Jolene

Elemental Masters #15

by Mercedes Lackey

The beloved Elemental Masters series moves to America for the first time in a rich retelling of The Queen of the Copper Mountain, set against the backdrop of Tennessee coal country.

Anna May Jones is the daughter of a coal miner. When her father succumbs to Black Lung, the coal company wastes no time in turning the family out of their home. In desperation, Anna May's mother sends her to live with her Aunt Jinny, a witchy-woman and an Elemental Master, in a holler outside of Ducktown.

As she settles into her new life, Anna May finds herself falling for a stonemason with such a talent for stonecarving that people come all the way from Memphis to commission statues and tombstones from him. But he's not content with his current skill—he wants to learn to carve stone so well it looks real.

When the stonemason disappears on a quest to fulfill his ambition, it is up to Anna May to follow and find him, armed with the new abilities Aunt Jinny has taught her. To save the man she loves, Anna May must journey into the mountain—and confront the horrors that lurk in the darkness of the mine.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Magic, Romance, Historical Fiction, Historical, Science Fiction Fantasy

320 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2020

About the author

Mercedes entered this world on June 24, 1950, in Chicago, had a normal childhood and graduated from Purdue University in 1972. During the late 70's she worked as an artist's model and then went into the computer programming field, ending up with American Airlines in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In addition to her fantasy writing, she has written lyrics for and recorded nearly fifty songs for Firebird Arts & Music, a small recording company specializing in science fiction folk music.

"I'm a storyteller; that's what I see as 'my job'. My stories come out of my characters; how those characters would react to the given situation. Maybe that's why I get letters from readers as young as thirteen and as old as sixty-odd. One of the reasons I write song lyrics is because I see songs as a kind of 'story pill' -- they reduce a story to the barest essentials or encapsulate a particular crucial moment in time. I frequently will write a lyric when I am attempting to get to the heart of a crucial scene; I find that when I have done so, the scene has become absolutely clear in my mind, and I can write exactly what I wanted to say. Another reason is because of the kind of novels I am writing: that is, fantasy, set in an other-world semi-medieval atmosphere. Music is very important to medieval peoples; bards are the chief newsbringers. When I write the 'folk music' of these peoples, I am enriching my whole world, whether I actually use the song in the text or not.

"I began writing out of boredom; I continue out of addiction. I can't 'not' write, and as a result I have no social life! I began writing fantasy because I love it, but I try to construct my fantasy worlds with all the care of a 'high-tech' science fiction writer. I apply the principle of TANSTAAFL ['There ain't no such thing as free lunch', credited to Robert Heinlein) to magic, for instance; in my worlds, magic is paid for, and the cost to the magician is frequently a high one. I try to keep my world as solid and real as possible; people deal with stubborn pumps, bugs in the porridge, and love-lives that refuse to become untangled, right along with invading armies and evil magicians. And I try to make all of my characters, even the 'evil magicians,' something more than flat stereotypes. Even evil magicians get up in the night and look for cookies, sometimes.

"I suppose that in everything I write I try to expound the creed I gave my character Diana Tregarde in Burning Water:

"There's no such thing as 'one, true way'; the only answers worth having are the ones you find for yourself; leave the world better than you found it. Love, freedom, and the chance to do some good -- they're the things worth living and dying for, and if you aren't willing to die for the things worth living for, you might as well turn in your membership in the human race."

Also writes as Misty Lackey

Author's website

Reviews

[Nik · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm about 1/3 of the way through, and I am enjoying the book, but the dialogue is driving me nuts! I'm from Tennessee, and "y'all" is used when talking to SEVERAL people, or in place of the generic "you". It is NEVER used to talk to one, single, person. "Y'all" as the singular "you" is done consistently throughout the book, and it's REALLY jarring. Otherwise I am enjoying it, I just wish Ms. Lackey or her editors (whoever is responsible for this serious error in dialect) had actually talked with someone from the area, or a historian about the area, to set her/them right.

[Riayl]

Um...wasn't The Fire Rose set in San Francisco? Is that no longer in America? *confused*

[Liz (Quirky Cat) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of Jolene in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Jolene is the fifteenth novel in Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters series, only, there's a pretty major twist this time around. This novel is set in America.

Anna May Jones has never exactly been healthy. The daughter of a coal miner, growing up in a small town with little access to clean food and water, Anna May got used to this life. Until the day she was sent to live with her aunt, with the hopes of finally getting better.

From that moment onward, Anna May's life changed forever. It turns out that her aunt is a witchy-woman and an Elemental Master, both of which Anna May herself has plenty of potential in. This is the setting for her adventure, as she falls in love and takes great risk to save those she cares about.

“Ain't my fault I'm sickly. Not like I did this t' m'self.”

