Sorcery and Cecelia or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot: Being the Correspondence of Two Young Ladies of Quality Regarding Various Magical Scandals in London and the Country
By Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
By Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
Do you like Regencies? Or alternate histories? If so, then you will enjoy this delightful book written as a series of letters between two cousins, Kate and Cecelia. There’s romance and mystery and adventure as well as a touch of magic in this 316 page novel.
London, 1817, and Kate is suffering through her first Season in the shadow of her beautiful sister Georgiana. Cecelia is left behind in the country and encounters new arrivals -- the not as sneaky as he thinks he is James Tarleton and the oddly popular Dorothea Griscomb.
Their plotlines converge when Kate attends Sir Hilary Bedrick’s investiture to the Royal College of Wizards and stumbles into a magical trap set for the Marquis of Schofield. Not only is Sir Hilary a neighbor, back home in Essex, but he appears to be involved with Dorothea’s stepmother, Miranda Tanistry Griscomb, in a dastardly scheme that snares both cousins. There’s a large cast of secondary and tertiary characters, but they add depth to the world, rather than distract from the four main characters. You’ll also visit familiar places like Vauxhall Gardens and Carlton House, but they do have their slight differences. For example, in this book, Carlton House has magical wards.
I found Kate, and her letters, to be more entertaining than Cecelia, perhaps because of the fun banter between Kate and the “odious Marquis” and perhaps because she was … less emphatically confident than Cecelia. Likewise, I found the Marquis to be a more intriguing and fully realized character than Mr. Tarleton.
And if you like this book as much as I did, you’ll be happy to learn there are two more books featuring these characters: The Grand Tour and The Mislaid Magician. You’ll find them, and this book, in the Young Adult section, but don’t let that deter you. When Sorcery and Cecelia originally came out in the late eighties, it was simply labeled fantasy.
London, 1817, and Kate is suffering through her first Season in the shadow of her beautiful sister Georgiana. Cecelia is left behind in the country and encounters new arrivals -- the not as sneaky as he thinks he is James Tarleton and the oddly popular Dorothea Griscomb.
Their plotlines converge when Kate attends Sir Hilary Bedrick’s investiture to the Royal College of Wizards and stumbles into a magical trap set for the Marquis of Schofield. Not only is Sir Hilary a neighbor, back home in Essex, but he appears to be involved with Dorothea’s stepmother, Miranda Tanistry Griscomb, in a dastardly scheme that snares both cousins. There’s a large cast of secondary and tertiary characters, but they add depth to the world, rather than distract from the four main characters. You’ll also visit familiar places like Vauxhall Gardens and Carlton House, but they do have their slight differences. For example, in this book, Carlton House has magical wards.
I found Kate, and her letters, to be more entertaining than Cecelia, perhaps because of the fun banter between Kate and the “odious Marquis” and perhaps because she was … less emphatically confident than Cecelia. Likewise, I found the Marquis to be a more intriguing and fully realized character than Mr. Tarleton.
And if you like this book as much as I did, you’ll be happy to learn there are two more books featuring these characters: The Grand Tour and The Mislaid Magician. You’ll find them, and this book, in the Young Adult section, but don’t let that deter you. When Sorcery and Cecelia originally came out in the late eighties, it was simply labeled fantasy.
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