The Elemental Masters Series by Mercedes Lackey

Several years ago, I read The Fire Rose which incidentally doesn’t show up on the list of the Elemental Masters series currently published in with these other four titles. The four which I read this Christmas holiday are The Gates of Sleep (Briar Rose), The Serpents’ Shadow (Snow White), The Wizard of London (The Snow Queen), and Phoenix and Ashes (Cinderella). These four books have interwoven characters in such that they show up in each other’s books. Alderscroft is the Wizard of London and gets a mention in each of the others as a possible source of help but only in the FLBaum Ozian sense during the Gates of Sleep. Set at the turn of the century when women were fighting for the right to go to school, vote, have a career, and the right to own their own destinies let alone property. Magic clashes with industrial might, the earth elementals are injured by cold iron, and pure evil allows the non-magical to steal power (another reason for wanting Briar Rose to die). An Air Master who loves his planes blanks magic out of his life and as such is the only one who can see the truth about Cinderella. Eastern magic meets Western magic and the clash of prejudices almost destroys Great Britain if not for the intervention of the handsome industrialist who recognizes Snow White as the princess even if she is half-caste. But what causes a fire master to seem so cold and unable to connect with others – how about denying his Element in order to conquer Ice. I’ve loved these just like most of Lackey’s other books. By the way, Fire Rose is Beauty and the Beast in San Francisco.