Monday, June 5, 2017

Book #53: Sorcery and Cecelia: The Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevemere

I feel like I've heard about this book a number of times, and I was surprised to find out (after I read it) that it was published in 1988. I could have sworn it was a more recent book! It is an epistolary novel set in Regency times, but with the added fantasy twist of there being magic in their world. The book is made up of the letters between two cousins, Cecelia and Kate, one who is in London and the other who is at their home in Essex. They both get caught up in connected magical mysteries, and write each other their accounts of their adventures (and associated romances). Both heroines are spunky and smart and manage to help work together (but separately) to solve the mystery and save the day.

I really enjoyed this book--enough to read most of it on my phone while on the airplane home from Utah this weekend. I really enjoy epistolary novels--I don't know what it is about them, but I always love them. The two main characters are fun, and the storyline was really interesting how it developed. There were a few spots in the plot that didn't really make sense, or at least could have been more clear in how they were explained, but overall, I really enjoyed it. I LOVED how in the afterword, the authors explained that this book was literally a set of letters that they wrote to each other, in character, in a sort of writing exercise that they ended up loving so much that it became real to them and which they ended up revising into this book. I think that is so fun! I would love to do something like that with someone. I think I liked Kate's London storyline better, but I loved Cecy's personality and activities as well.

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