Review: 'Perfect Kill' (D.I. Callanach #6) by Helen Fields

I've been following Helen Fields' D.I. Callanach series since its fourth installment, Perfect Silence. I was immediately gripped by the characters and the intense plot Fields wove. For me Perfect Crime only improved in these areas and I wondered how she would be able to top herself. Perfect Kill is, however, on a completely different level. Thanks to Avon Books UK and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

Pub. Date: 6/2/2020

Publisher: Avon Books UK

A gripping, exciting read to absorb you from start to finish!

He had never heard himself scream before. It was terrifying.

Alone, trapped in the darkness and with no way out, Bart Campbell knows that his chances of being found alive are slim.

Drugged and kidnapped, the realisation soon dawns that he’s been locked inside a shipping container far from his Edinburgh home. But what Bart doesn’t yet know is that he’s now heading for France where his unspeakable fate is already sealed…

DCI Ava Turner and DI Luc Callanach are working on separate cases that soon collide as it becomes clear that the men and women being shipped to France are being traded for women trafficked into Scotland.

With so many lives at stake, they face an impossible task – but there’s no option of failure when Bart and so many others will soon be dead…

Get ready for a rollercoaster ride like no other, with the next gripping thriller from the number one bestselling crime author, Helen Fields. The perfect read for fans of M. J. Arlidge and Karin Slaughter.

I want to take a moment at the beginning of the review to talk about the beauty that is a well-crafted detective book series. Too often, series feel the need to ramp up the tension and action, no matter what consequences that might have for the characters. It's similar in TV shows and films. How often can you put someone through hell or have them punched in the face before they simply can't get back up? The good series don't just allow for lasting consequences of trauma, they work actively with them. Part of the reason why The Hunger Games and Divergent series were so popular was because its protagonists carried their trauma openly and had it inform their next steps. I've always found that the D.I. Callanach series similarly tries to allow trauma and stress to be a part of Ava and (especially) Luc's character arcs, supporting their growth from book to book.

Perfect Kill is a tough read. Although each of Helen Fields' D.I. Callanach installments so far have dealt with heavy and difficult topics, Perfect Kill is very much a culmination of all of them. With Ava Turner in Edinburgh and Luc Callanach in Paris, both find themselves drawn into the same case when the kidnapping of Scottish youths coincides with the arrival and trafficking of Eastern European women. The main theme of Perfect Kill, then, is exploitation and abuse. Some of this is very violent, as we're given an insight into the horror by the narration one of the trafficked women, which means Perfect Kill might not be for everyone. I found certain parts of the book tough to read but I was also very glad that Fields didn't sugarcoat anything. For those with a weak stomach, there is also a bit of a warning attached to this book, as there is some explicit talk about surgeries. On the more serial aspect of Perfect Kill, the novel focuses a lot of Ava and Natasha's friendship, as well as the fall out between Ava and Luc after the revelations at the end of Perfect Crime.

I have reached the point where Helen Fields is now at the same level as Elizabeth George. The moment I see either of their names, I know I will be reading the book it is attached to. Fields explores new depths in Perfect Kill, with characters plummeting to new depths of despair and terror. She finds the right balance between allowing for the horror, while also bringing in lighter moments as a reprieve. Many of these lighter moments come from the side characters that continue to delight me in every installment. Moving back and forth between France and Scotland allows for a bit of suspense, as the reader begins to suspect how linked the two cases really are. As always, Fields nicely ties up all the story lines towards the end of the book, except for the continuing tension between Ava and Luc. This better not be the end of the D.I. Callanach series because although I adore the tension, I would love a resolution!

I give this novel...

4 Universes!

The D.I. Callanach series is a pleasure to read and Perfect Kill is no exception. Fields delivers the thrills, the twists and turns, but also the emotional punches and character development. Get into this series as soon as you can!

Review: 'The Glass Magician' (The Paper Magician Series #2)by Charlie N. Holmberg

I read The Glass Magician almost directly after The Paper Magician, having wasted a good few years wondering when I would get to them. I adored the first novel in the series despite a few hesitations and found myself with a few more hangups after The Glass Magician. Thanks to 47North and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 11/4/2014

Publisher: 47North

Now well into her apprenticeship with magician Emery Thane, twenty-year-old Ceony Twill is continuing to discover the joy of paper magic. She adores bringing her spells to life in surprising ways, from learning the power of distortion to creating a beloved paper dog. And she secretly hopes that the romance she foresaw blossoming between her and the peculiar yet strikingly handsome Emery finally becomes real.

