Showing results by author "Patricia Wrede" in All Categories

Enter Regency-era England—and a world in which magical mayhem and high society go hand in hand—with three novels featuring cousins Cecelia and Kate. In Sorcery & Cecelia, the two cousins have been inseparable since girlhood. But in 1817, Kate goes to London to make her debut into English society, leaving Cecelia behind. While visiting the Royal College of Wizards, Kate stumbles on a plot to destroy a beloved sorcerer—and only Cecelia can help her save him.

Eff was born a thirteenth child. Her twin brother, Lan, is the seventh son of a seventh son. This means he's supposed to possess amazing talent - and she's supposed to bring only bad things to her family and her town. Undeterred, her family moves to the frontier, where her father will be a professor of magic at a school perilously close to the magical divide that separates settlers from the beasts of the wild. With wit and wonder, Patricia Wrede creates an alternate history of westward expansion that will delight fans of both J. K. Rowling and Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Since they were children, cousins Kate and Cecelia have been inseparable. But in 1817, as they approach adulthood, their families force them to spend a summer apart. As Cecelia fights boredom in her small country town, Kate visits London to mingle with the brightest lights of English society. At the initiation of a powerful magician into the Royal College of Wizards, Kate finds herself alone with a mysterious witch who offers her a sip from a chocolate pot.

Trouble is brewing in Alkyra. While the kingdom’s noblemen squabble, on their borders an ancient enemy, the Lithmern, raises an army. As the head of the Noble House of Brenn attempts to organize an alliance, the princess Alethia celebrates her 20th birthday. She is a remarkable woman: quick-witted, beautiful, and handy with a throwing knife. But on the next night, she passes through a dark corridor on her way to the banquet hall, and never emerges from the shadows. The Lithmern have kidnapped the princess.

Those wicked wizards are at it again! This time they are draining power from the Enchanted Forest. And that does not sit well with Mendanbar the King. On the advice of the witch Morwen, Mendanbar decides to consult with Kazul, the King of Dragons.

Daystar never thought he'd be walking through the Enchanted Forest with a magic sword, a fire-witch, and a baby dragon. He never dreamed his mother, Cimorene, would tell him to leave their home and not to return until his task was complete. Or that he alone held the power to release King Mendanbar and the Enchanted Forest from the wizards' evil spell. He doesn't even know who King Mendanbar is.

Eff is an unlucky 13th child...but also the seventh daughter in her family. Her twin brother, Lan, is a powerful double seventh son. Her life at the edge of the Great Barrier Spell is different from anyone else's that she knows.

Eff is riding west, away from the safety of the frontier city she's always known.... Eff could be a powerful magician if she wanted to. Except she's not sure she wants that kind of responsibility. Everyone keeps waiting for her to do something amazing - or to fail in a spectacular way. Worse, her twin brother, Lan, a powerful double seventh son, is jealous of all the attention she's been getting. Even as Eff protests that she's just an ordinary girl, she's asked to travel past the Barrier Spell with one of the new professors at her father's school. The land west of the Barrier is full of dangers, both magical and wild. Eff will need to use all her strength - magical and otherwise - to come safely back home.

Drinn is not a safe place to be a witch. Ranira knows that better than most, for when she was just a child, the temple guards burned her parents at the stake for practicing magic. Now an indentured servant for a brutal innkeeper, she lives every day with the shame of her parents' alleged crime. There is no worse time to visit Drinn than during the Midwinter Festival, when the city gates are sealed so that no outsider can witness the temple's secret rituals. And at Ranira's inn, three guests have overstayed their welcome. Attempting to protect Ranira from her master's cruelty, the three reveal their magical powers and attract the attention of the temple guards.

Three weeks after Eleret’s mother is killed, the messenger arrives with the tragic news. She died far from home, succumbing to wounds sustained in battle, and Eleret must travel to reclaim her belongings. The overland journey to the city of Ciaron is treacherous, but Eleret has no fear. She straps a dagger to her leg and sets off to recover one of her mother’s prized possessions: A ring etched with a raven. Though she makes it to Ciaron safely, getting home is another story.

In the magical world of Lyra, an innkeeper is forced to confront her darkest secret. For more than a decade, Kayl has run a modest country inn. She opened it with her husband, and they managed it together until a summer illness took him away, leaving her alone with their two children. The three of them get by, living happily together as the years pass, but everything changes the day a sorceress asks for a room.

When Emereck and Flindaran leave a caravan in search of adventure, it isn’t long before they stumble upon great danger. Emereck, a trained minstrel, and Flindaran, a nobleman masquerading as a tramp, have found a long-abandoned castle, and in it, one of Lyra’s most sought-after treasures: the Harp of Imach Thyssel. Emereck recognizes the perfect white bow from legend: It is said to possess the power of life and death over all mankind. Now, to keep it from falling into the wrong hands, he’ll have to learn to harness its strength to create and destroy, with the fate of the kingdom hanging in the balance.

Kate and Cecy and their new husbands, Thomas and James, are off on a Grand Tour. Their plans? To leisurely travel about the Continent, take in a few antiquities, and - of course - purchase fabulous Parisian wardrobes. But once they arrive in France, mysterious things start to happen. Cecy receives a package containing a lost coronation treasure, Thomas's valet is assaulted, and Kate loses a glove. Soon it becomes clear that they have stumbled upon a dastardly, magical plot to take over Europe.

It's been a decade since Kate and Cecelia foiled Napoleon's plot to reclaim the French crown. The cousins now have estates, children, and a place at the height of wizarding society. It is 1828, and though magic remains at the heart of the British Empire, a new power has begun to make itself felt across England: the steam engine. As iron tracks crisscross the countryside, the shaking of the locomotives begins to disrupt the workings of English magic, threatening the very foundations of the Empire.