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kathydavie's review against another edition
4.0
Ninth in the Elemental Masters fantasy series and set in Brighton, England after King Edward VII's coronation in August 1902.
My Take
This was a switch! Up to this point, Lackey has been writing of elemental masters who are more upper class. This time around, it's a despised subclass of the lower classes: a magician, assistants, dancers, and a doorman!
The underlying conflict in this story is the law of the land that insists a woman is the property of her husband and he can do whatever he likes to her. The resolution is the choice Katie will need to make about how she uses her Elementals. And I couldn't help but love this story.
It's a caring friendship between two men who, in turn, care for those around them, and they're determined to get to the bottom of Katie's troubles. Well, once they find out what those troubles are and who caused them. I just adored that Jack finally understood the Suffragette movement!
For all the drama of this story, it's also too easy and comfortable, and still, I would definitely buy it precisely for its cozy read.
I liked the realism of Katie's learning of her power. Total denial and a desperate scraping of any reason why she imagined it! Although, once she does begin to understand, it makes me a bit nuts that she keeps resisting that understanding inch by inch, step by step. Jack's experience in Africa during the Boer War and the British concentration camps was also realistic...and much less nice.
It was annoying how easily Katie slipped into thinking she deserved how Dick treated her, but then again, in real life, women do become so subjugated that they believe it and don't believe they're worth anything. But did Lackey have to keep pounding away on this theme…? I was starting to feel abused.
Another few issues I wonder about is how did Dick find her in the first place? If he thought she was such a loser, why did he come searching for her? Why would Ball allow him to leave in the circus? How did the stagehand know who she was and who Dick was?
It is fun to see behind the scenes of an early twentieth-century dance hall: the work involved for the dancers and Lionel, Mayhew's worries, the crazy variations on that new Russian ballet fad---I want to see the comic version of the Dying Swan!
Hmmm, I do wish Lackey would make up her mind on how to address Lord Peter.
The Story
There are pluses and minuses to not moving on, and Lionel feels the permanence is enough to make up for those negatives. If only it weren't so difficult to keep on a decent magician's assistant.
It's lucky for Katie that Lionel and Jack are good men otherwise their sylphs and sprites would not have picked her out. She'll need their help when the fireworks bring her magic to the fore. Just as she'll need help to raise the sums necessary to buy her divorce.
Fortunately, need and goodness can be a mighty force.
The Characters
Katie Langford is part-gypsy with an unknown talent for Fire who will become the famous Natalya Bayonova. Her acrobatic parents are dead, and the owner of Ball's Circus, Andy Ball, pushed her into marriage with the circus strongman, the brutal and vicious Dick Langford.
Jack Prescott is the doorman with a gift for Fire who lost part of his leg in the Boer War. Lionel Small is a Air magician who has a permanent slot as a magician's act in Brighton at the Palace Music Hall. Suzie is the assistant who's getting married. Mrs. Buckthorn has a wee bit of magic and is Lionel's housekeeper. Paddy is Lionel's Connemara pony.
Barnaby Shen is the theater manager; Charles Mayhew is the owner with a huge problem. Pretty Peggy Kelly is one of the permanent acts, a singer, and the woman Katie talks to about divorce. Davey is the piano player; Mrs. Littleton is the brilliant seamstress; Bessie Taylor is one of the dancers; and, Oscar Nathan is a new stagehand overly interested in Katie.
Mary Small is the leader of this Traveling group and has insisted on taking Katie in. The clan consists of Joe, who plays guitar, and Celia, the lone Gitano of the girls and dancer; Bert, a fiddler, is married to Sally; Beth and Robert (Joe's father). The single men are Harry and Paul (Mary's sons) and Charlie, Fred, George and Jack who are Mary's grandsons.
Alderscroft gets a mention. Mrs. Baird runs the boarding house at which Katie occasionally rooms. Lord Peter Almsley will be appealed to for aid.
The Cover
The cover is our focus couple: the crippled doorman and the flaming gypsy assistant against a darkened backdrop of the magician's posters.
The title is all about Jack Prescott, for he is a Steadfast man.
My Take
This was a switch! Up to this point, Lackey has been writing of elemental masters who are more upper class. This time around, it's a despised subclass of the lower classes: a magician, assistants, dancers, and a doorman!
The underlying conflict in this story is the law of the land that insists a woman is the property of her husband and he can do whatever he likes to her. The resolution is the choice Katie will need to make about how she uses her Elementals. And I couldn't help but love this story.
