Sorcery and Cecelia or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Caroline Stevermer and Patricia C. Wrede

[meganbmoore]

Having grown up together in Essex, cousins Cecelia and Kate decide to write to each other regularly when Kate and her sister Georgina go to London for the season with their Aunt Charlotte. Aunt Charlotte would have left Kate behind, but you can’t bring the younger sister out before the older, and so she decided to bring them both out at once, and just keep the less stunning Kate hidden in a corner.

Not, of course, that this works out well, as a white haired woman mistakes Kate for the Marquis of Schofield and attempts to give her chocolate that, when accidentally spilled, burns through her dress. How Kate could possibly be mistaken as the Marquis is a complete mystery to her (and, for a lot of the book, the reader) as they don’t remotely look alike, even before the whole gender thing is taken into account. Soon, however, Kate meets the Marquis and finds herself drawn into his private battle with the woman, and masquerading as his fiancee.

Meanwhile, back in Essex, Cecelia has befriended an attractive but scatterbrained young woman named Dorothea, who all the men in the area are inexplicably besotted with, even the ones who were already in love with someone else. On top of this, a strange man named James Tarleton is not-so-discretely spying on one of the girls, and strange (and possibly sinister) things are going on with a local gentleman with quite the library on magical subjects. Not only that, but Cecelia is discovering that she has quite the knack for magic charm bags. 

Like a lot of the books I’ve been reading lately, the world in Sorcery and Cecelia is really set apart from our own only by the fact that magic exists and is a normal part of society. This is not a complaint, as I quite like the genre, and I’m glad to be finding so much of it lately. (And I’m very much open to suggestions of more.) Though both Kate and Cecelia’s stories are common in the Regency romance genre-and both were very well done, both as stories and as romances-the method of telling the stories exclusively through the cousins’ letters to each other-as well as the inclusion of the non-intrusive magic-gives it a refreshing feel. I actually found myself more interested in Kate’s story than Cecelia’s, which is odd, as in actual Regencies, I usually prefer the country mystery to the London season. I think, though, that Kate had a slightly more interesting supporting cast (specifically, Schofield’s mother, the marvelous Lady Sylvia) and a more impressive moment of coming into her own.

The one flaw to the book is also its only real weakness: the telling of the story through letters. Specifically, the fact Stevermer and Wrede wrote the book as a letter game, and didn’t consult on where the individual stories were going. While it gave the book a fun and refreshing feel, it also left me (rightly) feeling that they weren’t completely sure where they were going with it, and it didn’t always feel like they knew what to do with the other’s story. At times, it seemed more luck and circumstance than design when things came together. While things did come together well, I’m not convinced that they were supposed to, as much as it just worked out that way. Also, did it seem jarring to anyone else that Kate would regularly refer to Schofield as “Thomas.” I could tell myself that it was more allowed in the book’s AU Regency England than it was in the “real” one, but I don’t remember Kate referring to him as “Thomas” until a significant moment midway through the book changed her opinion of him. The fact that Kate almost always called him by his name after that just made Cecelia’s calling him Thomas-without ever having met him-all the more noticeable to me. 

Comments

[anime-babble.livejournal.com]

Oh, I loved this book, and was so glad when they reprinted it.

Reading all your reviews really makes me salivate for a new Wrede novel, but she hasn't come out with a new novel in many years (I'm not counting the sequels to this novel that she did with CS; they weren't nearly as good as the first one).

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

But still worth reading?

[anime-babble.livejournal.com]

Actually I was very underwhelmed by the second book in the series, so much so that I did not pick up the third one.

I may give it a cry later.

[mscongeniality.livejournal.com]

I don't know, maybe I just don't get the Regency thing. I thought this book was cute enough but a bit thin and contrived. That's not to say I didn't pick up the second book, but the series seems to generate an inordinate amount of squee that I don't fully understand.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Hmm...yeah, if you can't get into the Regency feel, I don't think the book would work as well for you. The appeal of the Regency genre, I think, is that, on the one hand, you're in the middle of/just out of a major war, and while you have the society with strict rules, it's also just before those stodgy Victorians took over(note: I also love Victorian era stories) so there's the whole "last days/new days of freedom" thing.

[mscongeniality.livejournal.com]

I'm weirdly picky about what eras intrigue me. When it comes to Britain, my interest pretty much ends with the Stuarts. For the US, it gets patchy after Reconstruction and pretty much ends with the rise of skyscrapers. History, fiction, what have you, it really has to be something to grab me.

Come to think of it, that's probably also why my library is nearly devoid of historical fiction.

[isweedan]

I remember Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susannah Clarke being set apart from our history only by magic.
I bet you've probably already read it though.

I <3 Patricia Wrede for her Enchanted Forest Chronicles. I don't know If I'd still read them and think they're the bee's knees but I adored the omnibus my library had when I was younger to bits. Quite literally.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Never heard of it, actually.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Clarke's book is probably one of the best fantasies written in the last ten years. If that's not overselling it. It has long slow patches and is generally uneven, but the best parts are knock-your-socks-off good.

It's about the rivalry between two magicians in an alternate England, written in assured and gorgeous (and often very funny) faux-Regency-era prose. To say more would be spoilery; part of the fun of the book is the slow coming together of what it's really about.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

*investigates on amazon*

Hmm...is it 3 books altogether?

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

It's one book, but due to length some editions are in 2 volumes. I don't know about 3.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

This is what amazon turned up for me: http://www.amazon.com/Jonathan-Strange-Norrell-Boxed-Collectors/dp/B0017I1D0K/ref=pd_bbs_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213152777&sr=8-3

[mscongeniality.livejournal.com]

The edition I have is a set in three volumes.

[desdenova.livejournal.com]

I really like this book; it's a great comfort read for me, in spite of its flaws.

The "Thomas" thing really bugged me, too. I've read enough Jane Austen to know that sort of thing was definitely Not Done during the era in question!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

The "Thomas" thing is something even the most cookie-cutter of Regency romances authors is careful of. I don't think it would have been as bad(grating, but you could convince yourself that the society was different in this world) if it weren't for the fact that Kate wasn't doing the same, and that it was actually significant when she started calling him "Thomas" in the letters.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed this one, but the two sequels more-or-less left me cold. Readable, but I didn't get into the characters.

[vierran45.livejournal.com]

Sorcely & Cecelia is one of my all-time favourites, but I think the second book in the series was a serious let-down. They did write it several years after the first one and changed the format from letter to journal entries, which just didn't work as well.

The third book, which returns to the epistolary format, works much better and was quite entertaining IMO.

You like fairy tales, right (thinking of Fables)? You should check out Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles. Though not perfect, there is a lot of fairy tale parody in these novels :D.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what I've heard about the other books. I plan to give them a try.

I have the Wrede series on my list.