But when one magician with a penchant for deadly scheming believes that Ceony possesses a secret, he vows to discover it…even if it tears apart the very fabric of their magical world. After a series of attacks target Ceony, and catch those she holds most dear in the crossfire, she knows she must find the true limits of her powers…and keep her knowledge from falling into wicked hands.

The delightful sequel to Charlie N. Holmberg’s The Paper Magician, The Glass Magician will charm listeners young and old alike.

Sequels are hard. You have to follow up a great start with something that has to be similar but also new, recognizable and yet a clear improvement, something more mature and grander without betraying the first. Some books are clearly laid out to be a series and have an arc spanning across multiple books while each is contained within itself. Others seem a standalone but are then turned into series when they do well. I'm not quite sure where The Paper Magician Series falls, but The Glass Magician definitely tries to up the ante. Everything feels a little intenser, which means we inevitably lose some of the aspects of the first book that made it such a comforting read. There is more action, more drama, more characters and more locations but I'm still undecided whether this adds up to the book actually achieving more. A few of my issues with the first book arose again, which I'll go into more detail on below, and were strengthened rather than laid to rest. 

I soon realized what the cause was behind my sense of unease and that it started very early on. This is where we enter spoiler territory for the rest of this paragraph so if you didn't get around to these in the last 6 years either, turn away now. The Glass Magician has two villains, one of whom has the major starring role and the other who is more of a very evil side-kick. We meet the latter early on when, after the first attack on her life, Ceony spots a foreign-looking man in the crowd. She chides herself for thinking of him as the potential perpetrator only because he is different, but is proven right by the narrative. He is not just evil though, he is almost animalistic and without any redeeming factors or actual personality traits aside from his foreignness. It is a weird turn for Holmberg to take and left a bad taste in my mouth. In my review of The Paper Magician I noted that although I enjoyed the romance aspect of the novel, I was skeptical about the master-apprentice relationship between Thane and Ceony. This skepticism only strengthened while reading The Glass Magician. (Again, spoilers.) He is a good bit older than her and has a failed marriage under his belt. He is privy to much more information than Ceony, meaning she makes rash decisions she is then told off for by both Thane and others. The power balance is completely off. And on top of that, Holmberg actually has Ceony's previous teacher openly disapprove of the developing feelings between the two as it is against the master-apprentice rules. Although the forbidden aspect is surely exciting, it is also wrong in the context of their relationship. nd let's not forget about Ceony thinking another middle-aged man is in need of a wife since he can't keep his own house clean or himself fed. Surely I'm not the only one thinking that even 2014 was a bit too modern for those ideas. 

Although I continued to enjoy Holmberg's writing, the issues laid out above made me a bit hesitant. Ceony continues to be an interesting character, who wants to take responsibility for the problems she thinks she has created. However, as she is shut out of any important meetings, she often ends up making the wrong choices. It makes sense for the second book in the series to maybe be something of a breaking point for her, where she has to fail, reassess, grow and come out stronger, but the plot moved a little too fast to allow for this. Thane remains a bit of a mystery, which is less fun now than in The Paper Magician. Some of the other side characters are hardly developed beyond what they need to be for the plot, which is a shame. As you can tell, I am torn. I did enjoy reading The Glass Magician but couldn't help but wince here or there. Whether this is down to Holmberg or an editor, I'm not sure. I will give the series' next book a go, mainly because I prefer to finish series, but I will go into it more hesitantly than I did The Glass Magician.

I give this novel...

3 Universes.

The Glass Magician is an interesting follow up on The Paper Magician, both making its blind spots more obvious while continuing some of the things that made the latter so charming. 

Review: 'The Paper Magician' by Charlie N. Holmberg

Remember how earlier this month I complained about my habit of putting off reading books that I know I'll probably really enjoy? I'm here to tell you I did it again. This time it is The Paper Magician and Charlie N. Holmberg I need to apologize to. This is a delightful book I should have enjoyed back in 2014, although I'm also very grateful for the distraction it gave me now. Thanks to 47North and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 9/1/2014

Publisher: 47North

Ceony Twill arrives at the cottage of Magician Emery Thane with a broken heart. Having graduated at the top of her class from the Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined, Ceony is assigned an apprenticeship in paper magic despite her dreams of bespelling metal. And once she’s bonded to paper, that will be her only magic…forever.

