Camille Durbonne fought her way through poverty and abusive men to finally find a position of safety for her and her sister. Through her long sought after printing press, Camille strives to print stories of truth and philosophy. When a chance meeting with “The Lost Girls” gives Camille the opportunity to shine a light on the people that French society typically looks down on, she finds herself becoming a voice in the revolution. But her magic is still growing and when the King outlaws magicians, Camille finds herself in a precarious position. With betrayals and secret police dogging her steps, Camille must find a way to save herself and her friends, before time runs out.

From the first line in Everything That Burns, readers will be transported to France in the late 1700s, when the revolution was changing everything. Trelease has a way to turn a phrase that instantly brings images to mind and makes it easy to fall into the story she is telling. It takes a certain balance to achieve this and Trelease makes it seem effortless. Her descriptions are ornate without being overpowering, and she has a strong ability to convey emotion through actions.

Where All That Glitters was sumptuous and glamor filled, Everything That Burns is a harsh, realistic look at the world. Sadly, the magic of the first novel in this duology is lost in Everything That Burns and it feels like the only things bringing these two books into the same realm are the characters. And while the tone is jarringly different, it makes a kind of sense given the historical events. But readers hoping to follow Camille through glitzy gambling halls and magical escapades will be somewhat disappointed.

While Everything That Burns keeps a good pace, the plot feels choppy at times. There were so many different threads of plot happening that it felt like they were fighting each other to be in the forefront. There was the exploration of the revolution, Camille and Lazare’s romance, Sophie and Rosier romance, The Lost Girls, the criminalisation of the magicians, Camille and her magicians friends conspiring on how to save the magicians, creepy magical houses, Camille trying to prove herself as a printer, and even more that I can’t point out because of spoilers. With so much going on it is difficult to get invested in any certain plot point, no matter how bad you want to. Perhaps, if the story had been spread out into a trilogy, Trelease would have been given the room to fully explore everything she wanted to with more success.

Even with the criticisms, Everything That Burns is an interesting read. Had I been reading the novel for personal entertainment instead of a review, I feel I would have been able to overlook some of the critical issues. Camille’s story is a timely one and Trelease is able to frame current human rights arguments into this magic tinged historical fiction. While it is nice to get a wrap up of Camille’s story, it would have been more enjoyable if the focus of the story had been better managed. That said, Trelease’s writing style is elegant and her ability to transport her readers into the story is enviable. I look forward to reading more from her in the future.

Everything That Burns is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.

Will you be picking up Everything That Burns? Tell us in the comments below!

Synopsis | Goodreads

Magic. Betrayal. Sacrifice

Camille Durbonne gambled everything she had to keep her and her sister safe, and now the Vicomtesse de Seguin seeks a new life in Paris. But revolution roils the bloody streets and “aristocrat” is a dangerous word. Safety may no longer be possible.

Following in her father’s footsteps, Camille prints revolutionary pamphlets, sharing the stories of girls.

The post Review: Everything That Burns by Gita Trelease appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

It’s hard to stop gambling, and even harder to stay away, if you’re a magician…I’m guessing your dress is the same – those threads of magic grasp at us like tiny hands, or fish hooks. It is very difficult to tear yourself loose.

There were so many great quotes to tab in this book that it was really hard to find just one to highlight in this review but this one tops the cake. Let’s start off with how this book is set because this is a historical fantasy YA novel (but don’t discount it so easily – we know historical fantasies aren’t always popular). This book just had great world-building in general. It is set in such an interesting era, based in 18th Century France in the build-up to one of the most important events in world history that incurred a great deal of change – the French Revolution. What was great was that you didn’t need to know much about it to understand the context either.

A basic summary of it is that it was a revolution by the people because there was a great divide between people being very poor and very rich – there was basically hardly anyone in the middle class. The rich lived extremely extravagantly and the poor suffered a lot and the story of this novel takes place as unrest starts to really show among the people of France because of this huge contrast in quality of life. This bit of history was incorporated and told so well in this book that it’s a topic I personally really want to learn more about now.

Gita Trelease set the scene and the world the main characters live in perfectly for both sides, as Camille the main character experiences both living in poverty and living among the very rich courtiers of France who spend their days gambling in Versailles.

More so than just the world-building in terms of location, Gita wove fantasy into reality so nicely as we learn about the intricate magic system in Enchantée. For those who don’t know what Enchantée means, by the way, it’s generally used as a way to say “Pleased to meet you”/”Delighted”. Her magic system involves the ability to for magic to change things from metal to oneself in exchange for a price, a price that is sorrow. This was such a brilliant idea and such an emotional one where Camille and other characters must dig deep within themselves and feel such horrible and extensive lengths of emotion like sorrow.

