Bitchery reader AnimeJune asks for assistance finding this book that, well, it’s just… wow:
I’ve noticed that many Bitches have been helped out as of late, and thought I’d add my bitch to the pile because I’ve been looking for this book for FOREVER and can’t for the life of me remember the title.
It’s a fantasy as well as a romance, I believe, and I read it about nine years ago when I bought it as a used-book store (but the book was relatively new at the point, I’m pretty sure). It’s San Francisco in 1912, I think, and the protagonist is this sort of straight-laced girl who’s hired by this mysterious rich dude to read books about magic aloud to him - through a pipe, though, so she can’t see him.
Turns out he’s some sort of fire-magician who tried a difficult spell to turn himself into a werewolf but it backfired REALLY badly and left him in some bizarre half-man-half-wolf state. But his junk’s human - I remember THAT part. He needs to do research to find a cure, but because his wolf-eyes can’t really focus enough for him to read print, he needs the girl to do it.
I seem to recall he falls for her because he thinks she has wind-magic, and fire and wind go really well together, but, uh, he looks like Balto and Hugh Jackman had a nasty baby together so he can’t make a move. Eventually the girl clues in, and wants to help him find a cure, even falls for him a bit, but they have to fight a rival magician and somehow the San Francisco earthquake factors in and screws some stuff up.
Eventually the woman and the wolf-man end up together, and this is the part I remember the most clearly: that he’s still a wolf at the end because the cure got lost in the earthquake, but they love each other anyway. It sounds like a reinterpretation of “Beauty and the Beast” - only he stays a beast. If anyone remembers a novel like this, I’d love to read it again and see if my 21-year-old self finds it as salacious and AWESOME as my 12-year-old self did.
Balto and Hugh Jackman? Thank God his Junk is human, though. Because… dude.
Mercedes Lackey- The Fire Rose.
Weirdlet’s correct. My verification word is very69!
Curses! beaten to the only “Help a Bitch Out” I’ve ever actually known!
AnimeJune, “Fire Rose” is definitely worth checking out; the heroine is not only brainy (ie, she knows Latin and Greek and basically grew up with a college-prof father, I think… which is why in 1912 she’s unmarriagable, can’t get a job doing what she loves, and is perfect for “mysterious rich guy seeks girl to read obscure Latin manuscripts on somewhat dicey subjects"), she’s also got common sense. The hero is… well, he was the sort of ueber-clever, super-proud alpha male type who was likely to try to show off how amazing and special he is by trying to work a half-intelligible werewolf spell written in unidentifiable substances on medieval parchment, and now he’s the sort of ueber-clever, super-proud alpha male type who’s trying to deal with the consequences of having been really, really stupid. Heh. Great secondary characters; nicely-developed system of magic (I believe that Lackey went on to do a whole series of Elemental Magic books set in that time period, although not in San Francisco); nastily creepy villains.
Hope that you do in fact enjoy it as much now as you did back then!
JD
This brings up something for me. books you thought were “hot” as a teenager that you reread as an adult and realize they aren’t… Or even very good for that matter…
I just found “ Restoree” by Ann Macaffery which I luvvvved as a teenager and reread it as a “cough” much older adult.... That book didn’t age well for me.. Hopefully this one will for you..
Dammit, beaten to the punch. Mercedes Lackey has also written some other fairy tale retellings in the same “universe” (PS: The Fire Rose is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast) including The Serpent’s Shadow (Snow White) and Phoenix and Ashes (Cinderella) which I highly recommend. If you like retellings of the Beauty and the Beast story I would also suggest Beauty and Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley.
Fire Rose - On my keeper shelf. Actually the first book of a psuedo series that she has of retold fairytales and they aren’t too bad.
*delurks* Also, The Gates of Sleep, which is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. But I’ll have to concur, Fire Rose is a good book, especially if you enjoy retellings of fairy-tales. (McKinley, anyone?)