Yet the spells Ceony learns under the strange yet kind Thane turn out to be more marvelous than she could have ever imagined—animating paper creatures, bringing stories to life via ghostly images, even reading fortunes. But as she discovers these wonders, Ceony also learns of the extraordinary dangers of forbidden magic.

An Excisioner—a practitioner of dark, flesh magic—invades the cottage and rips Thane’s heart from his chest. To save her teacher’s life, Ceony must face the evil magician and embark on an unbelievable adventure that will take her into the chambers of Thane’s still-beating heart—and reveal the very soul of the man.

From the imaginative mind of debut author Charlie N. Holmberg, The Paper Magician is an extraordinary adventure both dark and whimsical that will delight readers of all ages.

I love books about magic, especially when they're this inventive with their world-building. In The Paper Magician, every magician is bonded to a specific element or material forever. That is the material your magic will be tied to for the rest of your life and there is no way of breaking it. I enjoyed the way this tied the magic into everyday life as well, where every material has its own use in industry etc., meaning that magicians are needed for every material. And then there is the dark side of this all, the Excisioners whose chose material is flesh. Holmberg really brings these types of magic to life through her writing, especially in the more descriptive moments. There is a joy to most of the magic in The Paper Magician which was very fun to read.

Ceony would not have chosen paper for herself, but a new paper magician is needed. Hence she will now apprentice under Mage Thane, who turns out to be a great, if mysterious, teacher. But her training is cut short when disaster strikes in the shape of an Excisioner and Ceony has to save her teacher. Initially I was a little confused as to what we were working towards, plot-wise, but the journey through Thane's heart is very much the goal itself. As Ceony gets to know more about Thane, her new skills will be put to the test as she battles for her own life and his. The plot of The Paper Magician moves fast once the action begins, but it is offset by moments of calm and emotional depth that ground the action and allow the characters to grow and develop. Despite some of the more intense scenes in regards to the Excisioners, I do think The Paper Magician could be suitable for a wide age range. Occasionally I did question the power balance between Ceony and Thane, but much of it will depend on how it is developed in the next books of the series.

This was Holmberg's debut novel and I was enraptured by it. There is a soft glow to the book, which perhaps doesn't make a lot of sense but feels correct. It's not whimsy, per se, despite the cottagecore feel of it, but rather a sense of comfort and warmth, despite the rather bloody setting of the second half of the book. Ceony is a lovely main character, driven and ambitious, willing to learn but also stubborn. Emery Thane is a quiet but humorous counterpoint, never giving away too much and yet saying more than he perhaps means to. (See, ambiguous!) I got strong Howl's Moving Castle vibes from The Paper Magician, especially the Studio Ghibli film adaptation, but didn't hate it. Perhaps it was part of the gentleness of it, Ceony's fieriness, and the need to save a mysterious magician by digging into his heart and past. I have set my sights on The Glass Magician next.

I give this novel..

4 Universes!

The Paper Magician is a lovely read that brings together many of my favourite things about magic in novels. For lovers of magic and Howl's Moving Castle (which I assume is an overlapping group), this is a great read!

Review: 'The Glamourist' (The Vine Witch #2) by Luanne G. Smith

I think in some ways I have Luanne G. Smith to thank for getting me out of my COVID-19-related reading slump. I raced through the series first book, The Vine Witch, in pretty much a day earlier this month, after putting off reading it for months. I decided not to make the same mistake with The Glamourist and was rewarded for my growth. Thanks to 47North and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 6/9/2020

Publisher: 47North

A spellbinding novel of bloodlines, self-discovery, and redemption by the author of the Washington Post bestseller The Vine Witch.

Abandoned as a child in turn-of-the-century Paris, Yvette Lenoir has longed to uncover the secrets of her magical heritage and tap her suppressed powers. But what brave and resourceful Yvette has done to survive the streets has made her a fugitive. With a price on her head, she clings to a memento from her past—what she believes to be a grimoire inherited from the mother she never knew. To unlock the secrets of her past, Yvette trusts in one woman to help solve the arcane riddles among its charmed pages.

Elena Boureanu is the vine witch of Château Renard, noted for its renowned wines. Even as she struggles with her own bloodline—and its poisonous threat to her future—Elena can’t ignore a friend on the run. Joined by a cunning thief, the proprietor of an enchanted-curio shop, and a bewitching black cat, Elena and Yvette are determined to decode Yvette’s mysterious keepsake. But what restless magic will be unleashed? And what are Yvette and Elena willing to risk to become the witches they were destined to be?