There are a few things I really want to start this review off with. First, I just want to say that I absolutely adored the fact that Mercedes Lackey included a warning at the beginning of this book. It went into detail warning readers about some of the triggering subjects contained within. Honestly, I wish more books were this self-aware. Then again, this is Mercedes Lackey we're talking about, so I'm not surprised that she thought it through this far.

Second, Jolene is written with a very strong dialect, specifically an Appalachian accent. I'm far from an expert on that dialect, so I'm not going to comment on the accuracy. But I do know that not all readers love it when strong dialects make their way into books. For what it's worth, it isn't as intrusive as one might imagine. It gets better over the course of the novel, as we learn more about Anna May, her life, and her adventures.

Overall I think that Jolene was a wonderfully written novel – Mercedes Lackey is a talented author, and it really shows here. The detail put into describing everything from the food to the land is simply beautiful. It does, however, slow down the book by quite a lot.

I'd say that the main plot isn't introduced until about the halfway mark, which should give you a solid idea of what you're in for here. Still, it was a worthwhile read, especially for fans of the author or the series.

Check out more reviews over a Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

[Elley Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

For sure the book isn't perfect. The entire book is written in an Appalachian sort of dialect, with the dialogue being much heavier but the text itself having that same twang. It was not my favorite, but I got used to it pretty quickly and it fit the feel of the book. Also, basically the entire conflict/resolution, or the part that was the fairy tale retelling bit, took place in the last 10% of the book. That's no exaggeration, Anna finally gets to a place where I'm like "Here we go! The fairy tale part!" and I looked and I was 92% of the way through the book. I wish there'd been more pages given to that part of the story, but it didn't feel rushed or incomplete so I guess Mercedes Lackey knows what she's doing!

I'm just SO RELIEVED to finally get another book in the Elemental Masters series that's not about Nan and Sarah! Psychic Nan and Medium Sarah play a major role in the fourth book in the series, The Wizard of London, and I really didn't care for them. "Oh well," I thought, "each story is about new people so at least I won't have to see them again." But alas - books 11-14 in the series deviate from the fairy tale retelling format and all follow Sarah and Nan on their adventures helping solve mysteries with Sherlock Holmes (or something, I haven't read them, I disliked Nan and Sarah that much...) Jolene is the 15th book in the series and FINALLY returns to the roots of being based on a fairy tale, with an exciting move to America in the late 19th century!

Jolene is based on the Russian fairy tale "The Mistress of the Copper Mountain." I hadn't previously read the fairy tale, but going in with a character named "Jolene" I assumed eventually Anna would be begging of her please don't take her man. (And if you haven't ever listened to Dolly Parton's "Jolene," PLEASE go do so!) I think Mercedes Lackey took as much inspiration from the song as she did from the fairy tale, and it made me SO HAPPY to read. The real conflict and action of the book doesn't take place until the last 10-15%, but it still never felt slow to me. I was content just to "set by an' watch Anna May git her some learnin'."

If you're not familiar, the Elemental Masters series is a collection of stand-alone but interconnected fantasy books that take place in a world that's much like ours, except secretly some folks have elemental magic. There's some interconnection between the books, like Dr. Maya from The Serpent's Shadow shows up as a side character in some of the later books, and Lord Alderscroft shows up in a few books before eventually getting his own in The Wizard of London. The characters in Jolene are entirely new, and I'm hopeful the series will continue with fairy tales and myths from some different cultures. This is book 15 in the series, but can be read as a stand alone.

A digital ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley for review. All opinions are unbiased and my own.

Like this review?
Check out more of my reviews on my blog, Elley the Book Otter

[M.M. Strawberry Library & Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I will admit that I skipped the last few books in this series because I, quite frankly, wasn't interested in Sherlock Holmes, or the psychic investigators Nan and Sarah. I got into this series because of the combination of urban fantasy and fairy-tale elements. The last book I actually read was book 11, based off Rapunzel. I liked that one and the preceding one, based off Red Riding Hood.

So when this book became available, I was glad to give it a chance, and I found it refreshing. It was fun to read about a story happening in America (in the 1890s) and instead of having English roots, there's Russian ones, not just in the myth this story is based off, but a touch of Russian history and culture, as well as some Native American.

I do feel that the ending was wrapped up too quickly and a mite too conveniently, because I felt that someone like Jolene would have been more canny in regards to the asshole who thought that he could use and manipulate her, so I could not give this book 5 stars. But at 4 stars, it's still a solid read, and I hope that the author does more of this instead of going back to Nan and Sarah and Sherlock Holmes.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that Anna May was able to stand up for herself, but this book definitely could have been longer if the ending was more well-thought out.

