Review: Enchanteé

Title: Enchanteé

Author: Gita Trelease

Rating: 4 Stars

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Flatiron / Macmillan

Date Published: 5 February 2019

Goodreads Description: 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, naive 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…

I was given a free copy of this book by PanMacmillan SA in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

General Thoughts

Love, magic, revolution. All the things that make a great YA fantasy. Enchanteé includes all of these, though not in a way I expected. I loved Trelease’s writing and the premise of this book, but it fell a little flat for me.

This book felt like it was trying to be too many things at once. There was just too much going on. It felt like Trelease was trying to cram too many storylines into one book and not all of them make sense.

The worldbuilding was fine, I love the setting of Paris and the brewing revolution, as well as the glitz and glamour of Versailles. The writing was smooth and clean and the book was fun to read. The magic system left me with some questions and felt a little underdeveloped.  Hopefully, it will be developed better in the following books.

Characters

I loved Camille and Sophie. The sisterly bond that they have is great to see in a novel and I enjoyed the scenes between them. Alain, their brother, just made me mad. Lazare was another great character, but the rest I almost can’t remember. It’s an unfortunate side effect of the multiple storylines, there were too many characters.

Overall I enjoyed this book, but it fell a little flat for me.

Let’s Chat

What did you think of Enchanteé? If you liked Enchanteé you might like Escaping from Houdini. Check out my review here.