There are a good few staples anyone who wants to write about magic and witches can take advantage of. In The Vine Witch Luanne G. Smith began her world-building with some of these, such as the master-apprentice relationship, strong connections to the natural world, and ancient tomes of spells and hexes. She builds on this in The Glamourist, but by recasting them into something new and surprising. There is a black cat, a shop of curiosities, and a young thief, but none of these are exactly what we expect them to be. There are also two overarching themes which I found very interesting: the question of whether our blood and ancestry defines us and the underlying distrust between those with and without magic. The latter is more subtle but frequently addressed, especially in Elena's narrative, and I hope more attention is payed towards it in the third book.

As its title might suggest, this book is a little more lyrical and has a little bit more glam. We have moved from the earthy vineyards to the glamorous Paris. In my review for The Vine Witch I noted how some of the side characters' story lines had been left open for continuation, and The Glamourist picked up right where they were left off. Yvette is, in many ways the star of The Glamourist, as she tries to unravel her own history and come into her power. However, this is mirrored by Elena's journey, as she tries to decide between her life as a Vine Witch and her birthright as a venefica, a witch of poisons. Do we get to decide who we are or is it all in our blood? Will blood out? Both Yvette and Elena will find out, with plenty of hijinks along the way that take them to Paris' fanciest restaurants and its darkest depths.

I raved about Smith in my first review and I'm just here to do a little bit more of it. The whole Vine Witch series so far has been incredibly comforting. There is danger, prejudice and hurt in her books and many of her characters struggle, but Smith also infuses every page with warmth and magic. It is not a perfect world, but it is a world in which many people work towards the better, where they help each other and happy endings are possible. Yvette is fleshed out a lot more in The Glamourist and I really found myself warming to her almost from the start. There are a few major reveals about her heritage and power and although I saw the major ones coming, this was largely due to my being deeply steeped in folklore. Despite predicting it, I really enjoyed how everything came together in the last few chapters. Reading The Glamourist left me feeling warm and eager for more. 

I give this novel...

4 Universes!

I adored The Glamourist and found myself trying to put off finishing it, even though it was impossible. The Vine Witch series has great world-building and beautiful characters. I think this is the comfort read we all deserve right now.

Review: 'The Caretakers' by Eliza Maxwell

Isolated estates, tense family relationships and true crime documentaries. Nothing could be more perfect. I also adored the cover of The Caretakers which looks exactly like a still from one of Tessa Shepherd's films. Thanks to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 4/14/2020

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

In the isolated estate she’s found the perfect getaway. But there’s no escaping the past in this chilling novel from the bestselling author of The Unremembered Girl.

Filmmaker Tessa Shepherd helped free a man she believed was wrongly imprisoned for murder. When he kills again, Tessa’s life is upended.

She’s reeling with guilt, her reputation destroyed. Worse, Tessa’s mother has unexpectedly passed away, and her sister, Margot, turns on her after tensions from their past escalate. Hounded by a bullying press, Tessa needs an escape. That’s when she learns of a strange inheritance bequeathed by her mother: a derelict and isolated estate known as Fallbrook. It seems like the perfect refuge.

A crumbling monument to a gruesome history, the mansion has been abandoned by all but two elderly sisters retained as caretakers. They are also guardians of all its mysteries. As the house starts revealing its dark secrets, Tessa must face her fears and right the wrongs of her past to save herself and her relationship with Margot. But nothing and no one at Fallbrook are what they seem.

True crime documentaries have seen a major surge in popularity over the last few years, starting with Netflix's bombshell Making a Murderer in 2015.  Many of these documentaries are thrilling, shocking and emotive, meant to take their audience on a journey to a very specific point. In some cases it is to prove innocence, in others to put the system itself on trial. For all of them, however, there is a clear narrative arc that has to end somewhere. Often you can't help but wonder what comes next. What about the rest of these people's lives. Are they happy now or have the years in prison or on trial been too much? What about the families of the victims? Are they happy now that someone is behind bars or, in the days after, does it begin to feel like less of a victory? As the popularity of these types of films has grown, so have think pieces on their benefits and downsides. An audience is easy to excite but will also drop its latest hero as soon as a new one comes along. What does this mean for those whose lives have been laid bare? It's a very interesting choice by Eliza Maxwell to make this a part of her novel and although she can't provide all the answers, it might allow true crime fans a chance to think it over themselves.

