Book review: ‘Enchantée’ by Gita Trelease

There is no doubt I have officially spent most of my summer reading. On a plane, in the car, on the beach, I just seemed to always have the right book at the right moment, the one I couldn’t put down until I’d finished it. Amongst quite a few French books and a re-reading of ’Love and Gelato’ (which I’ve told you about in my summer book recommandations) I notably read ‘Enchantée’, a teen historical novel set at the dawn of the French Revolution. I can’t say it’s definitely over but I was a history nerd for a long time and the French Revolution has always been one of my favourite periods. So when I spotted this book in Waterstones earlier this year, I knew I had to give it a try.

Starting this book, I was almost immediately immersed in 17th century Paris with its dirty, crowded streets and the rising anger of its people. The book tells the story of 17 year old orphan girl, Camille, who uses magic turning scraps of metals into coins to provide for her family. In parallel, she is also dragged into the secret scientific haven of fore-thinking young men who are looking to develop a hot air balloon. Soon, Camille must do more to protect her sister from their brother and the poverty that could quickly eat them up, which leads to her having to use more magic. Transforming herself completely to take the appearance of a baroness, Camille is able to access a new world: the hidden and glamorous court of Versailles to try her luck at the games tables. As time passes, the frailty of the illusion threatens to make all her worlds collide and uncover her secret. But Camille soon discovers that she isn‘t the only one with secrets and that some people are playing games much more dangerous than the ones she came to play...

This book was very different to my expectations but a pleasant surprise. I was curious and almost doubtful about the addition of magic to the historical setting of the story but I think the combination worked very well. I loved the atmosphere and the clear contrast between the poverty and anger raging through Paris and the flamboyance of Versailles. Despite some incoherence in the behaviour of the characters and a couple of events where magic was involved – which I did find unsettling in the moment – there was plenty of action and interesting characters to make the story captivating. I devoured the end eagerly, torn from one emotion to the next and simply hoping for the best. I was therefore excited to discover while stalking Gita Trelease on Goodreads, that a sequel is in preparation and should be coming in July 2020! That’s one book added to my summer 20 booklist already!

Just a final note of advice for good measure: do NOT go and scroll through the one star reviews on Goodreads 100 pages away from finishing the book! It really tarnished the ending for me because a) I didn’t understand what these reviews meant as they mentioned weird themes that I clearly hadn’t grasped, and b) I then tried to understand what they meant during the rest of my read!

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I hope you enjoyed this review and that you might consider reading ‘Enchantée’ ! What did you read this summer? Let me know in the comments below!

Until next time darlings!