This was the best book I've read in years. Trust me when I say this - this is a book worthy of a comp to The Night Circus or The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. I have never had a good title to hand someone after they read TNC, and now I do. The writing was lush and magical, the world was charming and whimisical and dark, the characters were complicated and interesting. There were layers of morality. The twists were believable. The story unfolded at the perfect pace. I was surprised at every turn, but never disbelieving. I want to visit this Paris. I want to see this magic. What a wonderful, incredible book. I will be thinking about this world for a long time.

Also, hats off to the narrator, who brought it to such exceptional life. She made the characters sound distinct while never sounding cartoonish. You could tell she was enjoying the story, had the perfect cadence and timing for the jokes, and let the writing breathe. The audio production was also lovely - hints of atmosphere sprinkled throughout but never overdone.

I don't know. My words are insufficient in the face of this book. Just. Go read it.

6/5 stars.

This was not my fav book. I liked the idea behind this book and the authors intention I just don't think it landed and the writing was too flowery for me

Thank you to NetGalley, Hachette Audio, Orbit & Ryan Graudin for an audio ARC of The Enchanted Lies of Celeste Artois in exchange for an honest review.

First - that STUNNING cover art is what initially drew me in for this title. It is 100% cover snob approved!

This story follows Celeste who, along with her best friends the Enchantresses, forge, thieve & con their way through Paris. But Celeste's world changes when she meets the gorgeous & mysterious Rafe who shows her to a magical salon where it is safe to practice magic. However, Rafe has ulterior motives. He can grant Celeste time in exchange for lending her forging talents to his benefactor. Celeste soon learns that not everything is as it appears & a seemingly simple deal is anything but.

I have mixed feelings on this one. The author is very talented & I feel that technically, she wrote a great book as far as her skill is concerned. She had a beautiful prose. Her worldbuilding & character depth were outstanding.

With that said, I feel like this book could have been shorter. There were too many lulls where I became bored & uninterested. It really dragged along too slowly. I typically do not read much historical fiction for this very reason & tend to stick to authors I KNOW I like for that genre. But, I thought with the fantasy element that it might add that excited me that I was hoping for. It did not.

I wanted to love it so much, but it was a miss for me. However, I believe many readers will enjoy this book - it just wasn't my cup of tea.

Paris is full of mysteries and magic in this book like no other. I loved the magical locations and the magic system overall is easy ro understand and follow. Narration is captivating, and it really adds up to the ambiance. The characters are interesting, they have development and do not fall flat. I liked the author’s style overall.
My problem with this book is glorifying the freaking russian empire of all things in 2024. This book could do without it, and it would greatly benefit from it. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this book since I find it problematic and I know that my fellow readers will too.

3.5 ⭐️ The Enchanted Lies of Céleste Artois is a lush and lyrical historical fantasy, set in 1900s Paris. We follow three 'Enchantresses', Céleste, Honore and Sylvie, a found family or artists and thieves, trying to make their way in the world in tough Paris and survive. But Céleste is ill, and when she encounters Rafe, a mysterious and beautiful stranger who leads her to an enchanted salon a place where imaginations come to life, he offers her a chance to live longer using magic, in exchange for using her talents as a forger. Paris becomes brighter, full of enchanting magic, wishes and dreams made true, but also darker, there's more to this hidden world than meets the eye. Shadows have begun to circle Paris. And soon, the Enchantresses will find that true magic is far more powerful, and deadly, than they ever imagined.

Ryan has an enchanting writing style. The lyrical descriptions of Paris felt so real, so beautiful and vivid in the 1900s. Our Enchantresses, Céleste, Honore and Sylvie were all well rounded and complimented each other, though Honore was the strongest character of the three. I enjoyed that the book was told in multiple points of view, giving each Enchantress their own story and adventure for us to follow, which added wonder, magic, mystery, danger, adventure, love and hope at every turn. I thought the use of magic in the story, which included the unlimited power of imagination, dreams, portals, magical salons, talking cats and talismans, worked together in a very unique way in this book. Also, talking cats - bonus!

What stopped this from being a 5 ⭐️ read for me, was that the book felt too long and I wish it stuck to the main storyline. There were a lot of side stories, which left me confused. I loved the descriptions of Paris, the artwork, the talking cats, the salons, and all of the magic, but the pacing was slow, and particularly, when we ventured off into Russia, I got lost. Near the end it felt like too much was happening and it was hard to follow. Also, I don't believe I received a finished copy of the audiobook, because certain parts were removed from the narration, replaced by a beep, which often took me out of the setting of the story.

