with only Camille's wits and fragile magical ability, which lead her to the royal court in the hopes of making her fortune. But nothing is as it seems and she gets drawn into the deceit and deception and allure of a world she doesn't belong to.

The book has a touch of the "Night Circus" magic but at the same time felt completely different and original. It weaved history and fantasy together successfully. I was spell bound and completely absorbed in a tale that made magic feel natural. Lots of philosophical messages about life, but mostly a beautiful captivating read.

This book caught my eye nd immediately captured my imagination. With its vivid descriptive txt I felt like I was there myself. 17 ur old Camille uses magic she’s picked up from her mother to forge a better life for her nd her sister. It has everything grandeur, poverty, magic, trickery. Just a book I thoroughly enjoyed and yet it’s different from my usual genre. I thought I would give it a try nd delighted I did. It’s fab nd ticks all the boxes. A fab read

From the description, I expected this book to be lush and luxuriant, full of descriptions of wealth and excess. What I didn’t expect was the way this was used to great effect to provide contrast between the Haves and Have-Nots, and the way this threaded a decent amount of social commentary through the narrative.

Something about this book feels very timely. Set in the days prior to the French Revolution, Camille is a revolutionary thinker trapped by her station. She has seen the damage the current social structure does – the loss of her father’s print shop for the publication of seditious and libellous materials, followed by abject poverty and the death of her parents from smallpox. All around her people are starving as prices rise whilst incomes stagnate, and the aristocrats live untouched. History repeats itself, and given the rising calls for increased taxes on the rich – the world’s billionaires could end world poverty seven times over between them, but rather than paying his staff a decent wage, the world’s richest man Jeff Bezos thinks it would be better to put that money into funding a space programme instead – the topics feel rather near the knuckle. Perhaps it could be seen as heavy-handed, but I wonder if that it because it is just so pertinent to current society. After all, it’s just historical fact, but historical fact which is… politically charged. It’s hard to say for certain, but I did find myself thinking “eat the rich” increasingly more as the book continued.

The way it subtly shows addiction is worth noting too. Camille constantly makes excuses for never stopping the magic, or the gambling. The goalposts are always shifting. First it was enough to pay the rent owed. Then it was enough to cover three months of rent. Then it was enough to move house, and cover the more expensive rent there – and then enough to rent a shop for Sophie and start a printing press for herself. Even as the magic drains and wrecks her, she keeps finding reasons for why she can’t stop yet. The parallels to drug addiction are clear, her hands shake when she isn’t using the magic, it ages her prematurely, and eats at her from the inside out. Add to this a grief she hasn’t finished processing over the literal death of her parents and figurative death of her brother, a flight instinct that never shuts down, and the political climate leading up to the storming of the Bastille, it’s no wonder poor Camille feels like she needs to use a crutch to try and find a way out of the situation. I would warn for triggering material in terms of domestic violence, and portrayal of addiction.

There are so many crossed tensions from different parts of this book, all the different storylines weaving together and bringing their own problems and stressors, but they are all balanced really well. The setting as well is atmospheric without being oppressive – the details really paint a picture and ground the piece in its historical setting neatly, without feeling like it is trying too hard to prove anything.

Whilst the timing of this book was perfect for creating a narrative full of conflict and tension, I found the ending a little… uncomfortable. The storming of the Bastille happens approximately three quarters of the way through the book, momentum for the Revolution is beginning, and 80% of the main cast are aristocrats, but the book ends scarce months – possibly even weeks – after that. Everyone is still in France, there are some murmurs about darker things to come, but nothing more. Which is odd, because the narrative feels completed, not open for sequels, yet we know that over the coming months things are going to become increasingly more dangerous for these characters. It seems strange to leave them at such a point, when it’s not a book naturally crying for further volumes. I’d rather the time jump was a bit longer, rather have seen them protected from history, but for me the ending left them at the beginning of a much greater threat than the one they just faced.

Perhaps my other, minor, niggle would be that the social commentary – whilst timely, apt, and very well executed (eat the rich) – perhaps overshadows the plot at times. I’d liked to have seen more drawing out of Camille’s time at court, of the waters and politics she had to navigate. But that is, as I said, very minor, and I did enjoy the novel a lot.

