The Grand Tour - Patricia C. Wrede & Carolyn Stevermer

The summer of the good sequel continues, even if it's technically fall.

If you liked Sorcery and Cecelia, then read the sequel, The Grand Tour. The authors wrote both books while playing the Letter Game. So cool.

If you like Jane Austen and Diana Wynne Jones, and you (god forbid!) haven't read Sorcery and Cecelia, then get moving, bucko!

What? You want to read a bit of it first? Okay, here's a bit from Cecy's deposition:

"I'm in excellent health," Thomas said in a strangled voice. "Never better."

"You are not," Kate said flatly. "And it's very odd that of the five of us, it's the three wizards who are suddenly feeling not the thing."

Before James or Thomas could respond, the coach lurched violently. I heard incoherent shouts outside and then a muffled crack. We stopped moving, but I felt no better. Then the coach door was flung open, and a man thrust his head--and a large pistol--into the coach and said something in incomprehensible French.

James looked quite fierce for a moment, but then he glanced at Lady Sylvia and me. His lips tightened. "We had better do as he says," he said.

"What did he say?"

"We're being held up," Kate said much too calmly. "We're to get out of the coach. James, will you help Lady Sylvia? I think Cecy and I can manage together, and I'm sure that Thomas will do quite well on his own. Since he is feeling so perfectly well."