Damn, as a few others have said, this is the very first one of these Help a Bitch Out things I’ve known and everyone else knows it too. :-) But anyway, AnimeJune, besides the rest of Mercedes Lackey’s fairy tale series, that a few others have mentioned, if you liked Fire Rose, there are a couple of other series out there you might like.
There’s a series edited by Terri Windling that retells classic fairy tales in new ways and they’re the same sort of idea as the Lackey books - basically fantasy novels, but nearly always with a romance element to them, fairy tales with a twist or two. The quality varies because they’re by various authors, but I have several from that series on my keeper shelf - Tam-Lin by Pamela Dean, Briar Rose by Jane Yolen, The Nightingale by Kara Dalkey, Jack the Giant Killer by Charles deLint, Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia Wrede.
Wrede also did a pair of books that I think are really cool because they’re basically Regency romances, only set in an England where magic is as much a part of everyday life as poor sanitation. Middle-aged-but-still-hot rich, titled dude? Check! Poor-but-smart, feisty young girl disguised as a boy? Check! Young girl becomes hot dude’s ward and they fall for each other? Check and check! Evil villain with a plot to destroy hot dude? Check! If you’re interested, the books (in order) are Mairelon the Magician, and Magician’s Ward.
sallahdog: Rosemary Rogers didn’t age well with me. When I was in Junior and high school-hoooooooo doggie! I just LUUURRRRVED the Ginny & Steve series. But now-sadly no.
More on Wrede: She’s done 3 collaborations (epistolary novels) with Caroline Stevermer that are basically in the same world as Mairelon the Magician, if perhaps not involving the same people. They’re a little more YA, though.
Me too! This is the first one I finally knew! I love this book so much.
The Elemental Masters series is Fire Rose, Serpent in Shadow, Gates of Sleep, Phoenix & Ashes, and The Wizard of London. Fire Rose and The Wizard of London are my favorites.
There’s another that should be out by now—it was scheduled for October. It’s called Reserved for the Cat.
Y’all beat me to it! I’d like to second the recommendations for Lackey’s Elemental Masters series, the Terry Windling series (had totally forgotten about them, but loved them years ago), and of course, I can whole-heartedly recommend anything that Robin McKinley has put her name on.
And Reserved for the Cat just came out, I just got it from the library, but haven’t started it yet.
The one and only time I knew one and I’m not even close to being first. Good book.
It is a wonderful series. I had to get my copy off ebay. I really enjoyed Serpents Shadow, Phoenix and Ashes and Wizard of London.
I second the recommendations for Patricia Wrede. Wonderful author. Who doesn’t love Sorcery and Cecelia or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot. I would love it for the title alone.
Must buy. This sounds awesome.
re: sallahdog “I just found “ Restoree” by Ann Macaffery which I luvvvved as a teenager...”
I’m scared to re-read any of her books!
OMIGOD. I love this book. I loved it so much when I was a teenager I saved my allowance, bought a money order and ordered the hardcover version. Love it, love it, love it. Also a BatB version where (spoiler) he stays a beast: Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley.
Darn! Beaten to the punch.
Don’t worry Lee! I read McCaffery as a preeteen, and still re-read regularly. but Restoree is not a good pick. Try the Dragon Riders of Pern, or any of her romance novels: The Lady, or The Year of the Lucy. I’m even still fond of the Tower series.
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found out Meyer’s “response” when it broke on fandom_wank late last evening. I don’t know if you’ve seen fandom_wank, but this kind of thing, in that context, is pretty hilarious (the macros, oh the macros).
Heck, it made…
Let me just address Sasha’s “for shame!”:
I found out Meyer’s “response” when it broke on fandom_wank late last evening. I don’t know if you’ve seen fandom_wank, but this kind of thing, in that context, is pretty hilarious…
Gah. I used to like Abebooks.
I’m lucky in that I have several good options where I am so I don’t have to rely on Amazon, but I also recognize that there are a lot of places where…
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10.29.07 at 07:08 AM |