Briefly:

A lush fantasy that doesn’t romanticise poverty or shy away from calling out the different standards of living between social classes in a way which – intentionally or otherwise – somewhat mirrors the tensions present in today’s society (eat the rich).
It also does a good job of portraying addiction, and the impact it can have on a person mentally and physically.
That said, it was difficult to have a happy ending without perhaps an uncomfortable betrayal of sorts of these values, and there is a slight feeling of “the aristocrats are evil! Except these aristocrats, because we like them.”
Equally uncomfortable was the fact that the ending left the characters charging headlong into the French Revolution, all in particularly vulnerable positions.
Rating: 4/5 – it was an enjoyable and lush read, I think I would have just liked either that further guarantee of safety for the characters I’d become invested in, and maybe a little more smoothing over from Camille’s initial political mindset to her final position.

I really wanted to love this. Historical fiction, fantasy elements, FRANCE (I really want to go to France), aristocracy, secrets, court life...what more could you possibly want? I had heard incredible things about this book, it sounded fascinating and that cover it's beautiful)...I was prepared to love it. My expectations were high. However, this book fell quite short of them. I was expecting intrigue, heart-pounding tension, and a spellbinding romance. Although I got moments of that, the majority of this book featured dull characters, a bland plot and insta-love. I wasn't as enchanted by this book as I'd hoped.

Enchantee did start by reeling me into the story. An aspect that was executed perfectly was the atmosphere the author created. I felt as if I was in Paris, navigating the poverty-stricken streets filled with thieves and beggars, and then walking the treacherous, dazzling, magical paths of Versailles. I could feel the heady weight of sorrow and fear clinging to the air, and I could feel the raucous recklessness among the French aristocrats. There were several moments I was so absorbed by the novel, I forgot I was reading. The descriptions of the palace, of the clothing and of the darker side of the Parisian streets were described with such detail that I could easily lose myself in the world.

I also thought the author’s writing style was beautiful. The sentences flowed gracefully into one another. One of the things that often prevent me from loving a book is a wooden, staccato writing style. Luckily, Enchantee was devoid of this. The writing was scrumptious, detailed and lyrical. It made falling into the world that much easier. However, I did get quite frustrated with the French phrases that were on practically every page. Only once I’d finished my e-arc I realised there was a glossary of French terms at the back, which would’ve helped a lot. I knew some of the phrases from the bit of French I know, but the phrases that I didn’t know often pulled me out of the story.

Another aspect that was handled well was the depiction of how addiction can completely change someone and derail them. Camille’s brother becomes addicted to alcohol and gambling, which puts them in a position even worse than they were in before. Camille also gets drawn into the world of addiction thanks to gambling and magicking glamour. The author showed how the characters became more ensnared and entangled, wanting to quit, but never quite being able to. I could see the effects addiction has on an individual and their family with heartbreaking, startling clarity.

Atmosphere, writing and the portrayal of addiction was executed brilliantly. However, there were quite a few things I didn’t like: plot/pacing, characters and romance.

Firstly, the plot and pacing. This book is around 500 pages and it drags. Going into this book, I was expecting thrills, danger, and a plot that has me on the edge of my seat. Instead I got a plot that consists of gambling and romance. It was only when I reached the 70% mark of this book that the plot started going somewhere. There were several times I nearly DNFed this because NOTHING HAPPENED. Literally 80% of this book consisted of Camille gambling and spending time with aristocracy. There were no high stakes and things just happened too easily. There weren’t losses or revelations...not until much later on in the book. Eventually things started getting more interesting as the villain appeared, but even the tension and danger of that was short lived as he was vanquished so easily. I was like...is that it? It was just so completely underwhelming. Due to this book’s length, it really needed a more exciting plot. Reading about Camille working magic and fawning over Lazare wasn’t enough to interest me. Also, the romance takes up a large section of this book too. So just be aware of that if you’re not a fan of heavy romance in your books. I generally love romance taking centre-stage, but not when there’s not enough substance to the romance.

I also found the hot air balloon sub-plot kind of random. After reading the author’s note at the back of the book, I understand that hot air balloons came out round about that time, so that’s why it was included. However, it just felt slightly random and didn’t add all that much to the story.

