WOW, what a great find this series has been. This is book 2 in The Vine Witch series and let me say it was great to go back to this world. This book takes place in Paris. This book mostly focuses on Yvette figuring out who she is as a person/witch. She was abandoned as a child, lived in a cabaret/brothel and basically survived off the street with no magical abilities besides some lock charms a friend taught her along the way. She enlists the help of our Vine Witch Elena to help her discover her magical heritage. I love all the characters old and new and I think the addition of Mr. Whiskers and his part in the story was a welcome addition. All in all, this book is an enjoyable and evenly paced read.

**Disclaimer: I was given a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review of the book.

In this sequel of The Vine Witch we meet some characters from the first book, one is Yvette Lenoir an orphan witch
and fugitive who is persecuted for the murder of a man when she was 16 years old. Yvette is trapped in Paris and tries with Elena's help to clean her name, search for her ancestors and discover the magic inside of her.
This second book to me was more entertaining than the first one. The plot was a little predictable but still well written. Overall it was a good sequel and im excited to read the next one next year.
3.5 stars ⭐⭐⭐💫
thanks to netgalley and 47 north for this arc copy in exchange for a honest review

This book was not the book I thought it was supposed to be. I have not read the first book and I cannot read this without it. It sounds wonderful and if I get a chance to read the first book, I will come back to this one. I apologize.

The Glamourist picks up where The Vine Witch leaves off and is even more enjoyable than its predecessor (and that is saying a lot). More magic, more mayhem, and endearing characters make this story the perfect escape.

What I loved

Elena is always a treat of a character. I loved her in The Vine Witch and loved getting to learn more about her in this story. Raised by her grandparents, they taught her the art of being a Vine Witch. In The Vine Witch, she learns that her parents specialized in poisons. As the story opens, the witch board has changed her registration from Vine Witch to Poison Witch, which starts her on a self-discovery path that she did not anticipate. She is more sympathetic to Yvette, who doesn't even know what kind of witch she is because a non-magical friend of her mothers raised her. The journey that they go on together is harrowing, suspenseful, and will keep you on the edge of your seat in anticipation of what will happen next.

I love the creation of a much broader magical world in this story. Jean-Paul and Elena head to Paris, where witches and humans live in harmony, albeit separately. There are specialty stores for witches and the governing board's building – all of the city's features that are designed for humans to overlook. Also, the world of the fae is introduced in this story.
King Oberon and the fairy world are a fun addition to an already exciting story.

I loved the suspense and never-ending action. There is so much going on starting on page one and not letting up to the very end that I did not want to put it down. I would never expect this journey of self-discovery would be so fraught with peril, but it is. I also enjoy the historical aspects. The story is set around the turn of the century, and just little things, like Elena not knowing how to use a telephone, are so unexpected and so valid for the setting. It adds a bit of humor at surprising times.

To Read or Not to Read

A great summer read full of action, suspense, and magic that will keep you on the edge of your seat with your book in hand.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It was fun to revisit the world of The Vine Witch, with just the right amount of witchcraft woven around with Luanne G. Smith's stunning and earthy imagery. Another light, quick read and the new magic elements were fun. Nice beach read to start the summer.

This book is such a fun ride!

I love the fact that each book in this series is it's own story. The series as a whole are just consecutive stories, each one showing one of the three women we meet in The Vine Witch finding their own way. Each story stands on it's own, but the knowledge from each books supports the following books.

I loved Yvette and getting to see in her head and seeing where and how she grew up. I loved seeing her find her way and learn about who she is and where her parents went. I love that we still get to see Elena and Jean-Paul in this one, with the addition of Jean-Paul's mother Marion. She is such a hoot, honestly. She is up for anything, ride or die, loves the adventure and I love HER. The people they meet along the way, and the ways that things work out the way they do is so enjoyable to read.

I can't wait to learn about Sidra and see how she finds her way in the third book in the series!