It's a caring friendship between two men who, in turn, care for those around them, and they're determined to get to the bottom of Katie's troubles. Well, once they find out what those troubles are and who caused them. I just adored that Jack finally understood the Suffragette movement!
For all the drama of this story, it's also too easy and comfortable, and still, I would definitely buy it precisely for its cozy read.
I liked the realism of Katie's learning of her power. Total denial and a desperate scraping of any reason why she imagined it! Although, once she does begin to understand, it makes me a bit nuts that she keeps resisting that understanding inch by inch, step by step. Jack's experience in Africa during the Boer War and the British concentration camps was also realistic...and much less nice.
It was annoying how easily Katie slipped into thinking she deserved how Dick treated her, but then again, in real life, women do become so subjugated that they believe it and don't believe they're worth anything. But did Lackey have to keep pounding away on this theme…? I was starting to feel abused.
Another few issues I wonder about is how did Dick find her in the first place? If he thought she was such a loser, why did he come searching for her? Why would Ball allow him to leave in the circus? How did the stagehand know who she was and who Dick was?
It is fun to see behind the scenes of an early twentieth-century dance hall: the work involved for the dancers and Lionel, Mayhew's worries, the crazy variations on that new Russian ballet fad---I want to see the comic version of the Dying Swan!
Hmmm, I do wish Lackey would make up her mind on how to address Lord Peter.
The Story
There are pluses and minuses to not moving on, and Lionel feels the permanence is enough to make up for those negatives. If only it weren't so difficult to keep on a decent magician's assistant.
It's lucky for Katie that Lionel and Jack are good men otherwise their sylphs and sprites would not have picked her out. She'll need their help when the fireworks bring her magic to the fore. Just as she'll need help to raise the sums necessary to buy her divorce.
Fortunately, need and goodness can be a mighty force.
The Characters
Katie Langford is part-gypsy with an unknown talent for Fire who will become the famous Natalya Bayonova. Her acrobatic parents are dead, and the owner of Ball's Circus, Andy Ball, pushed her into marriage with the circus strongman, the brutal and vicious Dick Langford.
Jack Prescott is the doorman with a gift for Fire who lost part of his leg in the Boer War. Lionel Small is a Air magician who has a permanent slot as a magician's act in Brighton at the Palace Music Hall. Suzie is the assistant who's getting married. Mrs. Buckthorn has a wee bit of magic and is Lionel's housekeeper. Paddy is Lionel's Connemara pony.
Barnaby Shen is the theater manager; Charles Mayhew is the owner with a huge problem. Pretty Peggy Kelly is one of the permanent acts, a singer, and the woman Katie talks to about divorce. Davey is the piano player; Mrs. Littleton is the brilliant seamstress; Bessie Taylor is one of the dancers; and, Oscar Nathan is a new stagehand overly interested in Katie.
Mary Small is the leader of this Traveling group and has insisted on taking Katie in. The clan consists of Joe, who plays guitar, and Celia, the lone Gitano of the girls and dancer; Bert, a fiddler, is married to Sally; Beth and Robert (Joe's father). The single men are Harry and Paul (Mary's sons) and Charlie, Fred, George and Jack who are Mary's grandsons.
Alderscroft gets a mention. Mrs. Baird runs the boarding house at which Katie occasionally rooms. Lord Peter Almsley will be appealed to for aid.
The Cover
The cover is our focus couple: the crippled doorman and the flaming gypsy assistant against a darkened backdrop of the magician's posters.
The title is all about Jack Prescott, for he is a Steadfast man.
midici's review against another edition
3.0
I was feeling nostalgic, so I decided to pick up a Mercedes Lackey book. I used to read a lot of them when I was a kid. What I ended up grabbing was the 8th book in a series called Elemental Masters.
Katie runs away from her abusive husband and the circus she works in. She finds herself a new job, new friends, and her ability to do magic afterwards which allows her to try and get a divorce from her husband so she can finally be free of him.
Evidently in the Elemtental Masters series there are people that have magic which corresponds to one of the four elements, Earth, Air, Fire or Water. Regular society does not know they exist. Magicians can spot each other fairly easily, unless shielded. They are aided in their magics by elemental beings. All of which was fairly interesting, moreso than the long descriptions of dance routines that the main character Katie performs. An easy, fairly entertaining read.
Katie runs away from her abusive husband and the circus she works in. She finds herself a new job, new friends, and her ability to do magic afterwards which allows her to try and get a divorce from her husband so she can finally be free of him.
