Sorcery & Cecelia: Or, The Enchanted Chocolate Pot

Written by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer

Narrated by Lucy Rayner

Two young ladies contend with the Royal College of Wizards in Regency London: first in the series filled with "magical twists and turns" (San Diego Union-Tribune).

Since they were children, cousins Kate and Cecelia have been inseparable. But in 1817, as they approach adulthood, their families force them to spend a summer apart. As Cecelia fights boredom in her small country town, Kate visits London to mingle with the brightest lights of English society. At the initiation of a powerful magician into the Royal College of Wizards, Kate finds herself alone with a mysterious witch who offers her a sip from a chocolate pot. When Kate refuses the drink, the chocolate burns through her dress and the witch disappears. It seems that strange forces are convening to destroy a beloved wizard, and only Kate and Cecelia can stop the plot. But for two girls who have to contend with the pressures of choosing dresses and beaux for their debuts, deadly magic is only one of their concerns.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Oct 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781977364272

Patricia C. Wrede

PATRICIA COLLINS WREDE was born in Chicago, the oldest of five children.  She attended Carleton College in Minnesota, where she majored in biology and managed to avoid taking any English courses.  She began work on her first novel, Shadow Magic (1982), after graduation, though it took her five years to finish it.  Ms. Wrede enjoyed a successful career as a financial analyst, but she always made time to write.  Her published books now total more than a dozen.

Reviews for Sorcery & Cecelia

[Illisia Adams · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I am sorry... I wanted so much to love this, but it bored me to tears... After several hours, I gave-up. Such a shame, given the two authors involved. The format of letters being sent back-and-forth just wasn't for me, I guess.

[schufman · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

While I generally don't like diary and letter formats, this one was fun. The fact that the book had two authors helped distinguish the voices. Not a difficult read, but I definitely had trouble putting it down.

[ca8bookwyrm · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is one of my comfort reads. It is pure fun, and well written. It has two difference voices for the two different characters, but that is easy since they are written by two different people. The authors collaborated on this book in letters they wrote each other, both taking responsibility for half of the plot and letter the other deal with the other half. Some bits intertwined, or traveled from one author to the other, while some pieces stayed with the originating author. It truly is a masterful piece of writing. It is executed that well.It is also fun. The story follows two young women in the Regency period of England, but an alternate England where magic exists as a part of society. One gets to have a Season in London while the other must remain at home, and that creates the reason for the letters going back and forth between the two.This is easily a YA romance, because while there are romantic elements it is very tastefully written and I would not hesitate to recommend this to any young girl regardless of how relationship-aware she is. However, I am certainly no longer a young girl, and I love this book. It is one of my favorites ever, whether adult or YA.I could say more to make it a proper review: there is magic! There is mystery! There is intrigue! But at its heart, this is a fun book, and there is nothing better I could say about it.

[Reordan Carey · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer's series has become an instant classic in my mind, never before have I enjoyed such intrigue and depth in a piece of epistolary fiction.

Where 84 Charing Cross Road meets Marie Brennan's a Natural History of Dragons, Sorcery and Cecelia wields the letter format in a near perfect fashion that has brought me to the edge of my seat, to laughter and to tears.

While I shall indeed be purchasing a physical copy for my personal library, I cannot recommend this audio version enough! As the narrator's absolute handle over the emotive use of voice creates an unparalleled experience that should not be missed.

My only hope is more people get a chance to experience this masterpiece.

Happy Reading!
~R

[tornadox-962417 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Diverting epistolary novel in the style of Jane Austen. Two cousins in 1810s England negotiate society, magic and men.

[wunder-62679 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

YA epistolary Regency fantasy (with magic), a fun read. Even more fun because it grew out of a "letter game", where the two authors started exchanging letters, staying in character, but with no coordination outside of the letters. Later, they started meeting for lunch and talking about the other characters, but not the plot. After the letters came to a conclusion, they realized they'd written a book, and went back to edit it into shape.

I read it straight through in an evening, while standing by to edit my son's high school English paper.

