Rating: 
Summary: Very good for a magic lover.
Review: I love this book, I read it over the summer, and now after just that one book I have become a religious Patricia Wrede fan. I highly recommend this book. It uses ideas I have never thought of. It also has much action and deception. I also found it's easy to picture an image of the characters and the settings very clearly in your mind, it's spectacular, you are taken to another world altogether! Patricia, if you are reading this, e-mail me!
Rating:
Summary: An interesting world
Review: I loved this book and its author is one of my favorites. The characters are so real and the magic comes to life. I would recomend this book to anyone of any age who likes magic, mystery, and a little humor. A few plot twists will keep you on the edge of your seat and dying to read the sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Good Wholesome Patricia Wrede Fun
Review: I loved this book. I have been reading Patricia Wrede since i was a little girl and lately i have been trying to search out the harder to find books. I wasn't sure i would like this one when I found in the back of my small-town library, but it was wonderful. Full of wit, and fun, and lots of imagination. If you like this, you'll like the sequel as well, be sure to read it!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Too much cant, convoluted plot
Review: I read Magician's Ward first, and liked that a lot, but found Mairelon very different. Both stories may be set in the same universe, but MW seemed very much to be a romance with some mystery thrown in, whereas MM was more of a mystery targeted at younger readers. However, I'm not sure how younger readers would actually have waded through MM when Ms Wrede could have left out at least 2 of the characters without affecting the plot any. It was also heavy going trying to follow all that thieves' jargon. It's a wonderful universe though, peopled with zany characters, so I'd love to see more adventures, either involving Kim and Mairelon, or perhaps some of the other characters mentioned in passing (this is awfully popular with the romance writers, after all).
Rating:
Summary: A well-written and charming adventure!
Review: I read this book for the first time several years ago, and I instantly became an avid fan of Patricia C. Wrede. She is a master of the craft. The relationship between Mairelon and Kim is full of sweet subtleties and anticipation, and the plot is full of comedy and adventure. Patricia has a gift for capturing the tingling magic of innocent love.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book!
Review: I thought that this was an excellent book. Well developed characters and fun & exciting plot. I like the idea of Old London plus magic. I recommend this book for anybody who likes historical and fantasy/adventure stories.
Rating:
Summary: ENTERTAINING AND ORIGINAL work that is superbly well-written
Review: I thought this book was great! It had an original plot that was both amusing and satisfying. I have faithfully read regencies by two other authors-Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen, and Patricia C. Wrede DOES NOT plagiarize her ideas. Georgette Heyer did extensive research to ensure the authenticity of her characters' dialogue and her stories' plots, so it is not surprising that Wrede's character's speak in the same dialect. After all they are both set in the same time period and same place. Wrede's characters, manage to say things without being too wordy and still have the Regency feel to them. Wrede incorporates magic into English society as if it actually did exist as a science. This work was wonderfully entertaining as well as being as authentic and "realistic" as a fantasy novel could be.
Rating: 
Summary: An unimpressive effort
Review: I was not at all impressed by this book-- its overly complex plot and dull cardboard characters are hardly improved by the author's heavy reliance on the Regency romances of Georgette Heyer, from which Wrede appears to have borrowed both characters and language (I found one sentence that appears to have been lifted virtually without change from Heyer's "Cotillion.") The book reads as if it were assembled from a kit. I would not recommend it
Rating:
Summary: The England that Should Have Been...and a Silver Platter
Review: If you're interested in fantasy with a dash of mystery and an incredible dollop of English philology, this is the book for you. Don't feel intimidated, however, Mairelon the Magician is also a quick, easy read. The cast, although fairly huge for such a relatively short novel, is well drawn and generally hilarious (the fainting over the platter scene is an especial favorite) and the plot exciting (even if the whole thing is over magic silverware). And, just in case you thought the adventures of Richard Merrill and Kim ended unresolved, check out Ms. Wrede's Magician's Ward...the continuing adventures of the England that (really) should have been.
Rating:
Summary: an interesting contradiction
Review: In some ways this book is written for young teens, and in some ways it is written for older teens, and in some ways it is written for adults. It is not written for pre-teens. A lot of the background involving 19th Century England (socially and especially in terms of occult theory) probably is not going to make a ton of sense to younger readers. In some ways the book suffers from being too realistic (aside from the existance of magic). But Wrede does not believe in talking down to her younger readers, so expect some serious themes and situations. On the other hand, she doesn't take the same level of reality into the interpersonal relationships of the characters. Instead, they seem to fit in more with a book for young teens or even pre-teens. The mixture of adult writing and young adult adventure just doesn't work as well in a realistic setting as it does in Wrede's Enchanted Forest books. I liked the book, but adults should really try the Enchanted Forest series first. (Since I'm 36, I won't even try to predict whether teens would like the book.)
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