There are a few nitpicks I do have with this book, but I'll focus on just one. Though this book does work as a standalone, the Elemental Master lore through the series has been mostly consistent, so if you've read at least a few of the books, you'll have a good idea of how elemental magic works in this world. So in previous books, it was said more than once that Earth and Water magic water were complimentary elements, like with Fire and Air (which makes sense)

However, in this book, Aunt Jinny says otherwise when she uses her own Earth magic to make water leave tomatoes (for tomato preserves) and tells her niece that the two elements don't mix and that's why water was happy enough to leave the tomatoes when Jinny told it to. This has stuck in my mind since.

[Scratch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Standard disclosure for a Mercedes Lackey book these days: She has been phoning it in for about 15-20 years, so the quality of her novels has gone way down. That being said, this particular installment to the Elemental Masters was a little better than most.

The obvious worst part about this novel was the Appalachian, Tennessee dialect. It's nearly identical to the "church speak" used by Nell in the Soulwood Novels by Faith Hunter, so at least it's familiar to us fantasy buffs. But the dialect was persistent throughout the whole novel, with words spelled phonetically to approximate the weird dialect. It's readable, but you have to flip a switch in your head to make it understandable. If readers can't easily flip that switch, this book could be a chore.

Beyond that, I'm pleased that Lackey allowed herself to include a proper goddess in this work, though she hesitated to actually use the word. Normally, she is reluctant to include gods as characters at all, and she often will say that they're some sort of fae instead. But Jolene is a beautiful, powerful goddess I legitimately had never heard of before. I found her aesthetics very pleasing. Copper and malachite? She's the kind of mineral goddess my geology-loving husband might worship.

Otherwise, this novel was much the same as any other Lackey novel. Lots of attention paid to food and chores, with the main characters learning that they will only succeed in life by embracing simple practicality, and setting aside whatever neurotic qualities they might have started out with. Here, the main character Anna didn't really have any personality problems. She just suffered from poverty, malnutrition, and the usual negative side effects Earth mages feel when they live in cities. She moved in with her aunt and did a bunch of chores, focusing on food the whole time, and got much better. Along the way she learned magic.

Normal. Standard Elemental Masters book. However, there were two possible "villains" to this novel, one of whom was --arguably-- this "Jolene" character, a type of Russian goddess. The other was pure evil, and as such was a very two-dimensional character.

There was just enough intrigue that I didn't feel like Lackey phoned in this novel quite as much.

[Hattie · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only way I got through this book was to pretend that Anna was actually twins and that was why everyone kept using "y 'all" to refer to her instead of you. Someone must have told Mercedes that people in Appalachia say y 'all, so she just replaced EVERY SINGLE 'YOU' WITH Y'ALL. I spent the first 10 chapters confused about who they were talking to because they kept saying y'all to indicate an individual. The entire book was written in a terrible dialect. And would someone please let her know that 'poke salad' is a real thing made from an actual plant, not weed soup that's kept simmering on the back burner. Seriously, it was really terrible. There was no action until the last chapter. There was no reason for the Queen of Copper Mountain to be named Jolene. There was no reason to move Russian mythology to Appalachia. The whole thing made no sense and was full of glaring errors.

[Ann Brookens · Rating 5 out of 5]

A return to my favorite Lackey style!

Jolene is a wholehearted return to the style of Lackey's early entries in the Elemental Masters series: the wonder and delight of a new magician learning their powers, the fresh characterizations, the traces of a classic fairy tale, all bound up in her delectable writing. I raced through this book, and may reread it tomorrow, it was so delicious! I must confess that I haven't read the last few Elemental Masters books. There has recently been a strong focus on the thoughts and psychology of the villains and I HATE getting into their cramped, warped, and twisted minds. With Jolene, we only see the villain from the perspective of the heroine, and I much prefer that view. When I preordered Jolene, I hoped that it would fulfil my desire for the sort of book she wrote 10 years ago...and it did! Thank you, Mercedes Lackey; I loved your book!

[Fiona Mackie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the first five or 6 books in the series, and then felt it was becoming tired. With this book being set in Tennessee, I hoped it would be better.
The folksy dialect irritated me, especially the use of y’all for one person. The big bad Master didn’t really have much space in the plot, despite being built up. It was a disappointing read throughout. I finished it as I hoped there would be some tension, but no, it all wrapped up very quickly.

[Alex Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quiet, soft book with a good ending. Heavy dialect, which took some getting used to in the beginning. Lovely for pandemic reading when the world feels rough and you need it all to be simple again.

[Kathy Davie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sixteenth in the Elemental Masters paranormal fantasy series and revolving around magic-users. The focus is on the young Anna May Jones, and is the first story to take place in America.