This leads me onto the second thing: the characters. I need to really like the characters; they need to feel real to me. I didn’t really connect to the characters that much. I started liking them more towards the end, but for the majority of this book I felt quite indifferent to them. Camille is a character that, although didn’t like her a lot, I did respect the lengths she went to and the sacrifices she made in order to save her and her little sister, Sophie. She works hard to make sure they can have security, food and a more comfortable existence. I really admired that about her. Through Camille, the author showed how easy it is to get caught up in glamour and popularity and forget about the essential things, which I thought was an important message to include. Camille also did some stupid things that had me going ???. Like letting really blatant things slip to people when she was in her glamour and directing her attention to them when she was Camille and not her disguise. 🤦🏼‍♀️

There were Sophie, Chandon, Aurélie, and Lazare as the side characters. They were nice enough but they were quite flat. Again, I didn’t feel anything for them. I liked Lazare, the love interest. He was of Indian descent and challenged the racism that perpetuated the Versailles palace. He had big dreams, and he was caring and respectful. I eventually really grew to like Lazare and thought he was a wonderful love interest. Although I started liking the characters more and not feeling as much apathy towards them, it took me a veeeery long time to get to that point.

Lastly, the romance. It’s insta-love, guys. Camille and Lazare speak, like, one sentence to each other and then she’s thinking about him all the time. Their attraction and longing happened so quickly, it just didn’t feel believable at all. I also get quite frustrated when books go from just meeting to love interests. What happened to being friends first and really knowing the other person? I could see Lazare cares about Camille, but it jut didn’t feel authentic enough, in my personal opinion. At the end of the book, I really liked them together, but there romance just happened way too rapidly.

This wasn’t a bad book. I just felt very underwhelmed, as a lot of the aspects were flat and insubstantial. I just think my expectations were too high, and this book does get good...just at a far later stage than I would’ve liked. A lot of people loved this though, so don’t let me put you off.

I was hoping that Enchantée would be a dazzling, spellbinding read that would sweep me off my feet and deliver me into the jewel-adorned hands of the magical, dangerous, dizzying aristocracy of Versailles. Although there were moments that were akin to this, the majority of this book had me quite bored and waiting for something to happen. Things eventually got better towards the end, but it happened too late for me to like this book as much as I was hoping to.

#Enchantee is a historical drama set in Paris just before and during the revolution. Camille was taught magic by her mother, and now that she and her older brother and younger sister are orphans she uses it to keep them afloat. Soon she discovers a darker form of magic which allows her to enter the court of Versailles and raise the stakes to make enough money support the family comfortably.

The premise sounded like a perfect match for me, and the descriptions of Paris were beautiful, but the story didn’t capture my attention and I found it dragged. I feel if it had been shorter, I would have been gripped. I will still look forward to more of Gita’s work in future!

Thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for my free advance copy in return for an unbiased review.

Sometimes, when I don't know how to review a book, I like to leave it a couple of weeks and then see what I remember about the book. This can go one of two ways. Either the bad stuff fades and I'm left with a positive overall impression, and thus my review ends up more positive than it would otherwise have been, or the positives fade and I just remember the things I liked less about the book. I find this is a good way to work out what my feelings actually *were* about a book, rather than them being confused and clouded as they often are when I've just finished one.

Unfortunately, in the time that's passed since I finished this one, my overall impression has become more negative, so it's in that light that I'll be writing this review.

Firstly, though, I have to say: I did enjoy it. Mostly. It wasn't a book I had to force myself to finish out of sheer stubborness. I was engaged and wanted to know what happened, and I enjoyed finding that out. I also need to say that I'm currently somewhat depressed, and struggling to enjoy things, which may have been a factor in my response to this book.

Because... well. Overall, it didn't win me over. I was left with the impression that while the concept and premise were *extremely cool* and I *might* have loved the book, they weren't utilised in such a way as to convince me or make me love it.

It was billed to me as "French Revolution + magic", which sounds fabulous; I'm a big fan of the French Revolution, and also of magic, so I was psyched to see how those things fitted together. But honestly, this was somewhat misleading. The revolution is only just getting started by the end of the book, and even then, it's very much in the background. Which is fine, especially as I understand there's a sequel, but... you know, I thought there'd be more revolutionary behaviour going on, and I was somewhat disappointed that there wasn't. To be fair, that's more an issue of a mismatch between marketing and content, but still.