A good continuation of a wonderful story! The author's writing style can be wordy and makes it slow to read (at least for me), but the direction and excitement of the characters made me want to keep picking the book back up! I wish I had more to say other than this was good and I enjoyed it, but I have no major complaints!

Loved reading the spellbinding and exciting paranormal story. Even though Elena, a vine witch, is being blackmailed to turn in Yvette, a witch wanted for murder, Elena wants to help Yvette figure out the hidden messages in a magical book Yvette recently received. Read the highly recommended, wonderfully written, and a riveting story capturing the reader's attention from the first page of the story until the last page of the story.
I reviewed a copy of the story through NetGalley.

I haven't read the first book yet, however rather enjoyed this book as it kept me hooked and entertained the whole time; also I really loved the characters Elena and Jean-Paul and I'm looking forward to the next book!

Thank you to to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I didn't read the previous book but I found this one entertaining and engrossing.
It's well plotted, it kept me hooked and I liked the world building and the characters.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

I found The Glamourist so much better than The Vine Witch, book 1 in the series. It focuses on Yvette Lenoir, an orphan, and an untrained witch. Currently, Yvette is a running fugitive for a murder she committed when she was younger. I love Yvette even in book 1 when Elena, book one's protagonist, met her in prison. And this time, Elena is helping Yvette to know more about her past.

The plot is more cohesive. The tension is always present. I find that the characters' drive is stronger. Especially Yvette's. Yvette, in the first place, is a very interesting character. It's easy to relate to her.

I also think the whole book wrapped up neatly. I was very satisfied at the end but even more excited for book 3.

The themes and plot twists definitely felt similar to The Vine Witch, which I had read earlier. I wasn't sure from this title whether this story was a continuation or an offshoot of that story. All in all, quite charming and had a similar author voice to The Vine Witch: self discovery, bittersweet choices and the magical world..

So, I liked this one just fine. It was entertaining and I liked the characters. I liked reading about Elena and Jean-Paul again. For a book that focuses more on Yvette, a character we meet in the first book, it still talked about our couple a whole lot. So if you enjoyed reading about them, there’s still plenty of Elena at least in this book.

This second installment of The Vine Witch did feel different than the first one. The plot was kind of a straightforward mystery plot line. It starts off a bit slow, but after a couple of chapters you’re definitely hooked. But I felt it lacked a little of the uniqueness that the first one had. There’s some whimsy in it, if you like reading about that type of magic, but I didn’t get that feeling of originality that I felt The Vine Witch had.

I have some mixed feelings about how the ending of this book played out, but of course I don’t want to say too much about that. But let’s just say that I liked Yvette’s decision at the end. The thing I didn’t like about it was the neat revelation we got about Yvette’s reason for being in prison in the first book.

A last little note: this book is basically an adult novel. But I still felt like it read like YA. Not meaning anything bad by that, but I felt like younger people can read it because it’s about self discovery and it doesn’t have anything explicit in it as far as I can remember.

All in all, a very entertaining read! Highly recommend for people who love reading about witches and don’t mind some whimsy magic while also reading about a mystery.

I really enjoyed The Vine Witch, the first book in this series, and I was excited to receive an advance copy of The Glamourist. Unfortunately, this second book fell far short of the first one.

Pacing is maddeningly slow throughout, with occasional bursts of activity. Content is repetitive, to the point where the voice in my head was yelling, "We get it already! Move on." I spaced off a lot because I was bored.

The last 15% of the book ramps up in pace, throwing everything at us at once. I enjoyed this final part much more than the rest, though I do wish the revelations had been spread more evenly through the book rather than one major dump. I loved the ending, but again I wish more of that intensity and magic had been sprinkled throughout.

The writing has the feel of a light mystery, though there is some dark content. For me, there's a disconnect with emotion, and I just didn't care about the characters the way I did with the first book.

Here is my confession: I absolutely loved the VIne Witch.

