The Fire Rose Paperback – July 1, 2014

As any good fantasy fan must, I love the work of Mercedes Lackey. We share the same birthday (different years) and the same abiding love of the genre of fantasy, music and the renaissance. Mercedes Lackey writes immersive fantasy tales that are not only well-crafted; they rise far above your standard hack-and-slash sword-and-sorcery. In her Valdemar series, Lackey takes the genre and amps it up.This book is a bit outside my usual genre of epic fantasy. When I bought the Kindle download, I assumed The Fire Rose was a romance with a fantasy twist, maybe a book to while away a rainy northwest afternoon. In a sense I was right, but I was also wrong. First published in Oct. 1995, this is a full-on fantasy with a good dose of romance, set in Edwardian era San Francisco. For some reason, I had never come across this book, and was thrilled to find it as a Kindle download.Rosalind (Rose) Hawkins travels by train to San Francisco and is met by Paul du Mond, her employer's secretary. Paul is a mysterious, rather arrogant man and Rosalind doesn't really know what to make of him, but she doesn't like him. She does not physically meet her employer Jason Cameron; rather she gets to know him only through the speaking tube in her rooms. I loved that twist; it reminded me of getting to know a person via email. The mind is not distracted by what the eye sees, and the conversation becomes the driving force in the relationship.Lackey portrays her characters well, and in keeping with the era which she has set them in. Rose is intelligent, highly educated and strong. She is a lady in every sense of the word, yet she has a sense of adventure and loves the experience of learning. She has a backbone and she is not afraid to use it.Of course, Jason Cameron is much more than he has presented himself to be, and he has many ulterior motives for selecting Rosalind out of the list of candidates who could have filled the position. Jason Cameron is a man of vast wealth and great power in every sense of the word. He is fully aware that his own hubris caused his transformation, and to his chagrin, his personality is vastly benefiting from the dose of humility he inadvertently administered to himself.Paul du Mond is also more than he appears. He is also a man with nasty vices and a cruel streak a mile wide, and he knows Jason's plans for Rose. From the outset Paul is not pleased that Rosalind has been brought in to read to Jason. This jealousy drives the plot, and fuels the mayhem that ensues. Paul du Mond is arrogant, self-centered, and a sociopath. He reaches higher than his abilities can handle and has no moral compunction against using any means to achieve the desire of the moment.Besides being a master creator of some of the most popular sword-and-sorcery in the fantasy genre, +Mercedes Lackey also knows how to write fabulous twists on traditional fairy tales She knocks it out of the park with this tale.A lot of people are writing modern takes on fairy tales but they frequently fall short of the mark. They forget that there must be a great plot that goes well beyond the original or it's just a rehashing of the tried and true. The Fire Rose goes way beyond the traditional tale of Beauty and the Beast, to the point you completely forget the original tale that sparked this idea of novel.NO ONE melds romantic tension and magic into a tale as well as Mercedes Lackey. Her romance is classy and her magic is always well crafted and sensibly depicted, making this book a great read for any day, rainy or not. The final chapters of this tale are gripping and the ending is completely satisfying, and was unexpected--the best kind of ending.This book is a stand-alone book, but I will most definitely be reading the others in this series of books, the Elemental Masters.

