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Blood Red

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
The ninth novel in Mercedes Lackey's magical Elemental Masters series reimagines the fairy tale Red Riding Hood in a richly-detailed alternate Victorian world
Rosamund is an Earth Master in the Schwarzwald, the ancient Black Forest of Germany. Since the age of ten, she has lived with her teacher, the Hunt Master and Earth Magician of the Schwarzwald Foresters, a man she calls “Papa.” Her adoptive Papa rescued her after her original Earth Master teacher, an old woman who lived alone in a small cottage in the forest, was brutally murdered by werewolves. Rosa herself barely escaped, and this terrifying incident molded the course of her future.
 
For like her fellow Earth Masters of the Schwarzwald Lodge, Rosa is not a healer. Instead, her talents lead her on the more violent path of protection and defense— “cleansing” the Earth and protecting its gentle fae creatures from those evil beings who seek to do them harm.
 
And so Rosa becomes the first woman Hunt Master and the scourge of evil creatures, with a deadly specialty in werewolves and all shape­shifters.
 
While visiting with a Fire Master—a friend of her mentor from the Schwarzwald Lodge— Rosa meets a pair of Elemental Magicians from Hungary who have come looking for help. They suspect that there is a dark power responsible for a string of murders happening in the remote countryside of Transylvania, but they have no proof. Rosa agrees to help them, but there is a catch: one of the two men asking for aid is a hereditary werewolf.
 
Rosa has been taught that there are three kinds of werewolves. There are those, like the one that had murdered her teacher, who transform themselves by use of dark magic, and also those who have been infected by the bite of these magical werewolves—these poor victims have no control over their transforma­tive powers. Yet, there is a third kind: those who have been born with the ability to trans­form at will. Some insist that certain of these hereditary werewolves are benign. But Rosa has never encountered a benign werewolf!
 
Can she trust this Hungarian werewolf? Or is the Hunter destined to become the Hunted?
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 21, 2014
      Lackey’s long-awaited ninth Elemental Masters fairy tale (after Steadfast) will satisfy her eager fans. As a budding Earth mage in 19th-century Europe, young Rosa studied deep in the Schwarzwald forest of Germany under the tutelage of her adopted grandmother, until the day the wolf literally came to her door. Some years later, having come fully into her Mastery of Earth, Rosa is called to hunt the same creatures that haunt her past and who set her on her current path—assuming her training for polite society doesn’t kill her first. The action and dialogue flow freely, mingling with beautiful descriptions of European countryside and just a hint of romance. However, despite a well-developed heroine and engaging story, the novel falls short of its full potential, feeling somewhat like a rewritten role-playing adventure. Agent: Russell Galen, Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary Agency.

    • Library Journal

      May 15, 2014

      Little Red Riding Hood grows up to be a dangerous hunter of shape-shifters and magic abusers in this latest series entry (after 2013's Steadfast). Having trained all her life to protect the inhabitants of Germany's forests from rampaging werewolves, Rosa of Schwarzwald is called on by another lodge in England to help eradicate a werewolf pack that might be controlled by a rogue Elemental Master. VERDICT Although she shifts gears between an oddly girlish interest in pretty dresses and hardheaded hunt master, Rosa remains a typical, strong Lackey heroine. The author has an army of fans, and while this series lacks some of the satisfying emotional angst of her Valdemar books, it will be in demand with those who can't get enough Lackey.

      Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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