Cute tie-in to the Sorcery and Cecilia trilogy. I liked it fine, and it was interesting to see Thomas and Kate through the eyes of their servants. This felt more like a middle grade book, which threw me off a little at first, since S &C are YA. It didn’t add a ton to the main series, but it was fun to see some familiar faces again. I loved it that Thomas went into labor when Kate did because of her wedding ring being his magic focus. Brilliant! ( )

Cute and light, but it could have been much better if it were a bit longer and fleshed out better. Nothing is really explained, and the ending especially felt a bit thrown together. ( )

Magic Below Stairs is a companion novel to the Cecelia and Kate books by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. It has a slightly younger target audience, and it is not written in a letter/journal format the way the Cecelia and Kate novels are.

I definitely want to see more of Frederick, and I really hope that Caroline Stevermer continues writing stories about him. The ending of the book definitely seems to leave that possibility open. ( )

See the review in the omnibus of the main novels in the series: https://www.librarything.com/work/15444912/reviews/121250384

A solid, pleasant sidework to the Sorcery and Cecilia series. This was a much simpler book, with no enigmas to untangle; the central plot was easy to predict, but none the worse for it. In some ways, it's a nice change of pace, as the main series is sometimes a bit over-tangled. ( )