The Vine Witch

The Vine Witch, Book 1

By: Luanne G. Smith

Narrated by: Susannah Jones

Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's Summary

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

Adult fairytale

This was a fun, sweet, story of magics of all sorts. This a fun listen. Nothing that will stay with you, or life changing. But, as the story starts out with our heroine coming out of a toad-enchantment, it’s an obvious guess what the context, and content of this story is. Light-hearted fun

Ohhhhhh sooooo good!

This was recommended to me via audible and I enjoyed it SO much. It was lush and was beautifully written. I felt transported. Magical world building and wine....it was like it was written for me. About half way through, I went to check to see if this author had written anything else...nothing else came up. How can that be? So if you are reading this Luanne, get to writing....I wanna live in your magical world as soon as possible.

an OK beach read

I was sucked in by WITCH and the gorgeous cover art, but this book wasn't quite what I was looking for, It's a good book if you're not looking for a super compelling, deeply thought out witchy story. It's more of a read in an afternoon, predictable, shallow romance. The narrator did a good job, the overly enhanced french accent got a little annoying by the end. The winemaking details were pretty accurate - quite over simplified, but well done.

Note - not really a witch story if that's what you're looking for. Beyond yes they were "witches" most of the whitchery in the wine story was just a take on biodynamic farming.

Fantasy and Witch Lore, oh my

If you love fantasy and witch fiction, it was a great book. Very romantic and descriptive. I enjoyed the characters and the story. Always enjoyed listening.

Could have done without the narrator’s pretentious accents for true characters. Was a little grating to listen to, especially the French. There is a lot of Words she went heavy on, otherwise, great read, nice voice

Middle aged single wine-o seeking same

It was read nicely. But the story. Ugh. I was drawn by the cover because I always judge a book by its cover. You can tell this book was written by a woman who has Live Laugh Love hanging in her kitchen. Took French in high school because it's a "romantic" language. And has a wine glass that says "it's always wine o clock". The Vine Witch lacks depth. So don't go looking for it here.

Highly Impressive Debut Novel

I loved this story. the characters were well developed, plot line had surprises, twists and turns. the authors knowledge of potions, ingredients, spells was simply magical

Pleasant light read but predictable

This was a pleasant read but was overall predictable and unoriginal. A bit like watching a European version of a “Charmed” episode. Someone not familiar with many witch stories may have enjoyed it more. I also didn’t find any of the characters particularly endearing, unfortunately. About 2 1/2 hours before it ended I really wanted it to wrap up.

Boring and Unimpressive

This book gets amazing reviews, but I'm not sure why. I'm struggling to get through it, primarily because the romance is so painfully obvious. From the first mention of Jean-Paul, he is clearly the love interest. The romance is presented with no pretense, and no excitement. Imagine meeting someone and saying immediately, "we're in love now," in a monotone voice. That's the overall vibe of the relationship. There's no build up, and both characters have the personality of wet bread.

The premise seems interesting, but the characters are predictable. I will try to finish this book and if anything changes I will update my review but, as it stands, I'm terribly bored.

Breathy

The person reading may need to move a mic or something. The breaths she takes ended up being like nail on a chalkboard after the 3rd chapter!!!

Entertaining enough for a credit

I enjoyed the story and it kept me entertained. It’s a good story that could have been developed more fully. I wouldn’t say it’s spectacular but it’s worth a credit. Easy listen not deep.

Wrong Narrator.

Why was a narrator with an American accent used?? This totally spoiled the book for me.

Just awful don’t bother

I really tried to give this a go, the narration was so terrible and a distraction given her heavy accent, it just didn’t fit with the setting, which could have been so much better.

Narration and story telling both are best.

I recommend this audiobook to everyone who likes reading fairy tales. It is a perfect escapist audiobook with interesting magic world and their adventures.

Chick lit

I feel bad for giving this a low rating, as I think there’s loads of people out there who would love it. If you like romance, chick-lit, holiday-style books, this is definitely for you. I’m afraid it was just too shallow and twee for me!

So hard to finish

I really had high hopes for this book and had it in my wishlist for a while.
If there are Witches then I'm in. Add wine and I'm sold!
But my god this was so tough to get through.
It is not the narrators fault. She did a great job.
The story was just so lacklustre and needed more. It was like eating a sandwich without any filling. Dry, boring and hard to swallow.

I feel terrible leaving a bad review, I rarely do but I don't want someone else to waste their money or credit. Not to mention the time I spent listening to it because I kept giving it the benefit of the doubt that the plot will get more exciting.

Wow what a awesome story!

So I have never listened to a witch book before unless you include Harry Potter. However, this audiobook had so many good reviews I could not help but use credit and give it a chance. Susannah Jones does a fantastic job narrating and Luanne G. Smith is the most amazing storyteller.

I have been listening all day, enchanted by the story while I do my housework. I thought it would be a whole bunch of nonsense that would sound childish to me, but it doesn't at all, I mean all the spells and enchantments. I don't know if it is because they are talking about wine and I love wine and it's such an adult thing. HAHA. But all the witchcraft is not cringing at all.
The VIne Witch has a believable mystery about who cursed the MC and for the longest time, we believe it was someone who it wasn't so there is a real mystery here and lots of action. The MC, despite being in the 18th century France is a strong woman with integrity that it is a pleasure to follow on her adventure.

And the believable romance aww... it's clean so there's no open-door anything, but I still find it very romantic and nice. Some people want to keep the dirty out of their books and that's okay, given the cover I would have been surprised if it had been otherwise, (as you can see from some of my other reviews if you are going to have a barechested many on the cover, you better get in there or for Heaven sakes cover that man up so listeners know what they are getting).

I will definitely be buying more audiobooks in this series. I love the premise of wine-making witches in France. That is sheer brilliance right there. The writing and narration are superb. I would recommend this book to anyone whether they are into witches or not, the story is so good it surpasses the genre.

wonderful

this book is fabulous and absolutely addictive , if you like the work of people like paula brackston . you will love this !!!

leaves me with a desire to discover rural France

Thoroughly enjoyable, wonderfully descriptive, has changed my perspective for wine. nicely read and well paced.

Really enjoyed the book

Great story even if in some places it was predictable. I really enjoyed listening to it.

Amazing book

Amazing storyline enjoyed this audio book very much
Love every minute for the storyline
Must buy