A young witch emerges from a curse to find her world upended in this gripping fantasy of betrayal, vengeance, and self-discovery set in turn-of-the-centuryFrance. For centuries, the vineyards at Château Renard have depended on the talent of their vine witches, whose spells help create the world-renowned wine of the ChanceauxValley. Then the skill of divining harvests fell into ruin when sorcière ElenaBoureanu was blindsided by a curse. Now, after breaking the spell that confined her to the shallows of marshland and weakened her magic, Elena is struggling to return to her former life. And the vineyard she was destined to inherit is now in the possession of a handsome stranger. Vigneron Jean-Paul Martel naively favors science over superstition, and he certainly doesn’t endorse the locals’ belief in witches. But Elena knows a hex when she sees one, and the vineyard is covered in them. To stay on and help the vines recover, she’ll have to hide her true identity, along with her plans for revenge against whoever stole seven winters of her life. And she won’t rest until she can defy the evil powers that are still a threat to herself, Jean-Paul, and the ancient vine-witch legacy in the rolling hills of the Chanceaux Valley.
Luanne G. Smith is the author of THE VINE WITCH, a fantasy novel about
witches, wine, and revenge set in early 20th century France, and the forthcoming
second book in the series, THE GLAMOURIST. She’s lucky enough to live in
Colorado at the base of the beautiful Rocky Mountains, where she enjoys reading,
gardening, hiking, a glass of wine at the end of the day, and finding the magic in
everyday life
Hey everyone! So, today we have this lovely novel which, if y’all know me, seems to be directly up my alley. Magic realism and historic fiction… what else could I want? I mean, cmon.
As full disclosure, I am writing this with a bit of the novel left unread. I have had a rather… eventful, shall we say, past few weeks, and the last bit of this book was a victim of this. However, unless something incredibly drastic and bizarre happens in the story, I feel quite confident in my thoughts. 🙂 Definitely no fault of The Vine Witch–in fact, despite the craziness, I got through quite a bit of the book, which I feel is a testament to its readability.
The novel starts out with the POV being transformed back into a woman after spending seven years as a…froggy friend. This most definitely resulted in some unique storytelling and perspective, for sure.
The Vine Witch is made up of everything I love in a fantasy novel. In fact, it reminds me a lot of a more wine-y An Enchantment of Ravens, one of my very favorites. Beautiful, flowery writing balanced with some very traditional (and occasionally dark) folklore and storytelling. This combination of historic fiction and fairy tale storytelling isn’t something you see often. Despite the recent fairy-tale-esque craze, I haven’t seen a combination like this in awhile. The closest, in terms of concept, would probably be The Guilded Wolves, but with a more original story in this particular case.
Overall, I really quite enjoyed this story. It was a light read, but beautifull written with a very interesting combination of several genres (but most obviously historical fiction and fantasy). If you want a nice fantasy read, with a unique delivery method, The Vine Witch is for you!
Make sure to check out the rest of this post for the tour schedule!
Maddie
Tour Schedule!
October 1st
The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club – Welcome Post
October 2nd
The Reading Chemist – Review; Popthebutterfly Reads – Review; A Dream Within A Dream – Review; Ohana Cascadia – Review + Favourite Quotes; Popthebutterfly Reads – Review; A Dream Within A Dream – Review; Ohana Cascadia – Review + Favourite Quotes
October 3rd
Becky’s Book Blog – Guest Post; Wishful Endings – Review; To All The Books I’ve Read Before – Review + Playlist + Dream Cast; Flying Paperbacks – Review + Favourite Quotes; Life With No Plot – Review
October 4th
L.M. Durand – Interview; Sometimes Leelynn Reads – Review + Dream Cast; Reads Like Supernovae – Review + Favourite Quotes; Polish & Paperbacks – Review; Gwendalyn’s Books – Review
October 5th
NovelKnight – Interview; Pages Below the Vaulted Sky – Guest Post; Enthralled Bookworm – Review + Favourite Quotes; Morgan Vega – Review + Favourite Quotes; Annotated Paperbacks – Review; Are You My Book? – Review + Favourite Quotes
October 6th
A Book Addict’s Bookshelves – Interview; Jrsbookreviews – Review; Bookishly Nerdy – Review + Favourite Quotes; Lori’s Bookshelf Reads – Review + Playlist + Dream Cast; Chronicles of the Boozy Reader – Review
October 7th
Moonlight Rendezvous – Review + Favourite Quotes; Maddie.TV – Review; Between the Pages – Review; Shelf-Rated – Review + Favourite Quotes; Alpha-Beta-Hannah – Review