My Take
I had to concentrate on this being part of the Elemental Masters series, as I'm so used to it being set in Victorian England. Lackey does keep true to her working class roots for her teen protagonist, using a mountain dialect for the principal characters. Thankfully, it's very easy to follow her spellings.

That beginning is certainly an excellent example of how the wrong setting can affect a magic-user. Poor Anna May. Thankfully, her aunt knows what she's doing, even if Lackey uses third person protagonist point-of-view from Anna May's perspective.

In describing the Jones family's life in a mining town, Lackey touches on all those negatives of being a miner and the effects the pollution and lack of safety equipment has on miners and their families. The debt the Company forces their employees and families into. Yep, pollution. Lackey worked her views in very nicely.

Those were some handy bears a'helpin' to keep Union and Rebel soldiers from wiping out the holler.

As usual, you can warn the young, but they have to experience it for themselves. At least Anna May is a fast learner. She does have a lot to deal with. Learning about her genetic heritage. Reconciling it with what the preacher said was in the Bible as well as her pa's declarations. Uncovering her bigotries. Anna May's dreams about being viewed as her true age are sweet.

Josh has his own dreams. So does his Ma with her love of Blue Willow. A love I can understand *grin*. It's a cute story Josh relates to Anna May about So Ling, Kong-see, and Chang.

I gotta say, I do get confused trying to figure out Anna May's genealogy with all those granpappies and grannies and whether they're greats or great-greats. Take it with a grain of salt.

That Aunt Jinny. She is a caution and too smart for them. All in all, it was a fun read even if it was rather tame with that unexpected ending.

The Story
Anna May Jones continues to weaken, and in desperation, Anna May's mother sends her to live with her Aunt Jinny, a witchy-woman and an Elemental Master, in a holler outside of Ducktown.

As she settles into her new life, Anna May finds herself falling for a stonemason with a talent for stonecarving. But he's passionate to carve more than just the work for which he's commissioned.

When the stonemason disappears on a quest to fulfill his ambition, it is up to Anna May to follow and find him, armed with the new abilities Aunt Jinny has taught her. To save the man she loves, Anna May must journey into the mountain — and confront the horrors that lurk in the darkness of the mine.

The Characters
Anna May Jones has been sickening since puberty. Ma, May, isn't the most motherly woman; she loves her husband too much. Pa, Lew Jones, is a miner in Soddy.

Aunt Virginia "Jinny" Alscot, Ma's sister, has a fearsome reputation as a healer, a Root Woman, thanks to her Earth magic. She lives in Lonesome Holler, in the mountains outside Ducktown. In her childhood, the Alscot family had lived in Shady Holler, near Soddy. Anna's maternal grandmother, was supposed to have married Parnel Parry, Granpappy's best friend; she died after birthing Maybelle, who was then spoiled beyond belief.

Pavel Ivanov Lebedev (could be Pavel Lebedev Ivanov??), was Jinny's Great-granpappy. Coby is a hob who tends the yard. Pavel has a fascinating journey. Sally Lacey, known for her healing ways, was his wife, Jinny's Great-granny, whom Pavel met on Squire Thomson's farm in Devon, England.

Jinny's neighbors, Maddie and Matt Holcroft, bought the farm from Jinny's Pa. They have a lot of children, starting with Joshua, Sue, Jacob, Gertie, Seth, Becky, and Ned. Susie is their mule. Hope Sue is okay with that!

The Earth Elementals are...
...Jinny's friends. The Domovoy came from Russia with Jinny's Great-granpappy. Grandmother Spider will help teach Anna May. Other Great Elementals include Bear, Deer, Badger, Wolf, Fox, and Panther. Medicine Bear is the Chief of all Bears.

The Cherokees are...
...not supposed to exist in the holler, but they hide behind a magical barrier on land bought by Jinny's Russian Granpappy, specifically for the Cherokee. It kept them safe from the Removal. Granny learned to be a Root Woman from Elder Raven's grandpappy and granny. Elder Raven is the father? of Young Raven. It could be that Old Raven is the father with Elder Raven the grandfather... Or they're the same person?? Dawn Greeter may be Old Raven's wife. Moon Daughter is Young Raven's wife. Eagle Sight, a chief, was the Cherokee whom Pavel first met.

Ducktown, Tennessee, is...
...where the Burra Burra mine is located. Caleb Strong has a cartage business with his son between Cleveland and Burra Burra. Mary is his wife. Cavenel runs the Company store and is the undertaker who commissions tombstones and such from Josh Holcroft. I'm not sure how to reconcile Thomas Cooper running the Burra Burra Company Store with Cavenel's. Mrs Hopper lost a baby. Clay's Main Mercantile is where Jim and Abby work. Billie McDaran, the mine foreman, is a bad man, a powerful Earth master. Sheriff Tailor comes with the bailiffs.

