The Vine Witch

Elena Boureanu is a sorcière, a vine witch trained to coax good harvests from the vineyards of the Chanceaux Valley in France. A curse has held her in the shallows of a marshland for seven winters, weakening her magic. When she breaks the spell, she is free but unsteady, and she wants her old life back.

That life has moved on without her. Château Renard, the vineyard she was meant to inherit, now belongs to Jean-Paul Martel, a vigneron who trusts science and has no patience for the locals' talk of witches. Elena sees at once that the vines are covered in hexes.

To stay and heal the vineyard, she has to hide who she is. She also hides a second purpose: she means to find whoever stole those seven years and make them pay. Evil forces that cursed her are still at work, and they threaten her, Jean-Paul and the old tradition of vine witches in the valley.

The book is a historical fantasy set at the turn of the twentieth century, with romance, betrayal and a slow-burning mystery about who cast the curse. It reads as a fairy tale for adults, with a vineyard setting and a plot that keeps turning.