The Fire Rose/Mercedes Lackey

The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey (Elemental Masters series); historical fantasy, romance, fairy tale; 448 pages

Okay, I know what you're thinking. You're looking at the cover, and struggling to confine the snickers of amusement at the art. What can I say? It was printed in the '90's, so you have to cut it some slack.

This is another reread for me, of a book that's long held a place of honor on my shelves. I'm not saying that it's the best book ever--even the second edition is riddled with typos and anachronisms--but I think my love for it comes from the fact that this was one of the first fantasy novels I ever read, and I bonded with it. (I was 13, and had just finished reading Lord of the Rings--my first fantasy novel!--for the first time. I spent hours in the library trying to find just the right next book; my mom grew tired of waiting, walked up to the shelf, pulled two books off at random, and told me to read them and see if I liked them. This was one of them. Thanks, Mom! Though I think if you knew about some of the creepier parts in this story, you would have thought twice about handing it to a 13-year-old.)

The story is a retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" set in 1905 San Francisco. Rose Hawkins has lost everything with the death of her father, and finds herself forced to take up a position as a governess. But when she arrives, she finds that there are no children in the household--just a reclusive employer to asks her to translates obscure texts on magic and sorcery, mostly concerning legends of the werewolf. Of course, you can guess where it goes from there. Lackey later continued this world into a series: all retellings of fairy tales, set in the 19th or early 20th centuries. This book is often left out of the series because it was printed long before the others, and by another publisher. Nevertheless, it remains my favorite of Lackey's works, for purely sentimental reasons.