Our protagonist, Camille, is introduced to us as the eldest sister in an orphaned family forced to turn bits of metal into fake coins to look after her younger sister as her older brother is an abusive alcoholic and addicted to the promise of gambling with no actual luck or strategy at winning whatsoever. Her unfortunate circumstances give her a deep well of sorrow that she begins to use when she teaches herself how to ‘turn’ and change cards for gambling card games such as blackjack and when she finds an enchanted dress that lets her disguise herself as an aristocrat with better hopes of gambling among other aristocrats and winning real money. Of course, all this magic has a price. While the plot of the book may seem quite simple and what I’ve seen others call weak, I thought that this novel had a much deeper meaning and actually really delves into themes of greed and addiction. Camille starts her journey wanting to create a better life for her sister and herself but magic and gambling are similar to each other in that it brings up the question; when is it going to be enough?

Camille herself was a strong character and I liked her attitude, her personality and you could really empathise with all the decisions she made in this book. Her love interest, Lazare was also such a sweet character and brought some real mystery into the story. Their involvement with what was a turning point in technology in their time such as the industrial movement of printing presses and hot air balloons was endearing and lovely to read, especially from our standing point of view where smartphones and touch screens are now the norms in society.

Lazare was a great character that also brought diversity and had us reading about his experiences as a character struggling to place and hold his identity as a biracial man with his status, his family and among others in society. The side characters introduced in this novel such as Camille’s sister Sophie and the few aristocratic friends (and enemies) Camille made also had interesting character developments and well-rounded backstories.

Another thing I hope isn’t a spoiler is that it was really enjoyable to read how well the fantasy was deep-rooted into fact to the point of explaining the decaying and crumbling palaces of Versailles, which in real life would be from lack of upkeep and general erosion, but it written in this story of one as a magic charm simply wearing away. Simple things like this throughout the book just made things so much more feasible and showed some great planning, research and writing for it. Gita’s writing was great and eloquent, with a nice flow that made it easy enough to read despite the formal language of 18th Century France.

Be aware that throughout the book, there is a lot of actual French (as in the language – which was a bit of a surprise) and it may seem a bit jarring. As someone who is fluent in French already, it wasn’t as hard to read or understand, but that may differ for others who don’t like or find it frustrating reading other languages they can’t understand and/or having to flip to the back’s glossary constantly to find out what something means if it’s not explained straight after (basically me when reading any high fantasy novel that has like 3 elvish languages or something).

This book did have some parts where it seemed just a little slow and I wish had gone a little faster as well. Although that and the language thing was a bit annoying for me, I still found it that this book, in general, was a great read. The urban fantasy within the historical setting was great, and especially the dark, thought-provoking and deep concepts Gita explored with the plot and Camille’s character development. From The Nerd Daily team, we would definitely recommend it to all historical YA fantasy fanatics or for those wanting to dip their toes into the genre. It’s not every day you find one set in 18^th Century pre-French Revolution France after all.

Enchantée is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.

Are you a fan of historical fantasy? If you’ve read it, what did you think of Enchantée? Tell us in the comments below!

Synopsis | Goodreads

Paris in 1789 is a labyrinth of twisted streets, filled with beggars, thieves, revolutionaries—and magicians…

When smallpox kills her parents, Camille Durbonne must find a way to provide for her frail, naive sister while managing her volatile brother. Relying on petty magic—la magie ordinaire—Camille painstakingly transforms scraps of metal into money to buy the food and medicine they need. But when the coins won’t hold their shape and her brother disappears with the family’s savings, Camille must pursue a richer, more dangerous mark: the glittering court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

With dark magic forbidden by her mother, Camille transforms herself into the ‘Baroness de la Fontaine’ and is swept up into life at the Palace of Versailles, where aristocrats both fear and hunger for la magie. There, she gambles at cards, desperate to have enough to keep herself and her sister safe. Yet the longer she stays at court, the more difficult it becomes to reconcile her resentment of the nobles with the enchantments of Versailles. And when she returns to Paris, Camille meets a handsome young balloonist—who dares her to hope that love and liberty may both be possible.

But la magie has its costs. And when Camille loses control of her secrets, the game she’s playing turns deadly. Then revolution erupts, and she must choose—love or loyalty, democracy or aristocracy, freedom or magic—before Paris burns…

The post Review: Enchantée by Gita Trelease appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Nerd Daily contributor Tracy had the pleasure of talking to debut novelist Gita Trelease about her recently published novel, Enchantée, thanks to Macmillan Australia.

First of all, congratulations on the thrilling debut of your first novel! How does it feel to be a published author?