Thank you to Ryan and the publisher for my copy of this book. All thoughts are my honest opinion!

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The rating I gave this book was actually 3.5 stars but I ended up rounding it up. When I got the eARC and then a physical ARC in the mail, I was so excited because this cover was beautiful and the blurb sounded so good. I expected beautiful prose and I definitely got that! I expected characters that I would love and root for, and I got that too.

Where this book fell a bit short to me was the pacing. The prose were lush and beautiful but I think that ended up taking priority instead of moving the story along. I found myself having to reread pages because even though it was beautiful writing, I wasn't pulling in.

I am someone that does enjoy flowery proses sometimes but there is a limit and unfortunately, this one fell into a too flowery prose book.

The audiobook was great though. I do recommend that. I think the audiobook is the main reason why I ended up finishing this book. If I didn't have the audiobook, I think I would have DNFed it.

I liked the story, but I'm afraid I couldn't get immersed due to to narrator. Her speech patterns are very distinctive, and distracting. It ruined the story for me.

DNF at 39%.

I think this book has some potential and I may finish it at some point!! My main issue is that I don’t think this audiobook is a finished copy because certain character names and names of places have been redacted. So instead of saying the characters name, there is just a beeping noise which made following along very difficult for me. I also think this was just very long and it was hard to get into, especially with the issues mentioned above. I think this would be better to read as a physical book!!

The premise of this book is promising and intriguing and it’s full of magic and enchantment!

When I first saw the title of this book, I couldn’t help but be excited. For obvious reasons. My name is an uncommon one, and I’ve never read a book featuring a protagonist who shares it. And then, earlier in the year, I read a delightful middle-grade novel, The Girl Who Kept the Castle, by the same author. Knowing how much I loved her writing for young readers, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on her adult debut. I might have set my expectations just a bit too high. While this book was expertly crafted, with gorgeous prose and lush settings and characters I grew to love, the pace and the scope didn’t quite work for me. But overall, this is a charming story that ushers readers into a magical world they won’t want to leave.

“People so often think their futures are set in stone, that their stories are written in the stars before they’re even born, but stone can be worn away, and stars will turn to dust if you wait long enough.”

Let’s start with the things I absolutely loved. First of all, I was immediately enchanted by the writing. Graudin’s way with words is stunning. The epigraph that kicked off the book captivated me instantly, and did a brilliant job setting the tone for the story to follow. It’s absolutely magical, and paints such a vibrant picture of the world into which we’re being invited. All of Graudin’s descriptions are so easy to visualize; you can almost walk into the paintings described, can almost feel the feathers, taste the cocoa, smell the enchanted bakery around the corner. Her writing reminded me of Alix E. Harrow, which is one of the highest compliments I can pay.

“Magic is not all wonder. Sometimes the shadows in an alley have settled for a reason—there are certain corners that should stay hidden. There are some secrets that should remain entombed…”

This story is whimsy with teeth. There was a wonderful balance between the powers of light and darkness. The victory of darkness might have seemed certain in some passages, but the spark of hope was never quite snuffed out, no matter how the darkness tried to overcome it. The messages of the book rang true to me. Love and joy and hope are more powerful than hate and rage and fear, no matter how things might appear. Dreams dreamt in the hardest of times are the heartiest, and the hardest to shake. There is so much magic to be found in creating, and art will always matter.

“All the best artists do that, you know…lose slivers of their soul to whatever they’re working on.”

I fell in love with our cast of characters pretty quickly. Céleste Artois, our titular protagonist, in one of three Enchantresses, a tiny found family of con-artists and thieves who live in a Parisian cemetery. She is the eldest of the Enchantresses, an exceptional forger of famous paintings and an even more exceptional liar. Honoré Côte, the middle Enchantress, is their warrior. She is a beast with a blade and is far more comfortable masquerading as a man than she ever was in the dresses of her former life. Sylvie of a Single Name is the youngest of the Enchantresses. She is an eleven year-old orphan and a brilliant thief, one with a sweet tooth that can never be satisfied. I loved all three of these characters so much. A found family of thieves is always a lovely thing; it’s a trope that I never tire of. The family drifted apart over the course of the novel, but in ways that felt believable. And they came back together in the end, which is what families are supposed to do.