Tessa Shepherd has helped free an innocent man, Oliver. She is riding the waves of success, even if her family life is still messy and anxiety waits for her around every corner. That is until Oliver seemingly goes on a violent rampage, implicating her, and her mother unexpectedly dies. Now she has to not only face her twin sister, but also confront the interest of the media and police and her own family's past. It's a lot for one woman to shoulder but as she begins to unravel she also begins to discover the truth. I found Tessa to be a great protagonist. Her eye for a story, for a way to frame a scene, adds a lovely, meta-esque layer to The Caretakers that makes us consider how we look at things. Although The Caretakers is fast-paced, Maxwell takes the time to let the story's emotional beats resonate with the reader. Most fascinating was the relationship between Tessa and her sister, Margot, as well as the two sisters who act as caretakers, which is captured in glances, gestures and the venomous language only two sisters can unleash on each other.

This is my first book by Eliza Maxwell but I was completely engrossed in The Caretakers. I read it within an evening, fully aware I had work in the morning but unwilling to stop reading. Maxwell brings both Suspense and a sense of Magical Realism to her novel, which intertwine beautifully. The descriptions of Fallbrook, the crumbling estate with a secret, were stunning and allow both the reader and Tessa a little escape from the stress of the outside world. Maxwell also approaches both Oliver's case and Tessa's mental health with the right care and awareness, thereby avoiding a sense of sensationalism or exploitation of such personal topics. The twists and turns come fast in the last quarter of The Caretakers, making for a thrilling finale which feels earned. I saw some of them coming while others felt like a surprise. Maxwell ends her novel with a note of unease, which I myself very much enjoyed. Although books, like true crime documentaries, do come to an end, that doesn't always mean the whole story has been told. 

I give this novel..

4 Universes!

I blazed right through The Caretakers and still find myself thinking about Fallbrook and its lushes woods and dark history. Maxwell has written a fast-paced, thrilling suspense novel perfect for fans of true crime and those with a love for Magical Realism.

Review: 'His Wife's Sister' by A.J. Wills

Sometimes you have to reach for a psychological thriller and spend a frantic few hours chasing down the path of madness for truth. At least, that's what I tell myself. Last weekend, I found myself in the need for some quick escape and reached for A.J. Wills' His Wife's Sister, which did the job quite admirably. Thank you to Cherry Tree Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 5/7/2020

Publisher: Cherry Tree Publishing

He stole her childhood. Now she wants it back.

A woman is found alone and confused wandering through remote woodland.

She claims to be Mara Sitwell, the little girl who mysteriously vanished from her home nineteen years ago.

She says she was abducted and has been held captive in an underground cell.

But not everyone’s convinced she’s telling the truth.

Her brother-in-law, Damian, thinks she’s hiding a dark secret and so psychologically scarred she’s a danger to his young family.

But no one’s listening to him.

His only choice is to prove what really happened to Mara.

But the truth is never easy to uncover, especially when it’s been buried so deep...

What do you say when your little sister disappears from the tent you're sharing in your backyard and isn't heard from again? What next when you feel like the outsider at school and a boy who's never spoken to you before offers to be your friend? And what do you do when your little sister suddenly reappears after 19 years? Now let's switch that around. What do you do when a little girl disappears from your town and her lonely sister is in need of friendship? What do you do when you fall in love with her? And how do you feel when her sister suddenly reappears and becomes central to your now-wife's life? Let's bring in a final viewpoint. What do you do when you're kidnapped as a child and never see anyone but your kidnapper for 19 years? How do you feel to see your sister has created a life for herself? How do you answer questions you don't even want to ask yourself? His Wife's Sister tries to engage with all these viewpoints in one way or another, and as you can perhaps tell from the jumble above, that's not exactly easily done. However, A.J. Wills'

Lucia and Damien are married with two lovely children. He works from home while she commutes into London for work. They seem pretty perfect, until they receive a call from the police that Lucia's sister, Mara, has been found after being abducted 19 years ago. Everything freezes to a halt as they try to help her adjust and let her move in with them. It is then that the real oddness begins, however, as Damien, our main narrator, starts to see gaps in Mara's behaviour and explanations. It is about a third through His Wife's Sister's first chapter that you begin to get an odd feeling about everyone involved. We spend most of the book inside Damien's head as he moves back and forth between telling us what is happening now and how he and Lucia met. Without getting into spoiler territory, most readers will grasp pretty quickly that he is an incredibly unreliable narrator. A lot of His Wife's Sister feels predictable, in that A.J. Wills sets up the dominoes in plain view and knocks them over perfunctorily. None of the characters are really likeable and sometimes slips into the weird territory of blaming a kidnapping and assault victim for their coping and survival tactics. Although I was engrossed by His Wife's Sister this was largely due to the creepy nature of the book and the fact I had to be certain A.J. Wills would bring it back around to kind of ok territory. 

