Sorcery and Cecelia

Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot: Being the Correspondence of Two Young Ladies of Quality Regarding Various Magical Scandals in London and the Country by Patricia C. Wrede

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Okay, that was adorable. Epistolary comedy of manners in post-Napoleonic England with magic. One of those books that achieves all it sets out to do, and so is actually more successful than other books with more ambition. The letters are gossipy and fun, the plot predictable in a pleasant way instead of an annoying way, and one of the romances is thoroughly charming. Good times.


View all my reviews.

A College of Magics

A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
A young Duchess is sent far away from home to magic finishing school in alternate Europe, and then there's plot and politics. I picked this up because I particularly liked Stevermer's half of Sorcery and Cecelia. This didn't hit the same sweet, simple notes. It's a nice enough book, with some interesting world building and a heroine with a temper, and you really can't go wrong with magical girls' college. But this book had a vague feeling of being all under glass for me. There's a fair amount of narratorly distance, and it muffled some of the lively female friendships and the romance and the sense of cool weird magic.


View all my reviews.