Disenchantment (eBook)

Ghosts and shadows infuse Bell's enigmatic tale with elements of the supernatural, while Marie Catherine's allegorical fairy tales tell of feminist self-determination. . . . This is a tightly plotted, atmospheric and moody read, full of dark malevolence and a tangled web of complex relationships. . . . A riveting debut.

In this bewitching work of historical fiction. . . . Bell elegantly balances the passion of a romance with the tension of crime fiction, all while conjuring a Paris rich in sensuous detail. . . . An astonishingly accomplished debut that brings a past full of intrigue and ardor to life on the page.

The writing has the quality of velvet about it, so lusciously rich that it folds you into a thrilling love story ... Beautifully researched.

A powerful, atmospheric debut

Gripping, filled with a quietly persuasive tension that kept me turning the page and beautiful, moody description, both evocative and authentic

An authentic, stylish and absorbing portrait of 17th century Parisian courtly life, and a compelling meditation on the ingenuity and resilience of women... A masterly rendition of all that's right with historical fiction.

Historical storytelling at its most captivating ... I couldn't put it down.

Skulduggery, sorcery, and a sapphic storyteller under suspicion... an opulent, unsettling journey through a world as beautifully brutal as Marie Catherine's fairy tales. Scheme with the servants and you shan't regret it!

There's a deliciously hothouse feel to Celia Bell's slow-burn, smouldering debut. Intrigue a-plenty .... beautifully detailed ... [a] beguilingly dark fairytale

From its very first pages, the novel is rich with the darkness that made the original fairy tales so compelling, and Ms. Bell's lush, gorgeous writing is a stirring tribute to those early and bleak cautionary tales ... a thrilling cat and mouse game