Cleveland
Jeb Sawyer is a teamster who makes the run between Cleveland and Soddy with goods for people and the mine. Daisy is his mule. His kids include Hal, Sue, and Bobby. Cap'n Clem runs a ferry.

Soddy is...
...the mining community where the Joneses live. And suffer. Daisy. Anna May's contemporaries include Sally Macray.

The Malachite Maid is...
...also known as Jolene and Hozjajka Mednof Gory, a.k.a. The Queen of Copper Mountain, with Earth magic. Pavel first knew of her in Russia, but she can travel anywhere. She likes to collect craftsmen.

The Three Sisters are corn, beans, and squash. The Ani'-Tsa'guhi was a clan that took up an immortal deal. Aunt Jinny has a powerful hate on for President Andrew Jackson. The Glory is how Aunt Jinny refers to their magic, the Elements of Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit. A Lodge is like a union of local Elemental Masters. Rufous Taylor is a master over in Asheville.

The Cover and Title
The cover is is both soft and bright. The background is a grayed-out graphic of the blond Josh in black knotted neckerchief, white shirt, and brown leather full apron, concentrating on a long-stemmed cup? against which he's handling a black tubular object. He's standing in his barn studio surrounded by carved statues, plinths, and tombstones. The author's name is in white at the very top. Immediately below it is the bright with a black-and-clay framed rectangular inset framing the orange tones of Jolene from bust to her long red hair studded with colorful jewels, scarabs, lizards, and an entwined snake as a crown. She's staring out at us with those emerald green eyes above a brown silhouette of the dying town of Ducktown. In the bottom left of the inset is the series information in black. At the very bottom is the title in a gradation of clay to dark brown in the same gothic font as the author's name.

The title is all about the questionable Jolene.

[Paulette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mercedes Lackey has produced an interesting, well-written novel based on an old fairy tale, the Queen of Copper Mountain. I enjoyed it although I'm not super fond of reading dialect. My criteria for four stars is that I would read it again and this book didn't quite make that cut.

[A. P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Where's the plot? Where did the plot go?

It's a charming story, largely avoided the trite love triangle I was dreading based on the obvious inspiration, and was quite readable despite nearly all dialogue being written in heavy (and rather questionable) dialect. If you enjoy the Elemental Masters series, this is a decent entry.

HOWEVER-

Overall, as a book, I can't justify giving this more than three stars.

There is a content warning at the start of the book, noting that it is set in rural Tennessee in the 1890s, and as such the (almost entirely white) cast won't exactly reflect modern sensibilities with regard to the treatment of other races, peoples, or creeds. It's an ironic disclaimer, considering that the characters engage in very little actual racist talk or action, while the story itself leans far more heavily on the "magical Native" trope that might have been okay in the 90s but is most certainly well-known to be worn thin, trite, and othering by now. Plus, having the main character learn the local Cherokee dialect (and apparently Cherokee manners) overnight by magic instead of spending time with the actual Cherokee characters and learning about them *from* them left a rather bad taste in my mouth. It felt a little like an old-timey magical version of learning all about someone by stalking their Instagram before saying hello to them.

Also. Importantly. Critically. THIS BOOK HAS NO PLOT!!

I was on page 233 out of about 313, having yet to encounter any actual conflict, when this really sank in for me. There was no tension. Nothing was holding the main character back from achieving her goals. There was no problem she was called on to solve. There were some teases of friction, but nothing that showed any signs of coming to a head. This didn't come entirely as a surprise - Lackey's been weak in the tension and climax department for easily a decade now - but this was a new low.

We got there eventually, but the whole of any actual protagonism/antagonism took maybe twenty pages to set up, explore, and resolve.

So. If you want a feel-good story set in the familiar Elemental Masters universe, and don't want to ever feel even a little uncomfy or worried for any important characters - and you're ok with the whole unfortunate Magical Native Americans thing - go ahead and pick this up. Otherwise, I'd recommend returning to some of the older and more tautly written books in the series.

[Dawn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dear Misty, this is TRASH. Lackey Lacks Originality.

Ive been reading your work since I was 15. I was a WRITE IN PEN PAL FAN CLUB MEMBER thirty years ago.

I remember Judith. I remember the bullshit fanfic release forms. I REMEMBER THE ACCUSATIONS.

This is not a new fiction release. This is a rehash of decades old work, MIXED UP WITH A STOLEN, INTERNATIONALLY FAMOUS IP BELONGING TO A WORLD FAMOUS LYRICIST AND SONGWRITER.

