The Fire Rose
Heiress Rosalind Hawkins was a throughly modern medieval scholar, her
road through life well planned and already embarked upon: by breaking
new ground in the Groves of Academe she would show the world that
brains and creativity trumped generd prejudice every time - and make
a name for herself in the process. But when her family fortune suddenly
disappeared in a could of debt and recrimination Rosalind was forced to
the traditional haven of a previously well-to-do woman fallen on hard
times: she accepted employment as a governess. She wasn't quite sure
how the job - perhaps the only governess position ever on offer that
required skill in medieval French - had come her way, but she did
know that it would pay her several times more than she had expected to
be able to earn.
But when she arrives at her employer's mansion overlooking San
Francisco Bay, Rosalind discovers that she is to be a governess in a
house without children, or even a wife, and with only a single servant
to keep the huge old house as immaculate as it was somehow kept.
Furthermore, it seemed that she was never to meet her employer
face-to-face, but merely to read to him through a speaking tube from
ancient manuscripts in obscure and forgotten dialects. Still, if she
persevered she might be able to resume her chosen life-path a decade
earlier than would otherwise be the case....
As time passes, "governess" and employer learn first respect and then affection for each other. At last they do meet face-to-face, and Rosalind learns Jason Cameron's terrible secret,
and despite, or because of it, she come to love him. And - the earth
moves.
Mercedes Lackey
Mercedes Ritchie Lackey (born 1950) is an American writer of fantasy novels. Many of her novels and trilogies are interlinked and set in the world of Velgarth, mostly in and around the country of Valdemar. Her Valdemar novels form a complex tapestry of interaction between human and non-human protagonists with many different cultures and social mores.
Her other main world is one much like our own, but it includes clandestine populations of elves, mages, vampires, and other mythical beings. The Bedlam's Bard books describe a young man with the power to work magic through music; the SERRAted Edge books are about racecar driving elves; and the Diana Tregarde thrillers center on a Wiccan who combats evil.
Elemental Masters
A fantasy series taking place on an alternate earth where magic exists. The series largely focuses on Elemental Masters, people who have magical control over air, water, fire, or earth. Each book in the series is loosely based on a fairy tale.
Elemental Masters consists of sixteen primary books, and includes one additional book that complement the series but is not considered mandatory reads, and the series is set to expand with the upcoming release of one more book. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.