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A trio of bewitching novels featuring devoted cousins who must juggle their magical powers with their duties as ladies in Regency-era England. Enter Regency-era England--and a world in which magical mayhem and high society go hand in hand--with three novels featuring cousins Cecelia and Kate. In Sorcery & Cecelia, the two cousins have been inseparable since girlhood. But in 1817, Kate goes to London to make her debut into English society, leaving Cecelia behind to fight boredom in her small country town. While visiting the Royal College of Wizards, Kate stumbles on a plot to destroy a beloved sorcerer--and only Cecelia can help her save him. In The Grand Tour, Cecelia and Kate, along with their husbands, are inaugurating married life with a trip to the Continent. When a mysterious woman in Calais gives Cecelia a package intended for Kate's mother-in-law, however, the two young wives realize they must spend their honeymoons preventing an emperor-in-exile named Napoleon from reclaiming the French crown. In The Mislaid Magician, it is 1828 and the cousins are now society matrons. The steam engine is announcing its arrival and the shaking of the locomotives begins to disrupt England's ancient, underground magical ley lines. When the disappearance of a foreign diplomat threatens to become an international incident, Cecelia departs to fight for the future of magic--leaving Kate to care for a gaggle of disobedient, spell-casting tots. Blending history, romance, and magic, these charming novels from the author of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles will delight anyone who loves Harry Potter or Susannah Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell.… (meer)
4 books back to back: The Cecelia and Kate Novels - Sorcery and Cecelia, The Grand Tour and The Mislaid Magician, by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer, and Magic Below Stairs by Caroline Stevermer. These should be read in the following order:
Sorcery and Cecelia The Grand Tour Magic Below Stairs The Mislaid Magician
The omnibus of the 3 Cecelia and Kate Novels is collated in the wrong order - The Grand Tour is collated after The Mislaid Magician. Magic Below Stairs is actually a stand-alone YA novel. Linked to these are the A Matter of Magic duology I reviewed previously (I think these are set slightly earlier - these 4 are post-Waterloo whereas the others seem to be set while war is still happening). All are set in a Regency England where magic exists and is a respectable profession, although I have some reservations about the consequences on actual history as it appears to follow our timeline pretty closely.
The Cecelia and Kate Novels are all written in a epistolatory format ; this is particularly noticeable in Sorcery and Cecelia and The Mislaid Magician; whereas The Grand Tour is written as a series of braided narratives which has the same effect. They take the form of narratives written by 2 cousins - Kate Talgarth and Cecelia Rushton.
In Sorcery and Cecelia, both girls are aged about 17 and about to make their bow to society; except Cecelia is being kept at home while her cousins, Kate and her younger sister Georgina, enjoy a London season. Raised in respectable obscurity in rural Essex, the cousins are close companions. Both girls get entangled with the affairs of wizards - Sir Hilary Bedrick, recently elected to the Royal College of Wizardry has been tapping Thomas, Marquess Schofield since his return to England after serving in the Peninsular. Linked is Miranda Tanistry who has a grudge against the Schofields for breaking her engagement to Thomas' older brother. The girls foil both plots and get engaged - Kate to Thomas, and Cecelia to James Tarleton (Thomas' comrade in arms).
In The Grand Tour, the girls are now married and set out for the Continent on a Grand Tour. Accompanying on the first leg f their journey is Sylvia Schofield, Thomas' mother who is returning to Paris where she has made her home. (She and her husband were members of The Pimpernel League...) Odd things happen en route, and when they reach Paris, Lord Wellington asks the two young couples to investigate - a wedding tour is perfect cover. Several artifacts with links to coronations have been stolen, and it appears various rituals have been enacted.
Magic Below Stairs tells the story of the orphan Frederick who enters service in the Schofield's household - along with a brownie. Together, they are instrumental in lifting a curse on the family home in Gloucestershire in time for the birth of the Schofield's first child.
The Mislaid Magician is set some 10 years later: railways are now starting to be built and a Prussian magician-surveyor has gone missing in the North of England. He was checking the route of a proposed new line and also investigating some accidents on the Stockton and Darlington railway. Lord Wellington (now Prime Minister) asks the Tarletons to investigate.
Light and frothy, these are a joy to read. The epistolatory style is a bit off-putting at first, starting in media res, but you soon get used to it and are eager for the next letter and accompanying plot revelation. Magic Below Stairs is probably for completists only; it's noticeably shorter and squarely aimed at older children. Still, it's interesting in that it's written from the point of view of the servants not the masters.
