Rating: 
Summary: Perfect on the beach summer read
Review: This is a great book - light, and better than any
romance novel. I couldn't wait to finish so I could read it again.
Rating: 
Summary: Weird Interesting Book
Review: This is a weird but good book.It's written in the langauge of Victorian England in th form of two letters between cousins. There is quite a bit of trite gossip, and even that was interesting. The use of magic starts subtly, and grows as the plot thickens. The plot starts slowly as the characters develop, but the book is never booring thanks to the interesting writing style.
Rating:
Summary: Best Ever
Review: This is an amazing book. I love history and usually I don't like alternate universe type things, but this book is a huge exeception. It is about two cousins and one is having her season in London while the other stays at home. They are hilarious, though I must admit that Thomas is my favorite. He is funny. The authors do such a wonderful job with this book. It is in letter format and that can get really bad with some authors, but not Stevermer and Wrede. I read this book right when it came out and it has been my alltime favorite fiction book since.
Rating:
Summary: Jane Austen Fantasy
Review: This is great - a combination of Jane Austen and a good fantasy in an epistolary-style novel. Delightful, romantic, and stylish. Dear authors, please hurry up and finish your sequel!
Thanks!
;-)
Rating:
Summary: its a wonderful book
Review: this is one of the best books i have ever read.don't be put off by the format which i initially was.Caroline Stevermer and Patricia C. Wrede have wonderfully managed to turn the book into an interesting one through even only using letters!i like all four main characters and they are potrayed in a favourable way.the romance is also very funny and cute.it is in fact from my personal pt. of view nicer than magician's ward by patricia.c.wrede. the way the book was wrote is also very interesting.its a must read for all fans of patricia.c.wrede and fantasy readers.i m awaiting a similar book.
Rating:
Summary: Simply the best
Review: This is simply the best Regency romance and the best fantasy book I've ever read. In spite of the fact that it is entirely in letter form, the action moves on briskly, and the two romances are excellent. If you get a chance, grab a copy and don't lend it to anyone or you won't get it back.
Rating: 
Summary: Where's the plot????!!!!
Review: This short volume isn't worthy enough to be called a tale, book, or even a novel...it was so trite and simple. That this book came to be when two writers were writing joke letters back and forth greatly emphasises this books low reading and that it's an ideal book for simple minds. Where was the plot? Not in this book, that's for sure...
Rating:
Summary: Sorcery and Cecelia
Review: This was a good book, and exciting to read. I was even more surprised to find that it didn't even originally start as a book! Some words (like odious) tend to be repeated alot, but that's just a small mistake. It moved rather quickly, which was okay. I would recommend it, and I want to read the next book!
Rating:
Summary: A Unique and Fascinating Read
Review: To best understand "Sorcery and Cecelia" one has to first flick to the back of the book in order to read the authors' afterword in which they explain the format and history of their story. After hearing of a game called "The Letter Game", Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer decided to have a go - each took on the persona of two young women in a more magically favoured 1800's, and wrote to each other concerning their activities. Patrica Wrede plays the role of Cecelia Rushton, living in the country and somewhat envious of her cousin Kate Talgarth (Caroline Stevermer) who is being presented to Society in London. And so the correspondance began, each woman drawing on the magical angle of their created world as well as a 'Jane Austen' flavour, so tell each other of the gradually more dangerous escapades that they both get up to. Kate in London is well into the process of socialising and mingling, despite being overshadowed by her far more beautiful sister Georgy. But whilst watching a neighbourhood wizard Sir Hilary being installed at the Royal College of Wizards, she comes across a little door in the building that leds to a cloistered garden, where a woman named Miranda Griscombe tries to kill her via chocolate poured from a bright blue chocolate pot! It becomes increasingly difficult when her cousin (Cecy's brother) Oliver disappears while at a night time function, and everywhere she goes she seems to run into the odious 'Mysterious Marquis', a one Thomas Schofield, whom seems to be the target of Miranda's malice. Cecelia meanwhile has come into contract with Dorothea Griscombe (any relation to Miranda?) who unintentionally seems to attract men to her like flies to honey, in particular James Tarleton, who prowls around behind bushes and under trees with very little skill at such activities. Finding herself quite accomplished at the magical arts, despite her Aunt Elizabeth's hearty disapproval, Cecelia begins to take lessons, 'borrowing' several books from Sir Hilary's library which may lend clues to Kate's situation in London... Such does the story go, expanding with each letter, with each girl helping the other along, though in the entire course of the tale neither of them come face to face. It is a highly original way of telling a story, and for the most part works very well in presenting a tale. If there is one trouble, it is that we are never in any concern over the girls' safety in their escapades, as we know that they remain intact in order to write the letters chronicling their dangers. Furthermore its difficult to keep track of the myraid of characters that keep pouring into the storyline and their relationships with one another - three-quarters of the way through the book I gave up and began again from the start! But "Socery and Cecelia" (why Kate is excluded from the title is a mystery since I found her story and attitude far more enjoyable than Cecelia's) is a funny, witty, exciting read, filled with magic, interfering aunts, enchanted chocolate pots, romance, adventure and a certain tone that reminds us continually that it is real letters that we are reading - we never really find out what the story was behind that goat that the girls are continually alluding to!
Rating:
Summary: Good old fashioned fun!
Review: What makes this book so fun is that it is a letter writing game between 2 superb writers- (each author created a character and they agreed on a setting and basic rules, then they each went home and started writing letters in their character's voice and sending them to each other.) We discover the plot in the same way they did as they wrote it- by reading the letters! I am so glad they published their game because it is truely hilarious and makes me long to find an eccentric friend to start a game of my own! As an earlier reviewer noted it has a feel of Jane Austin, but I think it's set in the same England as Marelon the Magician, so the magick is there too.
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