What I liked most about the predecessor of this book was the mesmerising opening and the novelty of its fantasy world. That's perhaps why I placed too high expectations on this book.

Enough about the Vine Witch. Let's talk about the Glamourist.
The book copies the opening of the Vine Witch (oops! I did it again.) Which made me like HUH!!! Don't get me wrong; the writing is nice. It just wasn't novel anymore. And the plot, well, the magic flew all over the place a tad too conveniently to give rise to expectations. Everything was explained by means of magic whenever an explanation was due. It was still nice, but not amazing. And the pace dragged on at times but I soldiered on because I wanted our heroines to succeed. And that stands for something, right?

Smith's novel(s) open up a rich world of magic, romance, and daring adventure. Smith is very detailed in the way she creates these atmospheric settings. That was one of the reasons why I fell in love with her novels so quickly. This book has a balanced blend of romance and adventure, is a perfect read for any historical fiction lover.

I enjoyed the fact that Smith decided to write further upon the characters in which she introduced in "The Vine Witch" and makes her characters, even though they seem like villains, redeemable. This is a nice, organically written story about how powerful and healing friendship can be.

My expectations for this book were undoubtedly placed too high. I absolutely adored the Vine Witch but I had a hard time getting through this book. The pacing definitely made it hard to get through. I felt like it left me wanting for more. It may have been that I expected too much but it is still a great book.

The Glamourist is the sequel to The Vine Witch (which I also had the pleasure of reading an ARC of), and the second book in the Vine Witch trilogy. While The Vine Witch mainly focused on Elena, the main character in The Glamourist is Yvette, the witch who came to Elena’s aid during the first book.
Yvette was one of my favorite characters in The Vine Witch, and I was so excited to get to read her point of view and learn more about her. Yvette’s parentage is shrouded in secrecy; she knows almost nothing about them except for her mother’s first name, and, as a result, also doesn’t know what kind of witch she is and isn’t very good at magic. I really liked learning about Yvette’s heritage as she did, as well as the incorporation of other supernatural beings other than witches. I also loved Monsieur Whiskers, the cat who follows Yvette around for most of the book and helps her out of a few sticky situations! Yvette’s troubles with using magic was also really interesting to read, especially since the protagonist of the first book, Elena, is an extremely accomplished witch.
As much as I liked Yvette’s perspective, I also liked that we get to learn more about Elena in the months following the end of The Vine Witch, especially her relationship with Jean-Paul, who is now her fiancé.

Quick Thoughts
-This book is set entirely in Paris, which was a departure from The Vine Witch's country setting. I really liked this, as I got to see turn-of-the-century France with all the magic that this book adds.
-I love how the author continues to expand on the magic system in this story. The new aspects seem to blend perfectly with the familiar, and I'm excited to see what the author does in the next book.

Lasting Impressions

I was a little wary going into this book, realizing that it was about Yvette. I loved her in the first book, but I really wanted to find out what happened with Elena. Lucky for me, I got the best of both worlds! Both Yvette and Elena had POV chapters, and the more I read of Yvette, the more I admired her for her resourcefulness.

I admit that the first half of the book seemed a little bit slower than the rest for me. It was harder to get into. But once I got past the 50% mark, I was completely absorbed with the story. Like the first book, The Glamourist has some excellent twists that I didn't see coming. The ending was fabulous, and it made me excited to read the next book.

Overall Feelings

This is a solid sequel, and I'm grateful I had the chance to read it. Though the beginning was difficult for me to get through, the ending was totally worth it. Fans of the first won't be disappointed.

Paris! Witches! Magic! Murder!

The Glamourist is the second in The Vine Witch series and introduces us to Yvette - an orphan and untrained witch. By chance, she meeting Elena, The Vine Witch, who then becomes her mentor.

I thought this was interesting but read a little YA to me. Maybe I want more darkness and intrigue with my witches - especially my witches in Paris.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.