Evidently in the Elemtental Masters series there are people that have magic which corresponds to one of the four elements, Earth, Air, Fire or Water. Regular society does not know they exist. Magicians can spot each other fairly easily, unless shielded. They are aided in their magics by elemental beings. All of which was fairly interesting, moreso than the long descriptions of dance routines that the main character Katie performs. An easy, fairly entertaining read.
ptothelo's review against another edition
4.0
much better than the previous few elemental books. i actually wished it was a little bit longer! i can't remember the last time I felt that way about a book. i really enjoyed the time I spent with these characters
jholloed's review against another edition
4.0
Glad I finally got a hold of this one, nice to be back in the world of the elemental masters again. Not her strongest showing in this series to date (ending a little weak in my opinion, missed opportunity to explain her parents fire), not very well connected to the rest, except in passing, but a fun novel none the less.
We are following a former circus girl as she escapes her abusive husband and the new life she leads where she discovers her magic and true friends. Wonderful characters, well set historically. Good book overall.
We are following a former circus girl as she escapes her abusive husband and the new life she leads where she discovers her magic and true friends. Wonderful characters, well set historically. Good book overall.
kortirion's review against another edition
3.0
A pleasant addition to Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters series, but I thought it was kind of weak, and the story was wrapped up too neatly, without the main characters really taking action.
inmyhumbleopinion's review against another edition
5.0
Another sterling example of why Mercedes Lackey is one of my all-time favorite authors. She can take you to new worlds and new times and you feel as if you are there. I am character driven. If I can relate to the characters in anyway the story is that much better. Mercedes Lackey does great characters.
Untrained and unawakened Fire Magician Kate is on the run from her abusive husband. In Edwardian Britain the law is on his side. She is his to do with as he wishes. Dogs and horses have more rights than she does. She ends up in Brighton where she gets a job as a magicians assistant to Air Magician Lionel Hawkins. Lionel and Jack Prescott, the doorman at the theater who is a wounded vet and a Fire Magician, help Kate realize and train her gifts. She hopes that it will be enough to save her if/when her husband finds her.
Fans of Amanda Quick will enjoy this series. They can be read stand alone.
Untrained and unawakened Fire Magician Kate is on the run from her abusive husband. In Edwardian Britain the law is on his side. She is his to do with as he wishes. Dogs and horses have more rights than she does. She ends up in Brighton where she gets a job as a magicians assistant to Air Magician Lionel Hawkins. Lionel and Jack Prescott, the doorman at the theater who is a wounded vet and a Fire Magician, help Kate realize and train her gifts. She hopes that it will be enough to save her if/when her husband finds her.
Fans of Amanda Quick will enjoy this series. They can be read stand alone.
seeinghowitgoes's review against another edition
2.0
Guys, don't ask me why but I can't stop reading this series. Not because I particularly enjoy it, not because the plots are anything near original, but it's like that old blanket that's a little bit worn, rather predictable but comforting all the same.
Set in Brighton, our hero and heroine are a Magician and escaped and battered Circus performer who with the help of a few elementals are thrown together. It's the classic story of a woman who doesn't realise the power inside of her (sorry, cheesy I know) and at the same time some pretty stark abuse.
Set in Brighton, our hero and heroine are a Magician and escaped and battered Circus performer who with the help of a few elementals are thrown together. It's the classic story of a woman who doesn't realise the power inside of her (sorry, cheesy I know) and at the same time some pretty stark abuse.
beckykirk's review
2.0
It's like Misty isn't even trying anymore. This book was just lame and has confirmed that my Misty days are over.
starrymynx's review against another edition
3.5
3.5/5.
This book reminded me of a much darker version of Reserved For The Cat (an earlier book in this series). It even used almost the same acts for the stage performances. I know that it was common for different music halls to be doing the same or similar things at the time, but it was disappointing to see when there are so many different acts from back then with crossover between the circus and music halls to choose from.
I did like that this one dealt more with ethics, common people, and women's rights and that it was less about mage battles and monsters. The big bad wasn't some supernatural creature. It was just an abusive man, and this was a big difference between the two and what kept me reading.
Content Warning: Physical Abuse, Manipulation, Alcoholism
This book reminded me of a much darker version of Reserved For The Cat (an earlier book in this series). It even used almost the same acts for the stage performances. I know that it was common for different music halls to be doing the same or similar things at the time, but it was disappointing to see when there are so many different acts from back then with crossover between the circus and music halls to choose from.
I did like that this one dealt more with ethics, common people, and women's rights and that it was less about mage battles and monsters. The big bad wasn't some supernatural creature. It was just an abusive man, and this was a big difference between the two and what kept me reading.
Content Warning: Physical Abuse, Manipulation, Alcoholism