A review by blenchbooks
Emerald by Karen Wallace

3.0

This was one of those books that kind of makes me want to stab it and rip out the pages at times. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed it and it is definitely worth a read but some parts were a little bit lacking. I love romance in novels so of course the romance between sam and emerald interested me however it did not interest for long as this, and a lot of other points in the novel, seemed to be rather rushed though. There was no bridge from friends to lovers, it seemed as if one minute they were strangers and the next they are in love and engaged to be married. I really would have liked to see a bit more of a development in their love story as it seemed to comprise of two meetings followed by a quick roll in the hay while the lesser couple of Richard and Frances's daughter ( I apologise, I cannot for the life of me remember her name. ) got a much more drawn out romance filled with secret glances and walks in the garden. Other than the speed of the novel and the events within, the only other problem I had with the novel was the casualness that was input with regards to the queen. From the beginning it felt as though the family were nothing particularly special, yes they have money and connections but with Richard out hunting his fortune it seemed as though they were still not in the highest of class. Then suddenly they are all close friends of the queen. I don't suppose the queen was friends with just anybody so it seemed odd that within two seconds they were all reasonably closely acquainted.

It may sound from the above comments that there was little I liked about this novel but actually I did rather enjoy it. The plot was original and interesting with some good twists. The characters were quite well developed and the dynamics between them were intriguing. I would definitely recommend it as a good historically set novel.