“Once upon a time, there was a girl who wanted, more than anything, to be a part of a story. Not just any story, but a proper Tale, filled with magic and adventure and endings that made everything sad untrue.”

The world Graudin built was just so lovely. I have a weakness for magical city stories when told well, and this one was. The sense of place was incredibly palpable. Paris herself was a character in the story, and she was beautifully represented. The magical underground of the city delighted me to no end. The descriptions of this magic were where Graudin’s prose really shone. There were periodic subchapters about the different Sancts, those who had harnessed magic in some way, and I found those chapters so imaginative and immersive. Also, I highly recommend this book for cat lovers, as cats play an important role in this magical side of Paris.

“There’s a pattern to people, you see, to the flow of our fears and hopes. We are, all of us, terrible. We are, all of us, beautiful.”

So, what were the things that kept this book from becoming a new favorite book of mine? One was the pacing. While there was always tension to the story, the pace was slow and meandering, which kept me from getting as invested as I would have liked. The book is also insanely ambitious. While it was mostly successful, I think this would have been a 5 star book for me had it stayed focussed on the central story being told. But then Rasputin and the Romanovs were thrown into the mix. Past the 80% mark, this suddenly became a WWI story, which was wholly unexpected and threw me out of the story for a bit. I did enjoy the references to The Phantom of the Opera and the legend of Joan of Arc, though.

“That’s the trick, you see: Focus on the light. The joie de vivre. The things that make life worth living.”

The Enchanted Lies of Céleste Artois is the most magical book I’ve read in ages. It paints a Paris that I would love to visit, one that some part of my heart wants to believe is real. It introduced me to a beautiful world and some wonderful characters. It reinforced my belief in the power of goodness and love and art. While the story’s pace was a bit too slow and its scope a bit too broad, it’s a tale that captivated my imagination. Céleste and Honoré and Sylvie, along with the rest of this magical cast, will live on in my mind and heart though my time with them is done.

(Side note: I was unable to ever get the audiobook to play. This is a review of the story alone.)

The best thing about the audiobook for “The Enchanted Lies of Céleste Artois” is the narrator, Marisa Calin. She did an AMAZING job. I loved the music included in the beginning of the audiobook. Overall, the audio aspect of this ARC was amazing.

However, I just could not keep my attention on this book. I tried it multiple times, and could not get very far either time. It kept putting me into a book slump. I wanted so badly to love this book, but it just felt like it was going nowhere? I needed something in the plot to entice me to read, but it was absent.

Thank you so much for the ARC!

"If you stare carefully enough, you might see phoenixes flying through the china teapot's pattern, stirring the weeping blue willows and warming the spout's porcelain with gold flames. 'They keep the tea piping hot,' claims the Fisherman of the Moon."

This was delightfully magical and deliciously mysterious. I was instantly sucked in and fell in love with these characters, and I loved how we learned more about their pasts along the way. Ryan's writing is so rich, I wanted to savor every word. Even though I desperately need more standalones in my life, I would love a sequel to this! Please excuse me while I go check out all of her other books 👀

✨ Found family
✨ Imagination galore
✨ Magic at its brightest and darkest
✨ Cat Companion
✨ Dual POV
✨ Standalone

More quotes I loved:

"There are some secrets that should remain entombed, locked inside the jaws of the catacomb walls, in skull after skull after skull after skull.
Every city is built upon its dead, after all.
Even the glittering ones."

"Cynicism is the needless interruption of fairy tales."

"That's what makes it so wonderful," Sylvie said sagely. "If everything fit as we expected, the world would be dull, wouldn't it?"

"'Sylvie snorted. "Honore would rather swallow a sword than work for a man.'"

"What were fingers become claws. Claws turn to vines-dark and choking. The Scanct struggles. Bruise-colored feathers drop from her wings, blowing like autumn leaves. She withers, until there is nothing left but bone."

"It doesn't matter if you're six feet under or on top of the world. Corpses can be stripped and kings can be beheaded. There is always more to be taken, so it's best to be the taker."

"Her father was in hell, the devil was in Paris, and no amount of hope was going to change the fact that someone she cared for would die soon."

"There's a pattern to people, you see, to the flow of our fears and hopes. We are, all of us, terrible. We are, all of us, beautiful."

"A person's life is made of many things: Blood, yes, but memories too. Power is threaded through the tiniest moments, such as when your name first leaves your mother's lips."

