Set ten years after The Grand Tour, Kate and Cecy (and their husbands, of course, though I sometimes wonder if Thomas and James feel like third wheels when Kate and Cecy get together) have settled into respectable married lives. Or what passes as normal in an early 19th century where magic is common place. Things are not to remain peaceful, however ( Read more... )

The complete list of books I read it 2008 is in poll form here.

( top books of the year )

Set shortly after Sorcery and Cecelia, The Grand Tour features cousins Cecelia and Kate, along with their new husbands, James and Thomas, going on the famed Grand Tour of the continent for their wedding journeys.  Naturally, things don't go as peacefully as planned, and the two couples soon find themselves caught up in strange events connected to ( Read more... )

Having grown up together in Essex, cousins Cecelia and Kate decide to write to each other regularly when Kate and her sister Georgina go to London for the season with their Aunt Charlotte. Aunt Charlotte would have left Kate behind, but you can’t bring the younger sister out before the older, and so she decided to bring them both out at once, and ( Read more... )

 A sequel to A College of Magics, ASoM is about Samuel Lambert, an American sharpshooter participating in an experiment at Glasscastle, a prestigious university in England.  He's allowed to know little about the experiment, but is denied most stimulants, making tea with the provost's wife the most exciting thing going on in his life.  That changes ( Read more... )

In a turn of the century Europe different from our own almost only in that magic exists, eighteen-year-old Faris Nallaneen is the heiress of the Duchy of Galazon.  Her uncle, Brinker, however, has no intentions of turning the country over to her any sooner than he has to, and is only too happy to obey her late mother's wishes and send her away to ( Read more... )