You should be fucking ashamed of yourself Lackey. This is a new fucking low. I hope Dolly sues the shit out of you, and i hope all of Fantasy fandom finally finishes turning their collective back on you, you washed up, plagiarizing, unoriginal insulting has-been.

[Lori]

DNF. I hate it when authors try to write dialogue in a dialect, especially an Appalachian dialect. What would have been an enjoyable book was ruined. An ARC was provided to me by Netgalley for my honest review.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wonder if Dolly Parton has read this?

Loosely based on her song. The dialog/accent this is written in is kind of hard to understand even if you're familiar with how it sounds. That's why I gave it 4 stars. Wish there were more details on other US masters and the Cherokee.

[Gillian Wiseman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly predictable but very readable. A standard Lackey, nothing exceptional, but nothing wrong with it either.

[Igenlode Wordsmith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes, I did pick this one off the shelf entirely based on the title! (I had no idea Mercedes Lackey was still writing...)

And the first half or so is very good; of course from my perspective nineteenth-century Tennessee culture is every bit as foreign, exotic and fascinating as the average fantasy world, and Lackey even manages to succeed with writing the conversations in her story entirely in heavy phonetic dialect, usually a big turn-off. (Which has the interesting and probably not unintentional effect of making the characters sound instantly more cultured and wise when they are speaking in Cherokee than when they are speaking 'in English'!)

The Cherokee involvement did feel a bit gratuitous, though - ultimately it is used solely to provide a deus ex machine escape at one point in the story, and Anna May even says explicitly at one point that the Cherokee magic was pretty much separate from all the stuff she was doing with her own innate talent, so it feels like an unnecessary extra complication. (She is learning two schools of magic, one of which she is never shown to be using, and for no very clear reason either within the character's own motivations or from a story-external point of view. And there is no clear reason as to why on earth she immediately asks the elemental creatures to teach her Cherokee as soon as she learns that it is possible to learn foreign languages; the only Cherokee she has ever met speak exactly the same English as she does.) I'm afraid I ended up with the impression that element was simply added in there to show that our protagonists are the anti-racist Good Guys...

I loved all the descriptions of Anna May's life, both in Soddy town and with her aunt Jinny (and the loving details of food reminded me of classic children's books, where descriptions of feasts tend to feature very prominently indeed!) In fact at this stage of the book, in terms of songs I was reminded much more of "Sixteen Tons" than of "Jolene". And I really liked the way that Anna May is *not* written as a Not Like Other Girls character or a 21st-century insert: she dreams of getting a corset and of being able to put her hair up like a proper young lady, she has no desire to shed her skirts even with her dungaree-wearing aunt's example in front of her, and she worries about not being able to attend church.

Then Jolene herself actually turns up, as a powerful supernatural entity, and that sort of works for a while. There were a couple of points where the story felt as if the author was trying a little too hard to explain away why the characters couldn't just use magic for everything (and conversely, Anna May is shown how to use her magic to keep herself cool, but then complains about being hot and sweaty multiple times thereafter without any rationale being given for the fact that she never uses this technique again!) but Jolene is clearly being foreshadowed as a big potential threat, especially once the romance starts up, and thanks to Dolly Parton we can guess where this is going. The romance didn't really convince me all that much, especially at the start where it felt as if it was coming pretty much out of nowhere - the author does point out that Josh is pretty much the first and only boy Anna May has ever had the chance to meet! - but I found myself becoming more persuaded by it as the plot went on.

However, once revealed, the mishmash of different legends being stuffed into one - the Jolene story, the Russian fairy stories, the Cherokee lore and the elemental magic - felt a bit too much and too incoherent to me. And the whole idea that the Mistress of the Brazen Mountain would be popping over to an obscure little American mining town all the time and calling herself "Jolene" because she had read it somewhere and fancied the name just seemed too much to swallow. It would have been more logical if she had somehow ended up trapped in America and unable to return, but there seemed no good reason why a foreign entity that powerful, one who claims that *all* "Mountains are the same to me", would get so hung up on this single distant territory when she could go anywhere within Russia or the whole world. And that incongruous renaming was all too clearly only in there because of the song :-( It would have made more sense to me if she had actually been a native spirit/deity of the locality rather than an imported one, and/or if she had been part of the Cherokee magic... which would then have made that element in turn seem less extraneous to the plot!