"Everything speaks if you know how to listen. Even the dead."

"When the world feels ruined...well, that just means the story isn't over yet. You have to brace yourself and be more than the rot. You have to keep going!"

Thank you, Hatchette, for sending me a copy.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25/5

The Enchanted Lies of Céleste Artois is a magical, fascinating fantasy fans of The Absinthe Underground and The Gilded Wolves will enjoy.

I enjoyed many aspects of this complex story, including the setting of a magical early 1900s Paris, poetry, and wonderful exploration of art. The story was whimsical and often reminiscent of The Night Circus. I loved the romance, fun characters, and overall magical tale. The writing was also lovely. The pacing frequently felt slow, making the story feel very long; I sometimes found myself losing interest and having difficulty connecting to it due to the slow pace. Otherwise, it was a sweet, enchanting story I think many readers will enjoy.

Marisa Calin is another of my favorite audiobook narrators. She always presents fantasy stories with beautiful whimsy, depth, and emotion, making the reading experience magical. I loved the accents she used for the characters and how wonderfully her voice fit the story. TELoCA is an excellent audiobook listen.

P.S. I recommend considering reading the Author’s Note first. I didn’t, but upon listening to it at the end of the story, I found it helped me connect key plot points and aspects of the story that otherwise didn’t fit together in my mind. It adds more context to the story and its essence. (Note: I don’t recall the Author’s Note having any spoilers, but it’s a possibility.)

Thank you to the publisher for the free ALC!

Enchanted salons, fortune tellers, doorways to unexpected places — the 1900s Paris setting and cover for this book really intrigued me.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to stick with it. I felt like this story dragged. I sort of felt suspended without any real connection to the major plot threads.

I liked the music at the start of the audiobook, but I felt it could have been faded out sooner. The narrator does a fine job as well.

Paris, around 1900: Celeste wants to be a painter. But luck was not in her favor. She makes a living together with her two friends as Con artists sells her forged paintings to unsuspecting rich people. She is also seriously ill with tuberculosis. At a ballet, she meets the mysterious Rafe, who opens up the magical parallel world of Paris to her. Thanks to him, she has the opportunity to make a deal with a devil: Live a few more days in exchange for dreams and ideas from other people. Her two friends are also drawn into the magical world of Paris. But how can Celeste save her life without destroying the lives of others?

The good parts: The three main female characters were wonderfully developed and all three had their arc. Even though the three stories got in each other's way rather than complementing each other, I thought each of them was a good character.
The language was very flowery and full of wonderful metaphors. What I would normally find over the top fitted perfectly into a world based on magic and dreams. Again and again, the reader is taken by the hand and led through magical Paris. This helped the magical atmosphere enormously.

The not-so-good parts: even though the author calls herself a hobby historian according to her website, the historical research - or rather the processing of it - was poor at best. What I like about historical novels is that they bring me closer to fascinating details of the world, historical sentiments, and past problems, but also that they bring me closer to the magic of an era. Some of the historical details were simply wrong - too small pockets in women's dresses are a problem of our time. The fact that it was mentioned explicitly and contrasted with men was probably intended to have a vaguely feminist undertone. However, the feminist problems of the time - women's rights, women's votes, etc. were completely ignored. People are ‘taking a cab’, ignorant of the fact that that probably was a fiacre (a small carriage) and that taking trams would have been even more likely. Modern sentiments haunt everyone's minds, whereas it would have been so exciting to actually see how hard the three women had to fight in their lives in this historic period. In the deeply religious France of the 1900s, for example, nobody seems to care that someone has a relationship without marriage. All these forgotten historical details would have opened up the potential for so many beautiful conflicts. A huge amount of wasted potential, which I had desperately hoped for from the description of the book.

Apart from the cameos by historical figures, the entire novel could just as easily have been set in the present day. (Except for the outbreak of World War 1.) Said cameos - staging the conservative enemy of democracy and tyrant Tsar Nikolai II as a fluffy nice dad is … a decision. Sure, we experience him through the eyes of his daughter, but I would assume that the daughter of a tsar would describe her father in different terms. It seemed to me as if no historical research had been done here, but rather the musical movie from 1997 had been watched.
The fact that one of the protagonists makes contact with the missing princess after the end of the First World War, is also more likely to be attributed to the fantasy side of the novel due to the actual October Revolution in Russia.

