Sorcery & Cecelia: Or, The Enchanted Chocolate Pot (The Cecelia and Kate Novels Book 1)

This book succeeded in capturing the feel of Regency era writing, while the magical realism aspects made it more compelling than a simple love story.The writing was good and I liked the premise; however, I didn't care for the format of the book—two women writing letters back and forth. It felt choppy and distracting. And since the characters were very similar, almost interchangeable, it became confusing at times.I love Wrede, but this book just didn't do it for me.

An enjoyable, magical little romp.I stayed up late, actually into the wee hours, to discover what would happen next!

It seems the style of writing is called ghost letters. Cece and Kate are related and the best of friends. Unfortunately Cece's aunt is in charge of her upbringing and decides that both girls in London at the same time would irreparably harm the family's reputation. We won't mention the vicar's kidnapped goat. As a magical plot unfolds the girls keep in touch via letter. The story develops seamlessly with magical villains, handsome suitors, devastatingly beautiful rivals and hidden stories. I was surprised at how well the story flowed written by two authors,. Enjoyable.

Sorcery & Cecilia centers around two friends, Kate & Cecy, in Regency England. Kate was lucky enough to be sent off with her Aunt Charlotte and cousin Georgina for her first London Season. Well, her best friend Cecy thought she was lucky. Cecy was stuck in the country with her domineering Aunt Elizabeth and her brother Oliver. But Kate would like nothing more than to be at home rather than have to endure her London season as a wallflower. But when Kate accidentally triggers a trap set for the mysterious Marquis of Schofield, she becomes quite popular. Unfortunately the odious Marquis refuses to answer Kate's questions about who the witch was who tried to poison her and why she hates the Marquis so intensely.Meanwhile, back in the country, Cecy is hot on the trail of the intolerable James Tarleton, who seems determined to spy out her beautiful new neighbor & friend at every opportunity. She is sure that James is up to no good and also suspects him of planting the magical herb bag under her brother Oliver's bed. James fobbs her off with some haphazard excuse and keeps on following her neighbor. But Cecy is not one to give up so easily and sneaks into Sir Hilary Bedrick's estate and "borrows" a book on magical bags. Surprisingly enough, Cecy turns out to have a marked talent for creating the bags and quickly makes bags of protection for Kate and Oliver. But what the two girls don't realize is that their innocent actions have brought them to the attention of both Sir Hilary and Miranda Thomas, the witch who tried to trap Kate. Neither one of them knows what is going on, but they recognize villains when they see them. Despite James & Thomas' best efforts, they cannot keep Cecy and Kate from rushing headlong into danger and solving their problems, even if they didn't ask for their assistance!This is a fast paced, fun fantasy to read, especially if you are familiar with Regency England. I have always enjoyed alternate history books and this was an intriguing look at what England would be like if magic was commonplace. They even have a Royal College of Wizards in London! Kate and Cecy were both charming heroines and it was very amusing to watch them run circles around Thomas and James and get everything figured out and solved almost before the men knew what was happening. The authors chose a very interesting format for the book - it is all written in letter form. Kate writes to Cecy and tells her everything that is going on in London and vice versa. This was a very interesting approach and I enjoyed the very different personalities of the heroines, so ably portrayed by two different authors. If you enjoy fantasy or Regency books, you should love this one!

I first read this years ago and have reread it many times since. I love the concept. I loved Cecelia and Kate and Thomas and James. Excellent fun story. Brilliantly executed.

And an inventive story constructed by collaborating with a friend, playing the story game! It turned out very well indeed and it was an interesting exploration in a magical world.

This could have been a really neat novel if written in the traditional way. As it was, I wanted it to be over.WRITING METHOD:The entire book consists of letters between Cecy and Kate - an epistolary novel. Therefore most things are "told" not shown, but that is the nature of letters. Each letter has a chatty or gossipy feel talking about clothes, family, friends, and neighbors. The letters also have a diary feel (Aunt wouldn't let me do something, Mr moved back to town, I went on a picnic with friends and this happened while on the picnic, ...) I was bored during the first 100 pages. It felt like party chit chat. After that, it became more interesting, but my mind frequently wandered. It was hard to stay focused. For most of the book, I was not there - not feeling what was going on. This was probably because of the "tell not show" and maybe due to lack of plot planning. See next paragraph.In the Afterward, the two authors describe how they wrote letters to each other to create the book. Neither one knew the other's plot until it was done. Then they went back and edited for plot consistency.There was some dialogue in the letters which helped, for example Kate describes her conversation with someone. But other times I wanted more dialogue. For example, when a couple decides to marry she wanted to hear him say I love you. Instead of dialogue we get the following "by the time we were finished kissing, he had said it himself, with considerable feeling. I admit I, too, repeated the words several times. And we agreed that we should, indeed, deal extremely." Ok, that's too cerebral for me. I wanted feelings which dialogue might have provided.There were romantic happy endings, but there was no growing of romantic feelings during the book.PLOT:I liked the events. I liked the ordinary world in which some humans had magic abilities. I liked how one character stole/borrowed magic books to study and then secretly put them back later. I liked how the magic worked.CHARACTERS:I liked reading about several characters. I liked watching magic being used in different ways. One character used magic to make her daughter irresistible to all men. Another character used charms to protect her men friends from falling for the daughter.DATA:Narrative mode: 1st person Cecy and Kate. Story length: 316 pages. Swearing language: none. Sexual content: none. Setting: 1817 England. Copyright: 1988. Genre: young adult regency romance.

It was quite a nice read but didn't hold me completely. I liked the storyline but felt a few more conflicts with the villains would have made the book more exciting. Also, less critical comments about "boring vicars" would be nice because not every reader will be anti-Christian, so it seems silly to possibly alienate and loose some readers in order to appear fashionable at the date of publication. I felt it took a while to get going and initially felt a bit too dull... nothing but people having polite cups of tea, so I think a bit more drama throughout the book wouldn't go amis. Once it gets going, it is worth the wait though. I really liked the description of the first meeting with the evil lady and the chocolate pot (trying not to give away any spoilers) and feel more incidents like this would be great. Reminded me of a film from years ago that I greatly enjoyed, "Young Sherlock Holmes" with the mixture of Historical Fiction and magic. This would make an good film and had a nice ending.

I love this book.Originally this was written by two authors each writing letters on behalf of one of the characters, one in London doing her season and the other back home in the country, it was then 'tidied up' so that it made a better book.Magic, evil, heroism, despair, goats in bedrooms this book has it all and maybe because it was written a few years ago no elves, no vampires and no sex (I'm not anti sex, but reading about it in YA books where it seems the author has never even been french kissed really annoys me).The story is light and fluffy but the characterisations are wonderful.Now if only the further books in the series weren't so dashed expensive

Charming, engaging, addictive storytelling in a Regency setting with a dash of magic. The two heroines are clever, strong, and likeable. Can't wait to get into the next book.

Love it! Funny and influential.Anyone watching the recent TV adaptation of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, on the BBC, might well see the influence that this book had on the style of the characters, and, indeed, some of their lines. I wonder if the scriptwriters are a fan of Sorcery and Cecelia too...?

fun idea, well done, a bit plodding in the middle, but well written and amusing