Elemental Masters #8 (I think). I think I will start identifying series in these notes.
I have missed several of the Elemental Masters books. I didn't like one and quit reading the series. I quite enjoyed this one and will probably go back and reread and fill in the gaps. I'll even reread the one I didn't like. I am intrigued by something I read about these being rooted in fairy tales. This one is telegraphed by the title - The Steadfast Tin Soldier. The fate of the soldier in this one is not nearly as sad as in the fairy tale. He survives and gets the girl.
The setting is fun. We have an elemental mage - a real magician - working as a stage magician. He acquires Katie as an assistant. Katie had been a circus acrobat and contortionist. After the deaths of her parents in an unexplained fire, she is forced by the owner of the circus to marry the brutal strong-man in order to continue in the only life which she knows. She eventually runs away and takes shelter with a troup of gypsies, but they must send her on her way when her presence endangers the entire troup.
The steadfast soldier is the stage door guard at the theater. He is also an elemental mage (mages are less capable than Masters), and falls hard for Katie, who, unlike the paper ballerina in the fairy tale, also falls for him. Predictably, her husband finds her and the inevitable crisis occurs.
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