I also struggled with the constant use of French words throughout, because I found them distracting and unnecessary. It's not that I couldn't understand them -- they're generally comprehensible from context, and even if they weren't, I did French for seven years, so I knew what they meant. But they didn't *need* to be there. The author seemed determined to remind us that it was set in France, but the setting and characters should have been able to do that without them. Since we're ostensibly reading a narrative in translation (after all, they're all gonna be speaking French throughout), to leave some words "untranslated" didn't really make sense, and felt forced and superfluous. I found myself attempting to tune them out, but there were too many for that to be possible.

I really liked the magic system, too, but like the revolutionary aspect, I felt that wasn't utilised as fully as it could have been. I guess that was my problem with all elements of the book: I wanted *more* of the ones I liked (and less of the random use of French). There were a lot of disparate elements going on, though, which meant we never really dug deep enough into any one of them to make me feel like it was real. It was crime AND magic AND hot air balloons AND revolution AND family AND romance AND this and that and so on and so forth, leaving no time for any of those to fully develop.

Finally, I found the main character a bit unnecessarily judgmental in places. Like, I'm sure 18th century Parisian sex workers *weren't* living their best lives, but the way she repeatedly trash-talked them just sat uncomfortably with me, I guess.

Anyway. Like I said: I enjoyed the book. I know it might not seem like it, based on this review, but I did. Just... not as much as I hoped.

This review is on Goodreads (see link). My book blog has been on hiatus for considerably longer than I initially planned, but I hope to try and resurrect it at some point, and at such a time as I do that, hopefully this review will be cross-posted.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC to review- although I did end up with a physical ARC via Book Box Club (aaand I may have purchased the paperback when I saw it in my local Waterstones- I just couldn’t resist it when I saw it in person)

When I first saw the synopsis I couldn’t help but be intrigued- I have quite a love of historical fiction and magical elements so this sounded perfect.

This was definitely more of a slow paced read that some people may take a while to get into, personally I didn’t mind it so much- in fact I LOVED the detail Gita went into when describing the settings and fashion, so it being a slow paced read really sucked me into 1789 Paris.
There was also a lot of French phrases skittered throughout which I felt added to the scenes, luckily even if you don’t speak French it is fairly easy to work out what they are saying- I was quite happy to see a glossary of French terms at the back of the novel so if you aren’t 100% sure you can always look it up. Although, it doesn’t help for the pronunciation so I am sure I destroyed many phrases.

The pacing does pick up more just after half way through, a lot of it before that is world building and introducing us to key characters and the roles they play and how not everything is quite as it seems.

Camille was such an interesting character, likeable but not perfect, she just tried to do whatever she could for her family and that made her quite easy to relate to.

While a lot of Camille’s story line is about her blossoming romance with Lazare I found myself focusing a lot on her friendships (although I will 100% admit I was eagerly waiting for the first kiss) especially Chandon- I feel like he really helped her come into herself and her magic.

I wasn’t too surprised to find out the “twist” with Seguin, I definitely knew there was something “off” about him as soon as we met him.
I would have liked to find out what actually happened to Alain at the end but I feel like Camille and Sophie had the closure they needed when he left, to revisit his story would probably have prolonged their suffering when it was time for them to heal and move on with their lives.

If you like historical fiction I would 100% recommend this, Gita built such a stunning world- if I weren’t so terrified of heights I would almost be tempted to go on a hot air balloon as I was in awe of the descriptions of the views and the emotions Camille felt when flying.

I enjoyed this story and found it interesting to learn about the French court at this time of its history. Recommended for those who enjoy reading lightly different types of books.

I went into this book thinking it was an historical fantasy however, I don't think that's the best way to describe it. To me it was a historical fiction romance infused with magic. That being said I still really enjoyed this book but I just wanted to preface this review by saying the main focus of this book is the characters and the romance as opposed to the magic.

Throughout this book we follow Camille as she tries to make ends meet and provide for her sister, the only family she has left. Camille knows she can do magic and she uses this as a way to better themselves but this comes with consequences. This was quite a slow burn. The writing is very descriptive and can be described as lyrical in places and the story progressed and built up quite slowly. I'm not usually a fan of slow books and, because of this, there were times when I found myself struggling to pick this back up but, when I did I was completely invested in the story. The pace does pick up in the last 25% and we get quite a bit of action and I found myself devouring this portion of the book in one go.

