Miss Amelia's List

Elemental Masters, Book 17

De: Mercedes Lackey

Narrado por: Zura Johnson

The seventeenth novel in the magical alternate history Elemental Masters series follows Amelia Stonehold and Serena Meleva as they navigate property acquisition, marriage proposals, and other ancient horrors in Regency England, but with the help of elemental magic

The year is 1815, and an American, Miss Amelia Stonehold, has arrived in the Devon town of Axminster, accompanied by her "cousin" Serena Meleva. She's brought with her a list to tick off: find a property, investigate the neighbors, bargain for and purchase the property, staff the property and . . . possibly . . . find a husband. But Amelia soon finds herself contending with some decidedly off-list trouble, including the Honorable Captain Harold Roughtower, whose eyes are fixed on her fortune. Little does Amelia know that his plans for her wealth extend far beyond refurbishing his own crumbing estate—they include the hidden Roman temple of Glykon, where something very old, very angry, and very dangerous still lurks.

But Roughtower isn't prepared to reckon with the fact that neither Amelia nor Serena are pushovers. And he certainly isn't ready for the revelation that he has an Earth Master and a Fire Mage on his hands—or that one of them is a shapeshifter.

©2024 Mercedes Lackey (P)2025 Tantor Media

Wonderful blend of historical story and Magic, with a touch of romance.

Great back story of the series. Well done historical story of Year Without A Summer and winning of Napoleonic wars. Great introduction of American Mages back to British story line. Great read for age 12 to 100. Riveting story,,could not put down.

lovely cozy fantasy with a little adventure

Another great addition to the elemental mage series. Lush descriptions and an interesting time period, you don't see year of no summer mentioned often. I love the characters, lots of strong female characters. It is more slice of life in a historical setting with magic added. Lots of fun to read and more cozy then adventure, which I was in the perfect mood for.

Most disappointing of the series

The story really went nowhere throughout the book and the only conflict started and completed in the last pages.

No story. Just day to day regency with magic for lucky rich people.

Lackey has good world building. It is fun to see Bridgerton world with elemental magicians. But that is all it is. Main characters only have good luck all the time. Help from nobles and so on. The only strife or adventure is in the last 45 minutes of the story. No romance, no character growth, no toiling. Just a happy stroll through regency England with magicians. Rather disappointing.

Boring Juvenile Fiction

Huge Mercedes Lackey fan, but this one just didn’t make it. It reads like a sketch or a first draft. Lots of detail about clothes and the society but written at a 6th grade level. Almost like explaining this society to Middle Schoolers. And can’t say the narrator particularly helped.

And there were lots of opportunity to have interaction with the main characters and to build up to the action at the end of the book, but that didn’t happen. And then suddenly at the end there is the sudden action sequence and the solution all in a few pages. And it was telegraphed in. Like one of those horror movies where you are yelling at the stupid teenagers who get out of the car or hide in the basement. Where was the editor on this one?

Think about the title, Miss Amelia’s List. That’s what it is about, this list, but it’s barely mentioned until this scene at the end. But there are these hints that we are actually reading Pride and Prejudice.

Really, really disappointing. Really.

Very good, not her best

There was no real story, other than the girls setting up house, until the last two chapters. The whole book was a Jane Austin novel until chapter 15. There was as much about tea cakes and dresses as there was about elemental masters, maybe more. I love this series and this author but this is not her best. The rest of the series is spell-binding, this one is merely very well written and enchanting. Lackey is still an excellent author on her worst day and this was not that day. This book is very entertaining. I would feel better if there was a book two that detailed the heroines’ time through the rest of the over-arching issues with the volcano, (hint, hint).

Interesting time line and place in time. Haven’t read much of that bit of history

Dislike snootie men. Glad to see they can learn to be nicer. Hope to see more down the road.

Wonderful Historically Based Elemental Mage Story

I enjoyed the story, even though it was very focused in the beginning on clothing. It was a good distraction from what is happening these days and the part of the story that happens when Ms Lackey writes a story about elemental mages that concerns their being in danger has unusual timing in this particular story. What I did not like was that she decided that a leopard could purr and stubbornly stayed with this in the story. There are easy ways to have explained it and she chose not to.

List

Great book. It was a really great read. The characters were avidly written and believable. Loved the way the history of the time was woven into the story. Love the book.

Excellent narration, hiccups on audio editing.

As stories in the Elemental Masters series goes, I found this... less than stellar. It seemed to take forever to actually *get* anywhere, and the final 2 chapters I found to be slapped on and rushed. This is not about Ms. Johnson's performance as the narrator, but Ms. Lackey's story. It was merely "okay," in my opinion.
But the one thing that I found truly irritating was the audio editing that had an audible click immediately after a chapter's final syllable. It was very jarring and ruined the flow of an otherwise pleasant listen, to have the "'[... word.]' *hiss-click* ... 'Chapter [Number].'"