Newt's Emerald
by Garth Nix
Pages: 304
Published on October 13th 2015
by Katherine Tegen Books
Genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult
Goodreads
On her eighteenth birthday, Lady Truthful, nicknamed “Newt,” will inherit her family’s treasure: the Newington Emerald. A dazzling heart-shaped gem, the Emerald also bestows its wearer with magical powers.
When the Emerald disappears one stormy night, Newt sets off to recover it. Her plan entails dressing up as a man, mustache included, as no well-bred young lady should be seen out and about on her own. While in disguise, Newt encounters the handsome but shrewd Major Harnett, who volunteers to help find the missing Emerald under the assumption that she is a man. Once she and her unsuspecting ally are caught up in a dangerous adventure that includes an evil sorceress, Newt realizes that something else is afoot: the beating of her heart.
In Newt’s Emerald, the bestselling author of Sabriel, Garth Nix, takes a waggish approach to the forever popular Regency romance and presents a charmed world where everyone has something to hide.
I love the stories by Jane Austen and other regency stories, even if I haven’t personally read the books. Newt’s Emerald has awakened in me something that pushes me now to real all those, but unfortunately they don’t have the great fantasy aspect this one had! On one side you have all these rules and gender roles expected of both men and the women, like how women must be presented to society, men do the work, and so on. And on the other side you have this amazing presentation of magic as something normal in this world where people can create disguises, control the weather, and even have “mythological” creatures roaming around. Add to that a little of twisted history like that of Napoleon Bonaparte, and it is wonderful. It reminded me a lot of the historical fantasy fiction book Jackaby by William Ritter.
The book’s romance was interesting and endearing to read about. I was squealing by the time it ended with the obvious blooming romance between Lady Truthful and Charlie. Though gruff and rockhard-looking, we start to like him the more he interacts with Truthful and see what a great match they do with their adventuring around.
At first the story didn’t hold my utter attention as it starts slow, but the more I read after the initial chapter, the more I wanted to know and wasn’t able to stop. I had to at least read one page with all the college work piling around. It was that good and intriguing to know what awaited our characters in this strange regency era story. Amazingly written, a definite read for the lovers of both classic and fantasy genres.
Addicted reader, and lover of books. I’m a full-time college student majoring in English Lit with aspirations of becoming an author and doing a double major in languages. Oui.
I’ve loved books since before I was a year old. My reading list consisted of children’s books raging from Dr. Seuss and Charlotte’s Web to Clifford the Big Red Dog and Joody Moody. Much later, after reading Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, I got sucked into Young Adult books with a whole new world of fiction at my grasp. I spend most of my time either reading, writing, or watching series on Netflix, such as The Vampire Diaries, Doctor Who, New Girl, or anything else that is fantasy, paranormal, or sci-fi.
As for my writing career, it is currently limited to brainstorming and sharing my endless ideas mostly with my co-blogger, Marianne, with the hope of one day all those ideas clicking together into a novel. In the mean time, I just keep practicing to get better. When not writing (usually about vampires) or watching Netlix, I can be found doing crochet, drawing, and acquiring more books than what I can read at once, or trying to study.
About Garth Nix
Garth Nix was born in 1963 in Melbourne, Australia. A full-time writer since 2001, he previously worked as a literary agent, marketing consultant, book editor, book publicist, book sales representative, bookseller, and as a part-time soldier in the Australian Army Reserve.
Garth’s books include the award-winning young adult fantasy novels Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen; the dystopian novel Shade’s Children; the space opera A Confusion of Princes; and a Regency romance with magic, Newt’s Emerald.
His fantasy novels for children include The Ragwitch; the six books of The Seventh Tower sequence; The Keys to the Kingdom series; and the Troubletwisters series and Spirit Animals: Blood Ties (co-written with Sean Williams). Garth’s next book, Clariel, is a prequel to the Old Kingdom trilogy, to be released in October 2014.
More than five million copies of his books have been sold around the world, his books have appeared on the bestseller lists of The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, The Guardian and The Australian, and his work has been translated into 40 languages.
He lives in a Sydney beach suburb with his wife and two children.
Born in Puerto Rico, hola :), military wife for 22-years, and mother of three boys.I work full time doing something else that I love (sadly I don't get paid for reading!)
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