Negatives? There is some jarring invented slang, which young ladies would never have put to paper. Cecy and Kate tend towards being excepto-girls, looking down on typical feminine roles from a superior plane.

Minor quibbles, though. This is a fine confection, as satisfying as bon-bons and less filling.

[et.carole · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was an excellent book, and full of excitement and drama. All the strings were neatly tied up, and I loved Cecy and Kate.

[mutantpudding · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I read this book several times in high school and loved it, so I decided to do a reread in between new books. I still liked it, but I found the romance aspect considerably less charming than I did as a teenager (am I becoming bitter and old at 25? possibly) and thought the book had some technical issues. Some of the longer letters brought me out of the story a bit since they didnt seem like actual correspondence of events (do people really remember and dictate out long conversations like that?) and some of the characters melded together a bit in my mind due to similar or lacking descriptions. Overall still a fun book, and I really do enjoy the setting and world building.

[ladyars · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Funny but a little predictable.

[bookbrig-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'm so glad I read this! The letters are sweet and funny and charming. Also, there's magic and (as per the title) a very exciting and important chocolate pot. All chocolate pots are important in my world, but it's always nice to see that other's think they are special too.

It was the perfect book for a rainy sort of day. I mean, when one of the characters falls into a duckpond she writes: "My first thought was 'Earthquake!' My second, 'I will never be able to wear this bonnet again.” Clearly, she and I should be friends.

[isana-943166 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What a wonderful book! I'm rather in love with both Kate and Cecy and even Thomas and James (though they begin as somewhat rude sorts). The letter game aspect of the book was really wonderful and with both Wrede and Stevermer writing, it was genuinely two different people speaking to each other. The story telling aspect of the letters were only awkward maybe twice and the rest was just a really good recollection of events between two great friends who shared everything with each other, (except the fact that they were both falling in love during their adventurous months).

I really liked how they always had help from outside people. It's usually the norm to have the heroes win alone, but they were instead saved by really wonderful side characters, which made me really happy because it didn't take anything away from their courageous success against nasty foes. it added something somehow that getting help would be so successful a tactic for the "final bosses".

[angelarenea-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I liked this book, but it was really hard to get into at the beginning. It may have had something to do with the fact that I'm not a fan of reading letters. Also I hate when books keep describing clothes in detail every time there is a change of clothes. It bugs me. But this was a cute little book.

[tldegray-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I just adore this book. It's got magic, family, friendship, and courtship, surrounded by a little mystery, all set in Victorian times, written as an epistolary novel by two authors, one writing each main character.

[hopeevey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Such a delightful read! It was great fun :)

[kmajort · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Was not sure I liked the "Letters" style of telling this story... but that IS how much news was shared in this era. And then reading the authors' afterward, about how the story came to be..... well, that made it better.
Fun plot, spunky characters, I'll read the next adventure.

[mizpurplest · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Intelligent, playful and delightful. A little too neatly wrapped up, but I didn't mind too much. Great characters.

[nx74defiant · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It started as the Letter Game. One Character writing a letter "in personna" to another. The Players must never reveal their idea of the lot to another.Set in England just after the Napoleonic Wars, in an alternative universe in which magic really worked.After they had completed they reviewed the exchange and decided to turn it into a book. They worked together to revise the letters, timing of events, explanations of occurrences, plot threads that had never gone anywhere, until the manuscript was ready to be submitted.The final book kept the format of an exchange of letters. I loved this book. I enjoyed the points of view of both Kate and Cecelia. I can't wait to read the next books

[threadnsong · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What a great book! I had started it lo these many decades (early 90's), gave it to a friend, and never picked it up again until Shelfari peaked my interest with the Historical Fiction August 2013 readalong. The entire idea behind it, of two cousins writing letters to one another during the London Season, was magnificent. The authors never knew what the plot was going to be . . . until they wrote the letters and read the letter the other author sent them! While the characters took a little while to straighten out (James vs. Thomas, who was doing what where), the action was straight out of Jane Austen and Regency England and fit quite nicely into a slower, but not necessarily nicer, way of life.Magic, chocolate, and London gowns . . . what more could one ask for on a slow summer's day?

