The Grand Tour (thoughts)

I read this way back in March, during my San Antonio not-a-lot-of-internet vacation as my first Once Upon a Time choice. For some reason, I’m just now getting around to reviewing it. That shouldn’t reflect on the book, though, because I loved it!

The Grand Tour by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer is the second in a loose trilogy. I say loose, because each novel stands alone, so it’s not like you finish the first one and are horribly upset you don’t have the next one on your shelves (other fantasy books I could mention). So it’s more like a series that happens to have three books.

Wow-apparently this is going to be a review with lots of digressions! I picked up the first one, Sorcery and Cecilia, from my (former) library’s YA section at random, and absolutely loved it. If you haven’t heard of the series, you can read my review, cleverly written in similar style, to learn more, and I think it’ll make this review make more sense. My (former) library being what it is, it had the third in the series, but not the second. Since YA books are delightfully cheap, I ended up buying this one from Amazon.

I can’t talk about this one without giving away a little bit of the end of the love stories in the first one. However, the authors were influenced heavily by Jane Austen, so you pretty much know the ending as soon as the right men appear on the scene. I won’t use their husbands names in this review, to preserve the ‘surprise.’

So in The Grand Tour, Kate and Cecily decide to go on a joint honeymoon with their new husbands. Intended to be a fun tour of the Continent, with clothes shopping and lots of culture, the four newlyweds soon find themselves in the middle of a magical conspiracy, raising about the Continent (and let me tell you, crossing the Alps after season isn’t fun) trying to foil the evil doers.

Whereas the first one was written in strict epistalatory style, that wouldn’t work here since Kate and Cecy are almost always together. Instead, each chapter provides an extract from one of their journals. So the effect is pretty similar, and the wit and sparkle from the first book has definitely carried over. Here’s a little taste for you:

“What sort of fancy dress is she wearing?”
James thought about it. “I think she means to be an ancient Greek. Flowing white draperies, that sort of thing.”
That didn’t help. “I do hope she is just being Greek in general and not thinking of some particular Greek. Medea, say. Greeks can be very drastic.”

And of course the setting is the same: it’s an alternate Regency Europe where magic and magicians are pretty common. (While this might remind you of Susanna Clark, I promise the style and tone is completely different.) It’s a lot of fun to watch Kate and Cecy begin to explore their new ‘grown-up’ world and really come into their own, both magic-wise and just in general. Kate especially struggles with the role that comes with her new name, worried that she can’t live up to it. And both they and their husbands must learn how to manage relationships that have changed from the courtship phase (does she love me? why didn’t he dance with me?) to the living together adjustment phase (why does he drive me out of my mind? why won’t she listen to any of my advice?).

The plot is quickly pushed along by the four trying to uncover who’s behind the conspiracy. The reader doesn’t know either, and in that sense it’s like an Agatha Christie style murder; clues are dropped, and it’s up to the reader to guess who’s the most evil person. The mystery was quite well thought-out and plotted (especially since this isn’t a mystery book!), and it kept me entertained, although I did guess the villain a bit earlier than Kate or Cecy. But while the plot is fun, it’s the characters (and their dialogue) and the setting that are the heart of the book.

I loved being swept back into Kate and Cecy’s world, but this one wasn’t quite as good as Sorcery and Cecilia (four stars instead of five). It was still a worthy sequel, though, and I look forward to reading the third one, The Mislaid Magician soon!

What do you think: is the middle book of the trilogy usually not as good as the first and last?