I really liked the characters in this book. I thought Camille was a great main character. She was quite destitute and tries so hard to do whats best for other people and I really admired her for that. She had a lot upon her shoulders and there were times when she didn't always make the best judgements however, I think this just shows how young she still is to have all the responsibility. I liked Camille's relationship with her sister and her aristocrat friends and I loved the romance. It developed slowly throughout the course of the story and when things were revealed to each of the characters they actually listened to one another as opposed to jumping to conclusions as often happens in YA novels. I would of appreciated a bit more development of the villain character. We didn't really find out much about the who, what and why surrounding his story. This did leave an air of mystery surrounding his character but personally I would of liked to of seen this developed a bit more.

Overall I enjoyed this story, the characters and the romance however, I would of liked a bit more development of the magic system in this world. We are introduced to the basics but something is discussed regarding the Queen and magic in the last quarter of the book that I would of loved to have known more about. That being said if your looking for a beautifully written historical romance with and infusion of magic I would recommend giving this one a go.

Trigger warnings for gambling, alcoholism and addiction.

My latest book love! This is a world that's easy to sink into, a world that will enchant you, every world pulling you deeper and deeper in to the story, the character's lives, Paris. Paris around the revolution was a perfect choice for this book. Trelease shows a world of two sides, the starvation and hunger on the streets, people who can't afford bread to feed their families, who can't afford the medicine to treat their sicknesses, who can't afford to pay their rent but on the other side, it's a world of excess. It's a world where people leave picnics unfinished on the steps, who wear a different outfit to every occasion, who spend their time playing games and throwing ridiculous amounts of money away at the gambling tables. Living in these two worlds is fascinating, especially for someone like Camille who crosses between them. Add in magic and it becomes even better.

Like Camille, it's easy for the reader to get caught up in the world of Versailles, to think she's safe and can live in peace with her sister, but Versailles is filled with predators and game playing. The secrets of magic, of the history of the court and its magicians. It's a dark world, which is the best kind when it comes to fiction, in my opinion at least. I loved the danger. I loved how Camille was so addicted to this world and the security it has to offer. I loved the way that it made me simultaneously want her to settle down with Lazare and enjoy a life of safety and hot air balloons. But like Versaille, Lazare is not everything he seems.

I loved the language in this book. The snippets of French made it so easy to feel absorbed in the world. It made the character's voices come alive in my head and reminded me at every turn that this was France. It's sometimes the case that a book can be set somewhere, but you can completely forget it's there because the story could literally be taken and placed somewhere else, but Enchantée was French to it's core. The story was so entwined with France during that time period: in the court of Marie Antoinette and the upcoming revolution. For me, the language used reflected that beautifully.

I could gush and gush about this book, but any more and it would be spoiling plot twists! So instead you'll just have to go and read it for yourself and discover this beautiful, enchanting book.

Themes - family, poverty, gambling, inequality
Likes - atmospheric, descriptions of Paris
Dislikes - French phrases/translations, formulaic, repetitive

This is a unique, different book and I enjoyed it even though I don't usually read fantasy novels. The characters are well developed and the story line kept me interested all the way through.

I found this book very hard to stay interested in. Around the 20% mark very little had happened to catch my attention, and as a result I actually put it down for a few weeks, but I did end up finishing eventually. I think this is more of a problem with me than a problem with the book, as I’ve been very unmotivated reading recently, so I may try to reread and enjoy more, but I’ll still recommend to friends.

What an enchanting read!

Filled with magic, history, love and betrayal, Enchantée is a wonderful story of hopes and dreams.

Beautifully written it captures the history of 18th century Paris with the captivating lure of magic! The characters are so well developed and easy to love. Camille is a fantastic heroine and one that I was routing for from the very first page.
Lazare is a dream come true, from his handsome good looks to his dreamer attitude, he made me fall in love with him and his balloon.

The blend of fact and fiction made this a believable and enjoyable read and one I would highly recommend.

4.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher (Pan Macmillan) for providing a copy. All opinions are my own and provided willingly.

I enjoyed this book and was easily transported to a land where magic exists. The story flows well and set against the background of the unrest in France during the time of Marie Antoinette. The Author captures the difference between the social classes whilst producing a magical novel with great characters.

It ticks all of the boxes for the perfect YA/crossover novel - magic, history, hardship and at the very core a perilous love story. It is also well-written, engaging and a great initiation into the magical world of Versailles. It will be great to revisit Camille and Lazare and see where their journey ahead lies.