[katya0133 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A charming romance in a historical fantasy setting told through letters between two cousins. I felt the ending was a bit rushed, but otherwise I found it thoroughly enjoyable.

[hawaiianmermaid701 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Oh man this book was so cute! Surprisingly, I really liked that it was told in letters instead of alternating P.O.V.sThis story had everything I was hoping for: a great female friendship, magic, romance, action and adventure in spades. It had me laughing out loud and frantically flipping pages to see what was going to happen next!

[rosa.mill · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This story is told entirely in correspondence through two teen girls just after the Napoleonic Wars in England in a setting where magic exists and is used practically.

I love that this started out as a game between two authors that was then cleaned up for publishing; that makes the concept so much more fun. The characters are engaging, the romances are cute and the adventures are fun. Well worth the quick read.

[thedivineoomba · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a cute story about two girls, cousins, that tell a story through letters. It pays homage to Jane Austin, with gentlemen that are aloof, but secretly in love with the heroine, and the heroine, not realizing that she is falling for the oafish bore. The story is quite simple - and a person figure out how the book will end with the first quarter. This isn't to say its a bad book - the writing is quite well done, the authors manage to portray strong girls confined to a restrictive 17th century world. The magic is actually quite subdued - while there are big magical battles, the story is mostly character driven. Solutions happen without magic, and the protagonists think before acting. Its refreshing to see a book with intelligent characters.However, it isn't perfect. The story is too perfect at times, and it can be difficult to figure out who is who. Also, I am still not sure of the relationship of the cousins - there seems to me a lot of orphaned kids living with aunts and uncles. The book is entertaining, but not necessarily especially deep. As a highschool kid, I would have thought this book amazing, but as an adult, I found it a good read, perfect for a lazy afternoon.

[phyllis2779 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book. A little bit of mystery, a lot of magic and a soupcon of romance. And a good bit of humor. Can't beat it. I'm now going to check out the sequel. I'm finding getting some use out of Kindle Unlimited.

[trgllylibrarian · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Nicely frivolous.

[ladycato · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This young adult book dizzied me at first with the sheer number of names. It was rather difficult to keep straight who was who and where. However, I soon settled in to enjoy the whimsical voices of the two cousins as they use correspondence to tell their tales. Cecelia is stuck at home in the country while her cousin Kate is in London making her debut. It's a Regency setting, so the book very much revolves around propriety, balls, and the Ton. The addition here is magic--and a very important chocolate pot. It's a cute book, especially when you reach the end and realize it was entirely a whimsical writing exercise by the two authors, not something intended for publication. The romances develop in a very proper (though predictable) way. It's the kind of book that leave you with a smile on your face.

[pussreboots · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

My husband rates Sorcery & Cecelia a ten. He found it a quick, fun and entertaining read. I had a harder time getting into the book. Even after the plot took off with one of the character's disppearance I still found my attention wandering. It was until the last 80 or so pages that it completely engrossed me.

