The Grand Tour: or, The Purloined Coronation Regalia

Cecelia and Kate Series, Book 2

By: Patricia C. Wrede, Caroline Stevermer

Narrated by: Lucy Rayner

Two young Regency ladies with special powers must save the monarchy

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.

Now the four newlyweds must embark on a daring chase to thwart the evil conspiracy. And there's no telling the trouble they'll get into along the way. For when you mix Kate and Cecy and magic, you never know what's going to happen next!

©2004 Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer (P)2021 Tantor

Wrede, Stevermer, and Rayner are a magnificent combination.

Lucy Rayner does an exquisite job as a narrator. The voices are distinct and fit my notion of these characters exactly. Ms. Rayner gives each character distinct intonation, pitch, and pace of speech. It was plain who was speaking and which character was telling their part of the story. Stupendous work.
The authors discussed how much fun they had developing these characters and the world in the first book of the series. Their enjoyment of writing this story is evident.
I enjoyed the first book more, partly because there were 2 stories happening in parallel. Each author linking the plot to their own characters in different locations allowed more conversations about sharing gossip and developing secondary characters. This story focuses more on the interaction of the main characters only. The shared events limited any side story arcs and characters. More development of the leading ladies and their approach to the same events worked well. I liked the relationship building, but I miss the snarkiness of the female-male fencing of the first book.
Very fun, enjoyable listen.

Adorable series!

I’m glad I stumbled upon this series. The narrator and writer are a stellar team. The writing feels reminiscent and on par with Charles Dickens! I don’t mean to scare anyone off but this series certainly requires excellent reading comprehension! If you space out for even a moment, you are likely to get lost.

(Spoilers) I loved the “letter game” of book one but I do wish that book two would have ceased the tell vs show narrative. It would have been better if we were shown and not told what was going on. I also wish they had incorporated more actual magic. Wizards in this story seem to practice very subdued, seldom seen magic. I do love the focus on history, dialogue and world building but I do hope that book three highlights them wielding more magic! I’m an English major/aspiring writer and I NEVER have to look words up but some of the vocabulary delightfully stumped me! Always happy to learn new words. The writing is so intelligent and breath taking, def best for advanced readers, others may get frustrated. This one was a little slow moving compared to book one but I still adored hearing every word uttered!

I was glad to see the cousins in each other’s constant company this time. I wish we could have seen them bond more. Thomas and Kate are def my fav characters and couple! When she didn’t know where he was, I was beside myself along with her. I would like to see more between Cece and James too. There is a sprawling list of characters and at times it’s difficult to follow the part each plays in the story but it all comes together in the end. I’m American so maybe this story and reimagining of Napoleon would have entertained and intrigued me more if I was European. Still very well done! I’m hoping that Kate learns magic too!

I highly recommend this series to fantasy fans and those who enjoy this narrator and writers. Usually books written by more than one person are disastrous but this one is delightful. Enjoy the magic of Kate and Cece!

Felt a bit dragged out

At nearly 50% longer than books 1 and 3, this one actually feels like it didn't go anywhere (despite being a destination story). First, the alternating letter concept existed only as window dressing to introduce the prose. The riposte of book 1 and fey line/rail line intrigue of book three were more interesting to me. I did learn a few tidbits here and there (eg druid sickles), and was entertained by some of the gag lines (soooo many lost left gloves), but I actually felt mostly motivated to see if there was anything important that would unite the books. I drew a blank. A rainy day story when you want something light.

Good Story, Irritating Narration Quirk

This is one of my comfort read series. I have all the books in hardcover, but wanted to try them on audio. I will mostly like return this one. The story itself is still good, but I cannot listen to the voice that the author does for Italian characters. It’s awful. It’s overly dramatic, very stereotypical, and literally every word has the the ‘uh’ sound at at the back that people just assume all Italians have. It’s a lilting, musical language, yes. But when your sentences read along these lines: “Everything-uh is-uh going-uh according-uh to-uh plan-uh, and-uh very-uh soon-uh I-uh will-uh (blah blah blah), etc, it REALLY grates on the ears. It would have been alright if it was just a few words, but every word??!!! I wound up skipping most of those parts because they were so aggravating.