A trio of bewitching novels featuring devoted cousins who must juggle their magical powers with their duties as ladies in Regency-era England. Enter Regency-era England--and a world in which magical mayhem and high society go hand in hand--with three novels featuring cousins Cecelia and Kate. In Sorcery & Cecelia, the two cousins have been inseparable since girlhood. But in 1817, Kate goes to London to make her debut into English society, leaving Cecelia behind to fight boredom in her small country town. While visiting the Royal College of Wizards, Kate stumbles on a plot to destroy a beloved sorcerer--and only Cecelia can help her save him. In The Grand Tour, Cecelia and Kate, along with their husbands, are inaugurating married life with a trip to the Continent. When a mysterious woman in Calais gives Cecelia a package intended for Kate's mother-in-law, however, the two young wives realize they must spend their honeymoons preventing an emperor-in-exile named Napoleon from reclaiming the French crown. In The Mislaid Magician, it is 1828 and the cousins are now society matrons. The steam engine is announcing its arrival and the shaking of the locomotives begins to disrupt England's ancient, underground magical ley lines. When the disappearance of a foreign diplomat threatens to become an international incident, Cecelia departs to fight for the future of magic--leaving Kate to care for a gaggle of disobedient, spell-casting tots. Blending history, romance, and magic, these charming novels from the author of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles will delight anyone who loves Harry Potter or Susannah Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell.
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(4.25)
5
Sorcery and Cecelia
The Grand Tour
Magic Below Stairs
The Mislaid Magician
The omnibus of the 3 Cecelia and Kate Novels is collated in the wrong order - The Grand Tour is collated after The Mislaid Magician. Magic Below Stairs is actually a stand-alone YA novel. Linked to these are the A Matter of Magic duology I reviewed previously (I think these are set slightly earlier - these 4 are post-Waterloo whereas the others seem to be set while war is still happening). All are set in a Regency England where magic exists and is a respectable profession, although I have some reservations about the consequences on actual history as it appears to follow our timeline pretty closely.
The Cecelia and Kate Novels are all written in a epistolatory format ; this is particularly noticeable in Sorcery and Cecelia and The Mislaid Magician; whereas The Grand Tour is written as a series of braided narratives which has the same effect. They take the form of narratives written by 2 cousins - Kate Talgarth and Cecelia Rushton.
In Sorcery and Cecelia, both girls are aged about 17 and about to make their bow to society; except Cecelia is being kept at home while her cousins, Kate and her younger sister Georgina, enjoy a London season. Raised in respectable obscurity in rural Essex, the cousins are close companions. Both girls get entangled with the affairs of wizards - Sir Hilary Bedrick, recently elected to the Royal College of Wizardry has been tapping Thomas, Marquess Schofield since his return to England after serving in the Peninsular. Linked is Miranda Tanistry who has a grudge against the Schofields for breaking her engagement to Thomas' older brother. The girls foil both plots and get engaged - Kate to Thomas, and Cecelia to James Tarleton (Thomas' comrade in arms).
In The Grand Tour, the girls are now married and set out for the Continent on a Grand Tour. Accompanying on the first leg f their journey is Sylvia Schofield, Thomas' mother who is returning to Paris where she has made her home. (She and her husband were members of The Pimpernel League...) Odd things happen en route, and when they reach Paris, Lord Wellington asks the two young couples to investigate - a wedding tour is perfect cover. Several artifacts with links to coronations have been stolen, and it appears various rituals have been enacted.
Magic Below Stairs tells the story of the orphan Frederick who enters service in the Schofield's household - along with a brownie. Together, they are instrumental in lifting a curse on the family home in Gloucestershire in time for the birth of the Schofield's first child.
The Mislaid Magician is set some 10 years later: railways are now starting to be built and a Prussian magician-surveyor has gone missing in the North of England. He was checking the route of a proposed new line and also investigating some accidents on the Stockton and Darlington railway. Lord Wellington (now Prime Minister) asks the Tarletons to investigate.
Light and frothy, these are a joy to read. The epistolatory style is a bit off-putting at first, starting in media res, but you soon get used to it and are eager for the next letter and accompanying plot revelation. Magic Below Stairs is probably for completists only; it's noticeably shorter and squarely aimed at older children. Still, it's interesting in that it's written from the point of view of the servants not the masters.
Recommended.