[ncgraham_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Ever since the publication of Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Regency and Victorian fantasies have become all the rage. I'm a great fan of Regency and Victorian literature, as well as of fantasy novels, so I've been excited to dip into these novels myself every now and then. I found Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell completely beguiling. Loved the writing of The Night Circus but had no patience with the central love story. Sorcery and Cecelia I had no patience with, period.Of course Strange & Norrell didn't create a subgenre but merely popularized it, and apparently Sorcery and Cecilia was written before the demand for alternate histories swelled so. I have to give Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer credit for that, since I won't be giving them credit for much else.The authors dedicate the book to four authors they cite as inspirations: Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Ellen Kushner. I've not read any Kushner, but I don't see anything that even remotely recalls Austen or Tolkien in this book. Heyer, a little, but even billing Sorcery as Cecilia as "Heyer! with Magick!" would be overselling it. Heyer at her best is laugh-out-loud funny, creates unique, interesting, and distinguishable characters, and is capable of real feeling.Wrede and Stevermer started Sorcery and Cecilia as a letters game, and it should have stayed that way. The plot is a mere nothing. Again, that might have been fine if there was enough humor, romance, and charm to counteract its insubstantiality, but there isn't. It's odd that Wrede and Stevermer created Cecy and Kate independently, because they are practically indistinguishable, aside from one being clumsier than the other. Each has a villain particular to her plotline, who of course are in cahoots. Each of them has an uptight aunt, likewise indistinguishable, breathing down her neck, and each is romanced by a dark and sardonic Stock Regency Hunk. *yawn* Everyone in this novel is just so vanilla. Cecy and Kate are always making fun of their respective siblings, Oliver and Georgy, who are in love, but honestly they are the most interesting characters in the book, mostly because they have faults other than spilling coffee on gloves. I cared a whole lot more about Georgy's gambling addiction than any of the magical goings-on.There were a few good scenes, such as when Cecy—or was it Kate?—first sees the Enchanted Chocolate Pot and is almost poisoned, but so much of the rest was just meh. A thoroughly forgettable romp. Actually, it didn't even have enough spirit to be called a romp.Now I want to play the letters game with someone, just because I think it would be fun. But I doubt I'd ever dream of publishing the results. And I will certainly not be reading the other books in Wrede and Stevermer's series.

[rubyscarlett-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

How fun! Delightful romp. Gail Garriger meets Georgette Heyer. Love the epistolary form which allows for greater, sharper wit since everything is told post-action with the benefit of insight. I wish I knew someone with whom I could play this game. The heroines are clever and quick to react and though the language is sometimes a little too modern to allow for any true suspension of disbelief as regards to the setting, the world is believable enough. Will definitely read the sequels.

[jlapac-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I am constantly on the hunt for new and interesting books to engage my 10 year old, especially if they have nothing to do with Yu-gi-oh or Pokemon or Shonen Jump, Avatar, Goosebumps, Animorphs, Lemony Snicket or Naruto. This book is based on a game called the Letter Game, where two people take on different personas and write letters as that persona for a defined period of time. I don’t think that
the authors intended to write a book, but found one at the end of their game. The authors (letter writers) write about cousins just after the Napoleanic wars in an England where
sorcery and magic are part of every day life. The story tells the trials and tribulations of two teenaged girls who are trying to save people they care about from death by magic. One is in London having her “coming out Season” while the other is left behind in the country. The book was a little hard to follow in the beginning, but I came to care about the characters and their adventures. The authors tidied up the ending very carefully and not-too quickly.

[humouress · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This story - told entirely in epistolary form consisting of the correspondence between two cousins, Kate (written by Caroline Stevermer) in London with Aunt Charlotte for her Season, and Cecilia (Patricia Wrede) left behind at home with Aunt Elizabeth in Rushton, Essex - tells their interrelated adventures in an alternative England where magic exists as an honourable profession (to the extent that Wizard Wellington uses it in the war).There are nefarious doings afoot, revolving around an enchanted (of all things) chocolate pot. Kate meets the Mysterious Marquis of Schofield, who has never bothered to visit his country manor near Rushton, while Cecy helps untangle his affairs at the Essex end, no thanks to a certain Mr. Tarleton - who is quite hopeless at spying from the shrubbery.The two cousins, with long experience of getting into and out of scrapes in their childhood with their siblings (vis à vis the episode with the goat), find themselves involved in more serious affairs. They conduct themselves with their customary sang froid (developed over years of explanations to their aunts) and adventuresome curiosity - not to mention collecting beaux and attending balls along the way - and rescue not only themselves but their friends; in spite of the gentlemen's well-intentioned efforts to protect them. This was a delightfully lighthearted romp in an alternative Regency England. I've had this book on my TBR pile for a while, and I wish I had picked up The Grand Tour, so I could continue reading the cousins' adventures without having to wait.I also like the afterword, in which the two authors (Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer) take turns to tell us how the book came into being, as they wrote letters to each other in the personae of the two heroines, with no knowledge of the other writer's plot.Absolutely fun!Four and a half stars.