Sorcery & Cecelia: or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot

For the Read Harder Challenge: “The first book in a new-to-you YA or middle grade series.” I browsed the YA section of the library and chose this because everything else seems to be dystopian sci-fi. Instead, this is a Regency romance set in an England where magic really works and the women are intelligent and witty. Cute.

This was such a delight to read, although fair warning, there are quite a deluge of characters and gossip from the start that it takes a while to really understand what's going on.

This is an epistolary novel involving an exchange of letters between two close cousins, Kate and Cecelia, talking about their respective seasons in London and the country in an AU Regency England where magic and sorcery are a thing. The exchange is generally witty and they're both clearly feisty young ladies trying to investigate how Kate almost got poisoned by some chocolate and whether one of their friends is under a spell.

My biggest gripe with it is that Kate and Cecy have very similar voices, and the events that happen to them are so similar that they almost parallel each other. Both are harangued by a (different) brooding and sardonic man who is at turns aggravating but also seems to be looking out for them. both have a friend/cousin near them who is prettier than themselves and attracting more attention during the season, but they're totally okay with that. Somehow both also have a possibly malicious witch/wizard nearby who may be attempting to do them harm as well. So I sometimes almost have trouble telling who is where and what is happening where because there're just so many similarities!

It all makes sense when you realise that this book was written by the two authors as part of a “Letters Game”, where two people agree on characters and a setting, and then they write letters to each other from the perspective of their own character, and without telling each other what the plot is going to be so the other person's reaction to the new developments is genuine. It's a really interesting premise and one that I'm somewhat familiar with, having done my share of forum role-playing back in my day which is very much the same in essence if not in form.

This was just such a delightful, light, and quick story. I actually left it sitting half-finished for the longest time because I'll confess that I had a hard time getting into it at the beginning, but once it gets going, you just let it get going. I do wonder how they're going to continue on as there're two more books in this series, but I'm eager to find out.