Rosalind Hawkins enjoyed a privileged life in turn-of-the-century Chicago as the daughter of a respected, well-to-do academic with the luxury and acumen to pursue advanced academic study. But shortly before his death her father gambled away the family fortune, leaving Rosalind penniless and unable to pursue her graduate work in medieval studies, her future a frightening and uncertain void. But hope arrives in the form of a most unusual query -- Jason Cameron, a wealthy railroad baron in San Francisco seeks governess well-versed in the classics to tutor his children. Grasping this thin hope of salvation, Rosalind heads west, only to discover that where Jason Cameron is concerned, nothing is as it seems. Cameron's immaculate home appears to employ only one servant -- the wily Paul du Mond -- and there are no children. Surrounded by riches beyond her wildest dreams, Rosalind is asked to agree to a most unorthodox arrangement -- reading ancient and obscure texts to Cameron every evening via a speaking tube. Though she's never set eyes on her employer, Rosalind grows to embrace the purpose and opportunities afforded to her by her new life. And Jason, an adept in "magick" and a Master of the Element of Fire, imprisoned in his home by an experiment gone awry, begin to cherish the hope for a future outside his study walls thanks to Rosalind's friendship. But Jason's enemies will do anything to prevent him from finding a cure, and in allying herself to the enigmatic Fire Master, Rosalind finds herself facing dangers that threaten to rob her of the life she's come to love and the future she's dared to hope for with Jason...It's no secret that I adore fairy tales, and therefore I'm always on the lookout for new-to-me retellings that will put a fresh spin on a classic tale. Beauty and the Beast is one of my all-time favorites, and as such I was thrilled to stumble upon The Fire Rose, Lackey's take on the love story as old as time. In Lackey's alternate early twentieth-century history, "magick" is real, ruled by masters of the four elements -- earth, wind, air, and fire. Masters are individuals whose internal "balance" leans sharply toward one of the four elements, and when that preference is identified they are then apprenticed with an eye toward becoming adepts in their chosen field, able to communicate with the spirits of their element (salamanders for fire, sylphs for air, etc.) and exert control in their sphere of power. Lackey's world-building is one of the novel's greatest strengths -- she takes time (albeit perhaps occasionally tending towards pedanatry) exploring the mechanics of this alternate history, grounding her magic in plausible, elemental connections. In many ways it's workable -- and that sense of the everyday, that sense of credibility shades Rosalind and Jason's world with texture and possibility.For me, the "Beauty" character is essential to the success of any Beauty and the Beast retelling -- she must not only be able to look beyond the "Beast's" beastly exterior, but preferably possesses an intelligence and poise that sets her apart from other fairy tale heroines of her ilk. I loved Rosalind's love of learning, her passion for education and the written word. Her struggle with finding her "place" in 1905 is handled with aplomb and sensitivity -- she may be an atypical, forward-thinking woman, but she is also very much a product of her time and as such grapples with the restrictions and opportunities afforded to her in an authentic manner. Jason is her perfect match, relishing the challenges provided by a woman who isn't afraid to exercise her intellectual prowess. He's quite proud, which is what gets him into trouble to begin with -- but it also makes it a bit hard to warm to his character. While I loved that Lackey crafts two extremely intelligent leads, I do wish she'd spent a bit less time world-building and a bit more time interjecting some romantic spark into Rosalind and Jason's relationship -- their story is, after all, inspired by arguably one of the most romantic fairy tales.The Fire Rose is a thoroughly enjoyable introduction to Lackey's writing, and as a precursor to her British-set Elemental Magic novels, I definitely plan to investigate her magical take on the early twentieth-century further. Considering the source, this is a surprisingly realistic -- at times almost gritty -- retelling. Lackey doesn't shy away from acknowledging the seamier side of life facing unprotected women in 1905 San Francisco. And despite the development of magic in this alternate history, the elemental ties to the 1905 earthquake and its aftermath lends this novel more of a historical than a fantasy feel. It's a unique, refreshing take on fairy tale retellings, and if further novels interject greater romantic spark and character development, I'll be a very happy reader.

This book I purchased when first in print, and loved. I do wish there had been a longer HAE. I highly recommend this to fantasy fans - who want a light but satisfying, even stimulating read. A break from current 2023 books, a nice change from constant battles, quests, and truly evil villains. I own almost all of Ms. Lackey's books, in e-format, and love and reread them, especially her Valdemar series.This author is brilliant at creating worlds, and surpasses any other author I have read at characters who come to life, and win you over. As for her villains - she brings them to terrifying life!

I've really enjoyed some of the others in the Elemental Masters series, but they vary, and I don't think this one is that great. The two main characters are not especially pleasant people, and the abuse and murder of the Chinese sex slaves - although never written about exactly explicitly - is a bit much to take and makes the book pretty dark.

My husband is a huge Mercedes Lackey fan and has been urging me to try her Herald series sadly all of which are not on the Kindle 😡. I thought better and tried The Fire Rose as my first foray into her books. I have to say I am hooked and enjoyed it very much and was quite surprised at other reviews thinking that as it was loosely based on Fairy Tales that it would have a happy end Fairy Tales are not always happy and this book had the exact ending it should have. As Ms Lackey has a huge back catalogue even with the missing Ebooks I can see happy hours spent in the company......hint more Ebooks of her work please.....

One of the Elemental Masters series, a young woman is hired as a governess to an invalid's 2 children except that it transpires that the invalid doesn't have any kids, so what is going on? Turns out he's a Fire Masterwho played with fire once too often and was badly burned. Although the basic story is the same, there are enough differences between this and the fairy-tale to make it a satisfying read.

A great series of books reimagining classic fairy tales into something a little different - a lovely world setting with the existence of mages hidden within society. At times the stories can feel a little clichéd and as you go through the series the nature of 'magic' and individual relationships with it seems to change for no explained reason but nonetheless these are well written books that tend to build tension slowly and, like the fairy tales from which they derive, have some interesting moral dilemas.

A retelling of beauty and the beast that I adore.Grab some tea and toasted crumpets, snuggle in, and enjoy Mercedes at her best.