This is my first novel by A.J. Wills and I'm still quite torn about the reading experience. On the one hand I found some aspects of His Wife's Sister to be rather off and a lot of the twists and turns are quite clear from the start. On the other hand some moments in His Wife's Sister happen so rapidly that I was confounded and fascinated by them. Quite frequently I'd wonder, how did we get here? Why is no one concerned about this? How could this just happen? The characters didn't feel real in the sense that I truly wondered at their interior motives and if they had any. It was a shame not to have Lucia be narrator or protagonist for part of the story, as that would have grounded both Mara and Damien more and prevented it from feeling as cliche. Now, I know that the above doesn't sound very positive. It is why my reading experience was such a confusing one. Despite the above, I did enjoy parts of His Wife's Sister and found myself unwilling to put it down. But I don't know if I'll be quick to pick up Wills' next one

I give this book...

3 Universes.

His Wife's Sister is a fast, gripping and frustrating read. The plot as well as the tone felt off, occasionally, and the characters weren't always believable. The reason I'm giving 3 Universes rather than 2 is because despite all this, I was hooked.

Review: 'The Vine Witch' (Vine Witch #1) by Luanne G. Smith

Why does it take me so long to read books that I just know I’ll probably love? I have no answer. It will be a question that will continue to haunt me, as The Vine Witch becomes the latest proof that I just need to trust.my.gut.instinct and read the books I pick up. Just look at that cover and tell me I shouldn't have known better. Magic, wine, France, curses, and a hint fo romance; what else could I have asked for. Thanks to 47North and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

What is it about herbs, spell books and secret rituals that is so utterly enticing to so many of us? In The Vine Witch we encounter age old traditions, passed on by a mentor, which are deeply embedded in the natural surroundings of our main characters. Perhaps it is this, connection, that makes it do heartwarming. Luanne G. Smith manages to create a world much like our own, with the definite difference that magic is real and, kind of, accepted. People don't like to see it too much (which Muggle has ever enjoyed knowing their lack of power) but they know the benefits it brings. What sets The Vine Witch apart, for me, is the genius of combining something as intricate and moody as wine making with witchcraft. Both require an intricate knowledge of the elements and the earth. Both require spending time pouring, measuring, stirring, testing, tasting. Both are full of tips and tricks particular to each region and family. I was thrilled from the very beginning!

Elena is not living her best life at the beginning of The Vine Witch. I won't betray the nature of her curse but it was not only a great start, it also retains its relevance throughout the novel. Once she manages to find her way back to her home, the vineyard where she learnt her craft, she finds out that years have passed and nothing is the same. As Elena sets about trying to fix her vineyard, Smith weaves in different plot elements that all come together rather neatly at the end. There is vengeance required for the curse. There is a brooding, science-minded city boy to deal with. And then there are the other, strange, magical happenings throughout the Chanceaux Valley that will need a witch to unravel them. The Vine Witch moves rather quickly but knows where to pack its emotional punches. 

Smith's novel soars on its premise, which I've already discussed in the first paragraph. It is a great idea that she is able to unpack and broaden throughout the novel without relying on exposition. She easily creates a sense of tradition and lore, while also leaving plenty of hints at further expansion. Her main character, Elena, is easy to adore as her passion for her craft, loved ones and vineyard shines through every action. I also found myself warming to the other characters rather quickly. The Vine Witch is not an overly complicated novel and perhaps has more of a romance theme than the blurb suggests. However, it is a very comfortable and warm read that lets you escape into another world for a few hours. There is enough intrigue and mystery to keep a reader less in love with magic interested as well. Although The Vine Witch is the start of a series, it does feel like a complete book on its own. Although there are a few story lines left open for the next novel, The Glamourist, The Vine Witch begins and ends its own story, refusing to leave readers waiting for a conclusion.

I give this novel...

4 Universes!

I adored The Vine Witch and absolutely raced through it. With a nice concept and solid world building, Smith has crafted a lovely standalone and great starter to her Vine Witch series. I'll be reviewing its sequel, The Glamourist, later this month.