About the bad parts: What does it mean for a person to have their dreams stolen and replaced with a fake so a devil can have them and burn them? What does it mean for Celeste's moral compass to destroy the hopes, ideas, and lives of so many people? We don't know, and the authors don't seem to care to tell us. Because the love interest is hot and happens to be immortal. What does the concept of immortality do to a relationship with a mortal, and how does it shape the power dynamics of a love affair? We as readers don't know and the author doesn't seem to have recognized this kind of conflict.
Also: the narration of the audiobook. I couldn't stand the narrator's fake French accent, which was even amplified in the character's speech. In between, there were always random music interludes, very few of which were narratively meaningful and mostly just made it difficult to follow the narrator because the music was so loud.

I got almost halfway through and couldn't take anymore. This is not a good book. Tha narration is ok, but you should really get rid of the music at the beginning. I could barely hear the narrator because it was so loud.

Book started off really interesting. However, by the end, I felt like it went on for too long. The premise is really interesting, but the overall execution didn’t land.

In early 20th century Paris, we meet a group of enchantresses who live among the tombs. They use their subtle powers to con rich folks out of their money.

However they soon become frequent visitors to the salon of the Green Fairy, where most visitors leave behind a precious dream in physical form for the Fairy’s collection.

Of course it doesn’t take for a scam to brew involving counterfeit dreams. And it also seems there’s a vampire roaming Paris with ties to one of the enchantresses.

While the writing is beautiful in its fantastical descriptions there’s just too much of nothing happening. It’s a slog to get through. There are also so many side plots happening, I don’t know what to look at.

Not a winner for me, but maybe for you.

(2.5 Stars rounded down to 2.0 for audio)

2.5 Stars for me is "average", which is what I would consider this book. When I read, I visualize things in my mind and I was never quite able to do that with this book. I found a lot of the book to be slightly confusing, and in a lot of cases uninteresting. I wouldn't say I disliked the book, but I would not read another book if this turns into a series, and would also have to think twice about the author. For me, it was just "okay", and I really had such high hopes for this book.

This is a story about slipping in between different "worlds", so a little bit like Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. If you liked that, maybe you would like this.

At the very end, the author has a write-up about her inspiration for this book, and I thought that segment was very interesting, and would probably read more of just that.

As for the audiobook narration, her enunciation was excellent, but her cadence seemed off. Sometimes it was distracting.

Celeste Artois dreams of becoming an artist in Paris, but her aspirations are crushed by the harsh realities of the city's elite. She turns to a life of forgery and cons, forming a group known as the Enchantresses with her two best friends, Helene and Sylvie. The trio sees Paris as a playground for their schemes, growing rich at the expense of unsuspecting victims. She knows her time is running out as she becomes sick.

The story takes a mystical turn when Celeste meets Rafe, a mysterious stranger who introduces her to a magical side of Paris. Rafe leads her to an enchanted salon where artists can bring their imaginations to life by intertwining with the ordinary world with their creations. Rafe offers Celeste an irresistible deal, the gift of time in exchange for her exceptional forging talents. However, this seemingly perfect bargain comes with its dangers, and she must play a vital role in a battle for the ones she loves.

Celeste has a dark and deep-rooted trauma that she has witnessed in her life. It creates a connection with the reader and the need to empathize with her. She is resilient and is full of hope. Her character was a perfect example of how we all find light in the dark. Her relationship with Rafe was magnetic. The book blends the gritty reality of Celeste's life with the astonishing elements of the hidden magical Paris, exploring the allure and peril of both. The novel's exploration of ambition, magic, and the human cost of power leaves a lasting impression. There were parts where the pacing was too slow and too many storylines trying to converge. I received the audio edition, and the narrator did a fantastic job of voicing emotion. The book serves as a reminder that our pursuits can have unforeseen consequences.


I received an ARC audiobook for my honest review. Thank you, NetGalley and Hachette Audio, Orbit.

Be ready to be transported into a truly fantastical hidden gem of 1900s Paris. While listening to this audiobook, you felt as if you were truly in another time and place. Marisa Calin did a wonderful job bringing out the lyrical writing style of this book. For some readers, this style may be challenging, which is why I'd highly recommend an audio format. I am also usually a fast reader, but this book requires you to slow down, listen, and imagine. Keep in mind you need to be in the right place for this type of story, but if you are it is lovely, magical, and unique.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Audio for this copy.