The Grand Tour: Being a Revelation of Matters of High Confidentiality and Greatest Importance, Including Extracts from the Intimate Diary of a Noblewoman and the Sworn Testimony of a Lady of Quality (Cecelia and Kate, Book 2)
by Patricia C. Wrede, Caroline Stevermer
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Read in June, 2007
The one where Cecy and Kate and their husbands go on a marriage tour of Europe and wind up entangled in a plot.
I'm afraid this lacks a good deal of the charm of Sorcery and Cecelia. It's longer, and more conventional in structure, and while we still get first-person accounts from both Kate and Cecy, they're not talking to each other, so we lose those hints at the cousins' relationship that made the first book so much fun.
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I'm afraid this lacks a good deal of the charm of Sorcery and Cecelia. It's longer, and more conventional in structure, and while we still get first-person accounts from both Kate and Cecy, they're not talking to each other, so we lose those hints at the cousins' relationship that made the first book so much fun.
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Read in April, 2008
I didn't enjoy this one as much as the first -- I actually found myself missing the epistolary style, as I thought the letter exchange was a much less clunky way to switch constantly between Cecy & Kate's viewpoints. I found myself having to go back a few pages sometimes just to figure out who was narrating. Maybe that's also due to the fact that the personalities of the two narrators aren't always drawn in sharp enough distinction.
Plus all the sly innuendo to marital relations between ...more
Plus all the sly innuendo to marital relations between ...more
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The writing seems to have improved, but the illustration on the cover is worse. I really don't like the baggy, ugly dresses and urrgly faces... not to mention the anachronistic and completely uninteresting hairstyles.
But there have been passages already that make me grin or even giggle with delight! And I'm only one chapter in! I'm so glad!
It's still sort of hard to distinguish the characters from each other... they're so similar! Cecy & Kate are getting a teensy bit of distinguishib...more
But there have been passages already that make me grin or even giggle with delight! And I'm only one chapter in! I'm so glad!
It's still sort of hard to distinguish the characters from each other... they're so similar! Cecy & Kate are getting a teensy bit of distinguishib...more
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Read in June, 2008
This is the sequel to "Sorcery and Cecilia". I liked it but not as much as the first. It is in the same form as the first except that instead of letters between the two ladies it is written as entries in their journals. I had a hard time distinguishing between which character was speaking at the time and got a little tired of one of them. I didn't get caught up in this story as I often do. (I read it over several days instead of just one or two so that should say something. :) )
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Read in April, 2008
Not as good as Sorcery and Cecilia. It was enjoyable but lacked the charm of the first book.
Thomas & Kate, James & Cecelia travel around europe on their honeymoons and stumble into a plot to create a new Emperor of Europe. I enjoyed the plot and it was a little more cohesive than S&C. It's only downfall is that it doesn't live up to the expectations that S&C created.
I just started the Mislaid Magician and it has gone back to the epistolary style of S&C.
Thomas & Kate, James & Cecelia travel around europe on their honeymoons and stumble into a plot to create a new Emperor of Europe. I enjoyed the plot and it was a little more cohesive than S&C. It's only downfall is that it doesn't live up to the expectations that S&C created.
I just started the Mislaid Magician and it has gone back to the epistolary style of S&C.
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Read in March, 2008
Only read this book if you like to be disappointed. It's not that it's a bad book per se, it's just nowhere near as good as the first one. Instead of the conversational letter format of the first book, the two authors chose to have the two heroines writing in a diary. Whereas in the first the women were actually talking to someone and there was an information gap between them giving their correspondence an actual purpose, their diaries are a snore.
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Read in January, 2008
YA Fantasy. This is the sequel to Sorcery and Cecelia, which I enjoyed despite its flaws, but I can't say the same for this one. It's badly paced and the characters are so alike as to be nearly indistinguishable -- also a fault of the first novel, but compounded here by having all four characters in the same location. I frequently forgot whose POV I was reading, and could never remember who was married to whom. Very skippable.