The other bits that really didn't work for me were having Anna May deliver the whole song verbatim in dialogue, plus the feminist twist in which the Evil Witch character is transformed immediately into a supportive ally at the very idea of people getting mistreated (what happened to the whole idea of Jolene being amoral and indifferent to human desires?) and conveniently polishes off the Male Chauvinist Pig for the heroine's benefit. Yes, she is said to have been the protector of miners in her Russian guise, but we have been shown a vast amount of human suffering thanks to the mines and zero indication that the Mistress of the Brazen Mountain has taken any notice; as before, the mishmash of different sources isn't coherent. As for transcribing Dolly Parton virtually verbatim into the story ("He called out y'all's name in his sleep, did y'all know thet? Y'all c'n take him, easy. 'Tween yore looks and yore magic, I ain't got a chance. But y'all don't know what he means ter me")... well, that really grated, I'm afraid.

We get the parallel - if the story title didn't give it away right from the start, then everything up to this point will undoubtedly have done so. We get that this moment in the story corresponds to the exact set-up in the song. We really don't need it spelt out in clumsy letters a hundred feet high, and it feels not only laboured, but an insult to the intelligence of the audience.

And then we have yet another legend in the shape of the Malachite Casket stuffed into the plot as what amounts to another deus ex machina (and once Anna May is married, wouldn't the debt be legally her husband's responsibility rather than something they can take her away from him for?). When you are given a valuable item with the warning that you must only open it in the direst need, it does seem a bit of a let-down for the story when you then end up opening it almost immediately; to me, it would have made more sense if she had simply been given the sealed gift with the warning "Don't open this as you will need it when you get home"...

Ultimately I feel there were just too many assorted elements put into this story, and the ending was too rushed as a result. If it had spent more time on the relationship between the the two young people and gone for the simple archetype of 'mortal maid has to get back her lover from the fairy queen', plus the overall storyline of Anna May mastering her elemental magic in the Tennessee setting, I think I would have found it more resonant and effective; the multiple mythologies and attempts to subvert the 'Jolene' plot arc just end up making things messy and a bit cursory.

And what was that business about how Jinny's face "had a peculiar look to it that Anna couldn't understand" when she talks about there being "more to life than being in love"? The book is clearly hinting at some kind of significant backstory to the character that I was expecting to see revealed, but that strand gets dropped entirely too; were Jinny and Maybelle former rivals for Lew's attentions? Her repeated attacks on him didn't feel all that well-founded - he's clearly no saint, but he doesn't come across as a disappointed fortune-hunter, as Jinny keeps claiming- and at this point I'm left wondering if all this material is reference back to some previous book[s] in what is apparently 'The Elemental Masters series'...

(NB The Titan Books paperback blurb manages to be factually inaccurate about quite a lot of plot elements in the story - not the author's fault, but to be honest I suspect I'd rather have read that version, which is what I thought I was getting into! )

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mercedes Lackey has long been one of my preferred "guilty pleasure" authors - someone who usually delivers a reliably readable yarn with likeable characters and brisk pacing, whether or not one is looking for something with "literary nutritional value". I should add here that when she's at the top of her game, Lackey is wholly capable of more ambitious work, but I've never found her a difficult or problematic read...until now.

From the moment I read the promotional blurb, I was looking forward to this book; I'm glad to see the "Elemental Masters" series branch out to North America, and also to a featured fairy tale outside the Western European orbit. I'm still glad to see both those elements in the present novel; I think it freshens the series and stretches Lackey's storytelling muscles. And there's nothing wrong with Jolene on a structural level - but like most of the "Elemental Masters" books, as a fairy tale retelling, it looks odd if you try to analyze it through a modern genre-fiction lens, because the two plot templates (fairy tale vs. modern novel) simply don't map to one another.

However. I'm very much in the camp that finds the dialect in which the book is written more of a barrier than a bridge. To me, it's applied both more thickly and more pervasively than it needs to be, and its application tends to interfere with Lackey's usual knack for colorful and crisp descriptions of character and scene. If anyone had shown me an early draft and asked my opinion, I'd have strongly advised a much lighter hand with the dialect in order to retain the overall readability and accessibility that's one of Lackey's particular narrative gifts. I note for the record that I'm not unilaterally opposed to the use of dialect in narrative - it simply has to be done really well to be effective, and I don't think Jolene hits that mark. To illustrate an instance where I think intensive dialect does hit the mark, I refer readers to Pat McIntosh's medieval Scots mystery series beginning with The Harper's Quine...but I freely acknowledge that this is a point on which individual readers' mileage may vary.

