meganbmoore (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
meganbmoore) wrote2008-06-10 08:18 pm
meganbmoore) wrote2008-06-10 08:18 pm
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Sorcery and Cecelia or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Caroline Stevermer and Patricia C. Wrede
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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Hmm...is it 3 books altogether?
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