Badseedgirl
1/18/2014
Sometimes a person just wants to read a story that will entertain and not tax the brain. Sorcery & Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia Wrede & Caroline Stevermer is just such an adorable novel. The entire novel is written as correspondence between the two heroines Katherine and Cecelia. Set in a Regency England where magic is accepted skill, Kate and Cecy, as they are addressed in the letters, are cousins who have been separated because Katherine is to have her "Season" in London with her sister Georgia, while Cecilia is to wait until next year. While separated both girls manage to have adventures involving magicians and gentleman callers and a magical chocolate pot. All of which has made for one of the most adorable novels I have ever read!
The funny thing is, I completely enjoyed this novel, something that shocked me because this is not exactly the type of novel I usually go for. Our heroines experience danger and adventure, but as a reader there is no real sense of urgency anywhere in the novel. You know that no matter what scrape these young women get themselves in that they will be ok in the end.
Part of the reason I enjoyed this novel so much was that although these are Regency era characters, both Kate and Cecy on several occasions confound their enemies and male companions alike with their abilities to manage and their grasp of the situations. Although they did not at first appear to me to be such, these young women are in fact strong characters, just strong characters with very good manners!
After reading the novel I was surprised to read that the authors, Ms. Wrede and Ms. Stevermer actually wrote this novel as a series of letters to each other, first as a writing exercise and then getting more and more involved. Ms. Wrede wrote the "Cecy" letters and Ms. Stevermer, "Kate". This gave the characters distinct voices, and just added an interesting factoid to a completely satisfying novel. I am looking forward to reading the next two books in the series.