I absolutely love the Elemental Masters series by Lackey. The tone and pacing for the stories have varied greatly over the years throughout the books. This installation is more on the cozy end, with a lot of Lackey's amazing world building and very pleasant moments with the characters. I greatly enjoyed our leading ladies. I also loved the representation of someone dealing with anxiety both in positive coping skills as well as less constructive methods like masking. I did like the sprinkling of puzzle pieces of the plot throughout the story, with Lackey bringing it all together at the end. The ending felt a bit rushed, we didn't really get to the main conflict till fairly late in the book. That would still probably been fine with me, except the ending and epilogue was a bit whiplash of who and what and how we all like each other. Regardless, an eminently enjoyable new Elemental Masters book. I am so delighted Mercedes is still adding to the collection!

Bridgerton meets Lackey

Miss Amelia's List is #17 in the Elemental Masters series, but does not quite deliver with regard to the series it supposedly belongs to. It's more of a Bridgerton meets a touch of elemental magic story, without any depth and with the emphasis clearly on the Bridgerton parts.

A lot of the book is about clothes, balls, dances, marriage prospects, how to behave in society or how to manage a household. A lot, as in almost 90%. As far as the magic element goes: The girls have powers, which we are told on the first few pages. There is some name-dropping obviously meant to connect the book to earlier installments of the series. But nothing really happens until the last few pages and even that is done with just as quickly as it appeared. Those bits of magic seem like more of an afterthought, as if Lackey had finally realized she needed to put in something to justify the elemental masters part.

As for the two central characters of the story: I didn't dislike them, though Amelia sometimes came almost too close to being annoying for my liking. But the book also didn't make me really care what happened to them either. Amelia spends most of her time being a flighty Regency damsel with a huge anxiety disorder and hardly any time on showing herself as the immensely competent and gifted elemental master she is supposed to be. How she can have the mental discipline of working as the latter certainly is a mystery. Even though Amelia more often than not paints Serena as a somewhat immature, impulse-challenged girl with control issues, it is Serena who keeps her head, shows intelligence and resolves situations before they become problems.

The whole thing ends on a rushed surprise proposal that leaves you going “hunh?” If this book does not get at least one more installment to finish Amelia's and Serena's stories with a little more depth, it makes you wonder why anyone bothered.

All in all, it is a quick and easy read for a dark winter afternoon, but don't expect an exciting Mercedes Lackey adventure story. Miss Amelia's List definitely won't make it on my to-be-reread list, where most of Lackey's books can be found. It is worth no more than 2 and a half stars, but I gave it 3 because it had promise and is well-written, even if it is just a piece of fluff that I expected more from.

Read in advance via NetGalley.

An easily-read, cozy, low-stakes fantasy. I misunderstood the synopsis and did not get the 2SLGBTQIA+ representation I expected, but it does include a sympathetic representation of anxiety disorder.

This can be read as a standalone within the series, and would serve as a good entry point to the series for fans of Bridgerton and other Regency fiction.