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What’s better than witches?  Witches and wine!  But also, throw in some great character development, add in some romance, and plop it down in France, and, well, that’s all my boxes right there!  So, it should come to no surprise to anyone (who’s read the marketing copy, which wasn’t me, at least not since I bought it in September of 2019) that I adored The Vine Witch  by Luanne G. Smith and ever since I finished, I’ve been itching to click on the next book in the series.  Thanks to Kindle Unlimited, I quickly downloaded it for free, but it’s been taunting me ever since, and likely will be until post book club!  Speaking of book club, and speaking of witches and wine, Virtual Book Club’s #celebrationofwitches2021 is taking place on Friday, October 22, at 7:30 p.m. to talk about Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow.  But, we can only discuss it with you, if you sign up here to get the link.  Festive attire and festive beverages highly encouraged.  

The Vine Witch  by Luanne G. Smith is a really fun, engrossing tale.  When the book opens, we are plunged into a pond with a toad (no, that’s not a typo), who we follow for the first few pages (albeit in some confusion, for me at least) until the toad becomes a person, which is when we meet our main character, Elena.  Before she was cursed, Elena was a vine witch in the Chanceaux Valley, training in one of the oldest and most prestigious vineyards of the area.  Elena has a theory about who cursed her and why, and the book is her journey returning home after escaping her curse, seeing all that has changed, and pursuing vengeance from the person who cursed her.  Along the way, Elena meets Jean-Paul, who is from the city and doesn’t believe in things he cannot see.  This makes accepting the magic the locals openly acknowledge very challenging for him, and causes some strife between him and Elena, until she decides to force the issue, which has some consequences of its own.  The individual development of Elena and Jean-Paul is a delight, as is the way they learn to function together, with their decided and stubborn personalities.  Each has a backstory that slowly unfolds, and becomes more complex as we read along.  

While The Vine Witch  by Luanne G. Smith is the first in a trilogy, and it was very hard not to continue straight onto book two, The Glamourist, it is mostly a self contained story, with a piece wrapped up, but a larger arc clearly laid out for the consumption of readers.  I’ll be picking up book two after book club, and I am SO excited about revisiting this familiar, yet complex world Smith has created in early 1900s France, where the monks and witches co-exist peacefully.  I may not reread book one, but I had a thoroughly enjoyable experience racing through this consuming title.  It was light and fun, with good pacing, and transportive language.  I’m giving it an emphatic four stars and have high hopes for the rest of the trilogy.  

What’s a book that you waited to read and wish you’d experienced it sooner than you did?

~Nikki

What do we want? MORE WITCHES! When do we want them? NOW!

I can not wait to finish up this trilogy because it’s not just a continuation of Elena’s story, but the next two books focus on her witchy friends! Oh, I am so glad that I read this debut novel by Luanne G. Smith, and I am also disappointed that I didn’t read it sooner. The Vine Witch is a Washington Post and Amazon Charts bestseller. I am pretty sure Nikki purchased it when it was a Prime First Reads book in September 2019 because the official release date is October 1, 2019. Do I have any idea why I didn’t also purchase the book (like we usually do…)? No, no I do not. Did I THINK that I had purchased it with Nikki? Yes, yes I did. Thank all that is good and holy about my reading life because I had KU to save my bacon, just like Elena’s knowledge of bufotoxins in toad skin saved her from remaining a cursed toad the rest of her life. I am also looking forward to Smith’s upcoming duology set in Victorian London and Edinburgh with more WITCHES! The Raven Spell is set to be released in February 2022! (I don’t doubt that will be a number one choice for a post next October, so hold tight!) Smith lives in Colorado “where she enjoys reading, gardening, hiking, a glass of wine at the end of the day, and finding the magic in everyday life.”

I loved Smith’s steady prose, her deep characters, and the occasional bits of punnery and sass. For example, a linguistic pun from the first chapter is that Elena bemoans that her toad-toe had been eaten by a fox near the beginning of her seven-year curse, and yet her home is Chateau Renard. Renard, for those readers not up on their French 3 vocabulary, is the word for fox. I LOVE this French word; it’s one of my absolute favorites. And so Elena was always thinking of a fox with both homegoing and vengeance in mind at the same time! 

This entire book made me want to go walk another vineyard, and perhaps taste a lot of wine. Ok, not perhaps, it definitely made me want to go taste all the wines. I had some flashbacks to October 2018 where some of my absolute favorite ladies made plans to spend their Fall Break in California and we all went to Napa and Sonoma. It was one of my absolute favorite trips of all time, and I would love to recreate the adventure and the camaraderie. I wonder if the vine witches of France transplanted themselves in California when they were needed.

The Vine Witch was a quick and delicious witchy read, gave me fall-ish vibes because of the timing of my one and only trip to California vineyards, and will definitely be a recommendation for anyone looking to fulfil a Frenchy or Witchy book need in the future. I’m giving it a solid 4 star review because it definitely exceeded expectations and I’m ready to devour the next two books in the trilogy! But, yes, only after book club next week.

~Ashley

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