So: if you can get past the barrier imposed by the dialect, Jolene is arguably among the top third or so of the "Elemental Masters" cycle. If you can't, you're not alone, and my feeling is that the majority of casual readers will be at least somewhat put off by the dialect issue. The very accessibility of Lackey's usual prose is one of her greatest strengths as a writer, and I think she's made an unwise choice here in setting that accessibility aside

[Katie Whitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was frustrating because it would have gotten a much higher rating, but the phonetic accents throughout really ruined a lot of this story for me. I do not know what a Tennessee accent is supposed to sound like, but I have a strong feeling this isn't it. Also, even a Yank like me knows that ya'll is a plural, which means you all, so you wouldn't use it to refer to one person. Also, and this is nitpicking, but you write a book called Jolene, heavily reference the song at the end and dedicate it to Ruth Bader Ginsberg??! Choices. Despite how negative this sounds, I actually really enjoyed this story and a return to the more traditional format with Lackey tackling folk stories in a unique way. I really enjoyed it for the most part and how Jolene saved the day at the end. There were just a few things that unfortunately dragged this down for me, but I'm still a longtime Lackey fan.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I saw that Mercedes Lackey had released a new Elemental Masters book on Dec. 1, I had to find it. While the rest of the series is based on fairy tales, this one is based on a song: Dolly Parton's "Jolene."

Anna May Jones lives in Shoddy, a Tennessee mining town. Her father has black lung, and she's sickly herself. So, when her mother's sister insists that she come live in Lost Holler, her parents send her -- against her will. There, she discovers that Aunt Jinny is the local Root Woman, making medicines that help the townsfolk. She also meets several interesting folk along the way, including the titular Jolene.

Most importantly, she meets Josh Holcroft, a stonemason of particular skill. The two fall in love, but before long, Jolene takes an interest in Josh ... and then things become difficult. If you know the song, you know the problem.

I don't want to deliver spoilers if I can avoid it; the twists and turns of this tale are half the fun. Suffice it to say that the ending is entirely satisfactory and I enjoyed the book thoroughly. It's part historical fiction, part urban fantasy, and completely delightful.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jolene was charming and fresh, but I just wish the pacing had been a bit more balanced.

I really loved the blend of Dolly Parton's Jolene song (with lots of allusions to her lyrics), Russian fairytales, rural farming culture, mining, and general Americana. It's a perfect spring/summer read, and reminded me of Tuck Everlasting in its charming simplicity and beautiful descriptions.

My only complaint is that after so much set up (and a fair bit of insta love), the book's main conflict doesn't start until the last 40 or so pages. I did really enjoy the ending though, as it wrapped up in the perfect fairy tale way. It's a fun, easy read that was a blend of things I'd never seen put together before.

[Megan C. Staples · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purely love pretty much anything Mercedes Lackey writes, and this chapter of the Elemental Masters was the same pleasure to read as all the others. Turning the Russian folk tales to new purposes is a brilliant idea! The research for "The Firebird" and the inspiration for writing "Fortunes Fool" may have played into developing the plot. But Dolly Parton's song played in the back of my mind as I was reading "Jolene." And like the story ballad, this novel commanded my attention until I was done! (Yes, I really did read it in the space of a day!)

[Rachel Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book with great new characters with a compelling story. I enjoyed it from beginning to end. I really enjoyed the new setting and different ways of doing magic at different times. The story was relatable and reminded me of old history lessons I had nearly forgotten. A great book to get into the series or for long time fans.

[dragonsdy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book.

I really enjoyed this book. I liked to way they talked in the story. I guess because I live in Arkansas I could hear the accent in my head. I was on the edge of my seat wondering what Jolene was and if she would harm Anna. Another really good book by Mercedes Lackey!

[Antonia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book began well. It's set in America, without the usual set of characters from London. Lackey has a good grasp of regional dialects. Bout once again, the end felt rushed, as if she had written her required number of pages, or just got tired of the story, and wrapped it up in a hurry in one final chapter, leaving several loose ends, and me feeling dissatisfied.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

What if? I imagine the author listening to the Dolly Parton song Jolene and saying what if and coming up with this incredible story. This tale takes us to a place and time I’d not gone before; the mining towns of the 1890’s. Life is hard and the income divide is cruel. Anna May and her Aunt Jinny are fascinating and strong each in their own way. I was pulled into this story and got lost in it from the fabulous cover through the very last page. Though this is a part of a series it can be read standalone. I loved it.

[Elizabeth Harless · Rating 5 out of 5]

Masterfully done! (Pun intended)

It is clear that Ms. Lackey took her inspiration from Dolly Parton's song of the same name. But then she went & made it her own interpretation in her own inimitable way. A Lovely homage to both Dolly & the folk of the "hollers"!

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mercedes Lackey and her Elemental Masters series aim to please and are very hard to put down. Enjoyable to read as always exploring the different masteries: earth, air, water, fire, and spirit. Anna May learns about and how to control her earth powers. If you like these, you will the many novels of Valdemar.

[Eloisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

She does it again. Wow.

Nice twist to bring the elementals to the United States. I like how she uses the historical background to enrich the story. And it is a very, very good story. Love Jinny, Anna, and Josh. Now I have to go and listen to that song Jolene.