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Read in June, 2007
It took me a while to get through this, probably not helped by the fact that I hardly remembered Sorcery and Cecelia. The Letter Game and epistolary style are still interesting, although perhaps not terribly effective, as I despaired of being able to figure out if it was supposed to be Kate or Cecy writing without double checking every time. I did love the concept of knitting secret messages!
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Read in December, 2004
A follow up to Sorcery and Cecelia... The girls are on their honeymoons and having a lovely adventure. It's not quite the same as having a letter game and it seems a little harder to tell them apart at times. It's all fun and fluff, though the paternalistic nature of their marriages is a bit creepy but true to the story. I enjoyed it, but not as much as the first one. (December 16, 2004)
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Read in January, 2006
The second book. This is where Harry Potter meets Jane Austen. The storyline doesn't flow as well as the first, but still enjoyable. Two writers each write their own storyline through letters with coordination as to how long they need to get to the next major plot developments or conclusions. I would recommend this for a more mature reader, not because of content...just style.
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Read in January, 2008
I didn't like this as much as the first one, but I still really enjoyed it. Kate and Cece are wonderful characters, but somehow they don't come through as clearly individual as they did in the other book--I kept forgetting whose account I was reading, and either had to go back to the beginning or wait until they mentioned the other's name.
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Read in July, 2008
Bah. Nothing at all as good as the first in this series or other Patricia C Wrede books. Both heroines are married at this point, and the authors dance around as many ways of implying lovey-dovey stuff as possible. It is irritating and distracts from the mystery-plot, which isn't that bad. Read the first in this series, skip this one.
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Not quite as good as the first book, but still worthwhile to read. Most people don't know about the last book in the series, The Mislaid Magician or Ten Years After: Being the Private Correspondence Between Two Prominent Families Regarding a Scandal Touching the Highest Levels of Government and the Security of the Realm.
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Got to admit that I was rather disappointed with this one. I had high expectations, particularly because the first in the series was just so freakishly delightful. The second lacked forward motion and that charming, consistent, fairly quippy pace of a good epistolary novel.
It wasn't dreadful, but it wasn't spectacular.
It wasn't dreadful, but it wasn't spectacular.
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Read in August, 2007
I know a lot of people didn't like this as much as the first one, but I thought it was really good. The plot was very original and exciting and I liked how they traveled to parts of Europe. It might not have been as funny as the first one (and Sorcery & Cecilia is def. the better of the two) but I really enjoyed it.
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Read in August, 2007
I love Ceciliy and Kate. But, of course, I am also a huge fan of the era (post Napoleonic Wars) and familiar with some of the literature of the era. Think Jane Austen with a magic twist and some minor contemporary leanings. This series has made me totally inspired to start a Letter Game and see what happens...
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Very close to as good as the first one, but in a very different way. All the characters are still recognizably themselves, but they grow and the tone is different (as it should be, since the story is written as extracts from a diary and sworn testimony rather than letters). Very enjoyable.
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I loved the intricacy of the plot as well as the characters. Although this had a different writing device than the first novel, it was still compelling with the different views of the two women heroines. The marriage tour was delightful. And the creative magic interesting.
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Read in March, 2006
Not as strong as Sorcery and Cecilia but still alot of fun. It falters a bit in not being a true epistolary experiment with the 2 couples going in different directions after a while. Still, I love the characters and am thrilled that Wrede and Stevermer continued the story.
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Read in August, 2008
but I'm biased. . . I love everything Patricia Wrede writes.
I will admit that I have trouble keeping track of which character is writing. . . But, overall, I enjoyed the book. It was a nice, quick read after a particularly dismal book I'd just finished.
I will admit that I have trouble keeping track of which character is writing. . . But, overall, I enjoyed the book. It was a nice, quick read after a particularly dismal book I'd just finished.
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