Thank you! It feels wonderful, to be honest. I’ve dreamed of this since I was in high school—maybe even earlier.

Can you reveal how long you’ve been working on Enchantée for? And what are three things you’ve learnt during that time while writing it?

Though I had the idea for a different version of the story in the summer of 2014, I started writing Enchantée in earnest in January 2015. I put the final touches on it in the fall of 2018 with my editor—so it took about four years from start to finish. I’ve learned so much, but three of the things I keep reminding myself are: take risks. Revise fearlessly. Trust your process (if you can figure out what it is!)

Paris and the French language obviously play a huge part/character in this novel. As someone natively fluent in French, it was refreshing to see such an interesting combination of French used in the world building and dialogue of the book.

Can you tell us when and how Paris & French inspired you? Any language learning tips for readers inspired to learn it themselves?

I’m so glad you liked the French in the story! Since I’m not a native speaker nor was I ever fluent, I worry about getting it all correct. But I used it because I wanted to give readers of Enchantée as immersive an experience as I could. I studied French in high school, and then, after college, when I had no idea what to do with my life, a friend who was heading to Paris invited me to come along. We found a tiny apartment in the Marais, up seven flights of decrepit stairs—a very similar place to where I begin Camille’s story in Enchantée. Though I had a job teaching English to business people, I also spent a lot of time wandering the city, making friends, and staying out until dawn. It was a truly magical experience, and I fell deeply in love with Paris; Enchantée is a bit of a valentine to a city I adore.

In terms of learning a language, there are lots of great apps to get people started but I really recommend a language class with a native speaker. When I studied Italian, I traded conversation (and corrections!) with an Italian who wanted to learn English. You do really need to be brave and not worry too much in the beginning. And the younger you are when you start, the better!

I personally love your magic system in Enchantée, what made you decide that sorrow should be the price or conduit for magic use?

I’m drawn to magic systems in which there is a cost (Holly Black is a master of this) and I wanted very much to create one that would work with the setting in pre-revolutionary Paris. I wondered: what would this poor girl have such that she could pay the cost of working magic? The only thing she had, I realised, was her sorrow.

I also like that she was able to take something many of us think is useless or want to forget and to use it to forge something valuable. It was only after the second or third draft that I remembered that in the Grimms’ Cinderella, Cinderella waters her mother’s grave with her tears and that it’s the tree—not a fairy godmother like in Perrault’s version—that gives her the dress she wears to the ball. To me, this felt like a sign that I was on the right track with the magic system.

Your main character, Camille, is such a strong and determined character; how much of yourself or someone else who inspired you, did you put into her?

Camille is much braver than I am, but her determination to transform herself, to make her life better, is something I recognise in myself. Maybe because we both lost our mothers very young? Like me, Camille’s also a bit impatient and impetuous—which in real life isn’t maybe the best quality to have, but it works well in a story because it creates more conflict and tension for the protagonist.:)

It can be said that not many YA fantasy books are set in 18th Century Paris before the French Revolution, so what drew you to that historical period in particular?

I find it a fascinating time. It’s a hinge or threshold moment when the glamorous but decadent world of the aristocrats is dying, and a new world, shaped by new ideas, is being born. And because of that, there’s a lot of turmoil and conflict, and I find that makes for a dramatic setting. The French Revolution was a time when France was, in a way, searching for its identity—what did the country and its people want to become?—and that reminded me of the search for identity I underwent myself when I was a teen.

For the aspiring fantasy authors out there, and even specifically, historical fantasy writers, what are your main planning & writing tips? Any secrets for incorporating fiction into fact?

I find there’s a lot of variety in historical fantasy novels—some stick fairly closely to the historical record and some use the historical setting very loosely. I stayed close to the historical record in Enchantée, and I wanted the magic to feel as if it could have existed in that historical setting. For me, research is incredibly important—not just because I want the story to feel authentic and “correct” (though I do)—but because I never know what kind of detail will turn up in my reading that will be really important and inspiring.

For example, I’d many times visited Versailles, which is gorgeously renovated, and was therefore surprised to read a letter from an English visitor in the 1780s who wrote that the palace was falling apart. He described it being filthy—courtiers and guests urinating in corners, dogs pooping everywhere—and necessary repairs to the buildings hadn’t been done in years. The image I had while reading that letter was of a palace crumbling and rotting, which in turn helped me imagine the specific transformative magic that occurs at Versailles, and that in turn suggested an entire magical history. I try hard not to let anachronistic details or even thoughts into the story—I don’t want one of my characters to describe the ice splitting open like a zipper, for example, if zippers haven’t been invented yet. This kind of immersion and restriction is necessary for my process—I’m a bit like a method actor in that way—though others may do it differently.

