The Vine Witch

The Vine Witch, Book 1

By: Luanne G. Smith

Narrated by: Susannah Jones

A Washington Post and Amazon Charts bestseller.

"Cleverly crafted.... The Vine Witch is a grown-up fairy tale with a twisty-turn-y story line of magic, love, and betrayal that holds your attention.... Pure escapism." --Forbes

A young witch emerges from a curse to find her world upended in this gripping fantasy set in turn-of-the-century France.

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 Chanceaux Valley. Then the skill of divining harvests fell into ruin when sorcière Elena Boureanu was blindsided by a curse. Now, after breaking the spell that confined her to the shallows of a 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.

©2019 Luanne G. Smith (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"The vineyards of the fictitious Chanceaux Valley play home to magic, romance, and mystery in Smith’s contemporary debut fantasy.... The specter of savage, early European witch hunts ups the stakes, mixing real history with folklore...this is an ambitious debut from a promising author." --Publishers Weekly

A good fantasy novel

I enjoyed Elena’s fantasy tale of betrayal, revenge, and justice with a side of finding happy. It took a little bit for the story to hook me in but once it did I was captivated. Elena is a vine witch who worked her magic on Chateau Renard, a renowned vineyard in France until 7 years ago when she was cursed and turned into a toad. When she turns back to human she learns that the vineyard has been sold and Jean-Paul, the man who purchased it does not believe in magic. Elena is nonetheless determined to turn the vineyard around and have her revenge against her ex-fiancée who she is certain cursed her. I enjoyed the unfurling of the mystery and the character growth for Elena. The story includes what you’d expect from this genre - magic, dangerous situations, paranormal creatures, evil witches, loyal friends and family, tragic back stories, mystical coincidences, chuckles, mystery, secrets, and even some romance.

Ok…I guess

Audible has been trying to get me to read this book for years. On paper it’s right up my ally: magic, romance, and suspense all wrapped into one. Except the character building is abysmal. Story is pretty compelling until about halfway, it feels like the author got tired and stopped trying. A lot of leaps are made and the romance comes out of nowhere! If I’m to believe the motivation for reckless actions is because of love, you have to spend at LEAST a couple pages building it. Huge chunks of time are glossed over and then both MCs inner monologues are confessing love for the other…meanwhile you don’t get the inner resolution of how this woman gets over her ex fiancé. Kinda wishing I didn’t waste my credit on this one.
The narration on the other hand is amazing!

Surprised from Start to Finish

I’ve read many books in this genre, but this one stands out due to beautiful writing and a wonderful reader!

Great Performance

I'm glad I listened to this instead of reading it on my own. Narrator was great and kept my attention and I loved listening to how the words were pronounced because I am not familiar with French. Narrator did really well on creating different voices for each characters that it was easy to understand when the characters are having a conversation.
Plot-wise the story was just alright. It was fun and an interesting world but for the most part, the story felt a bit all over the place. Reveals weren't all that shocking and the pacing felt a bit disjointed for me. I really loved the world building though.

fantastic story that you can not put down

Loved the story can not waite to hear more stories like this! Thank you, Mama Bear

Amazing

All I can say is this book was an amazing listen from start to finish.

Loved it

Good story and good performance. Sarah and I enjoyed listening to the story together. Thanks

Fantastic Accents!

About half way through, I was so lost that I decided to start completely over. I'm glad that I did, and that I paid better attention the second time, because the story was lovely. The narrator uses fluent accents for several languages and characters, and does a great job with the emotion and theme. This was not an easy listening story that you can listen to in the background, but required active attention.

Surprised! I liked it

I liked it. It was an easy read with not a lot of cursing and descriptive sex scenes. I didn’t have to worry about what someone may hear when I was stopped at a light or going through the drive thru.

Bewitching story

The male voice left something to be desired. Otherwiae the story and descriptions were captivating!