Research and writing are interwoven for me, and the more I read about the time period, the more certain details start to feel fated. When Camille first goes to the Palais-Royal, she passes through a room where people are playing roulette. I wrote that in—the clicking of the wheel becomes a motif in the story—but then realised I had no idea if roulette had actually existed at that time! I was going to be incredibly disappointed if I had to take it out. But when I did the research, I discovered that it roulette been created just before the novel takes place, and one of the first places it was played was at the Palais-Royal.

Lastly, if you could be anyone, whether it was a real person or a character from Enchantée, in 18th Century Paris, who would you be and why?

This is such a hard question, because even though Camille claims a lot of freedom for herself, women’s lives were quite restricted at the time. Most of the women in the book—Camille, Sophie, Aurélie, Marie Antoinette, the salon hostess Madame de Staël—weren’t often free to be or do what they wished. So if I had to choose to be someone else, it would be the aeronaut Lazare Mellais.

Thank you so much to Gita and to Macmillan Australia for giving me the opportunity to conduct this author interview! I love doing these and Gita’s answers were so great. If you haven’t already checked out Enchantée at your local bookstore, library or e-book store, I highly recommend it.

Enchantée is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.

What did you think of Enchantée and this author interview? Would you live in 18th Century Paris if you could?

The post Interview: Gita Trelease, Author of ‘Enchantée’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Read on to discover our picks and tell us if you will be reading any of them in the comments below!

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

From the internationally bestselling author of The Bone Season, an enthralling epic fantasy about a world on the brink of war with dragons–and the women who must lead the fight to save it.

On The Come Up by Angie Thomas
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

On the Come Up is Angie Thomas’s homage to hip-hop, the art that sparked her passion for storytelling and continues to inspire her to this day. It is the story of fighting for your dreams, even as the odds are stacked against you; of the struggle to become who you are and not who everyone expects you to be; and of the desperate realities of poor and working-class black families.

The Moroccan Girl by Charles Cumming
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

In this gripping contemporary thriller, reminiscent of the classic Casablanca, a successful spy novelist is drawn into a real-life espionage plot when he’s ordered to find a mysterious fugitive on the alluring but deadly streets of Morocco.

The Warrior Maiden by Melanie Dickerson
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

From New York Times bestselling author Melanie Dickerson comes a fresh reimagining of the classic tale takes us to fifteenth-century Lithuania where both love and war challenge the strongest of hearts.

Bowlaway by Elizabeth McCracken
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A sweeping and enchanting new novel from the widely beloved, award-winning author Elizabeth McCracken about three generations of an unconventional New England family who own and operate a candlepin bowling alley

The Antidote by Shelley Sackier
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Magic is not allowed, under any circumstances — even if it could save someone’s life. Fee knows this, so she keeps her magic a secret. Except her best friend, Xavi, is deathly ill. He’s also the crown prince. Saving him is important, not only for her, but for the entire kingdom. Fee’s desperation to save her friend means she can barely contain the magic inside her. And after the tiniest of slips, Fee is thrust into a dark and secretive world that is as alluring as it is dangerous.

The Huntress by Kate Quinn
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A fascinating historical novel about a battle-haunted English journalist and a Russian female bomber pilot who join forces to track the Huntress, a Nazi war criminal gone to ground in America.

The Familiars by Stacey Halls
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Set against the Pendle Witch Trials of 1612, this rich and compelling novel draws its characters from historical figures as it explores the lives and rights of seventeenth-century women, ultimately raising the question: Is witch-hunting really just women-hunting?

Enchantée by Gita Trelease
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A compellingly beautiful tale of magic, intrigue and deception, set against the backdrop of eighteenth-century Paris on the cusp of revolution.

The Lost Night by Andrea Bartz
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

What really happened the night Edie died? Years later, her best friend Lindsay will learn how unprepared she is for the truth. In 2009, Edie had New York’s social world in her thrall, but when Edie’s body was found near a suicide note at the end of a long, drunken night, no one could believe it. A decade later, Lindsay has come a long way, but when a chance reunion leads Lindsay to discover an unsettling video from that hazy night, she starts to wonder if Edie was actually murdered—and, worse, if she herself was involved.

Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Four Queens. A divided nation. A ruthless pickpocket. A noble messenger. And the murders that unite them. An enthralling fast-paced murder mystery where competing agendas collide with deadly consequences, Four Dead Queens heralds the arrival of an exciting new YA talent.

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

The Mothers meets An American Marriage in this dazzling debut novel about mothers and daughters, identity and family, and how the relationships that sustain you can also be the ones that consume you.

Which February book release are you most excited to read? Tell us in the comments below!

The post February Book Releases appeared first on The Nerd Daily.