Newt’s Emerald

TITLE: Newt’s Emerald

AUTHOR: Garth Nix

GENRE: Fantasy/Historical Fiction

PUBLISHED: 2013; Jill Grinberg Literary Mgmt

FORMAT: eBook, 200 pages

Lady Truthful Newington is used to dressing as a boy. After all, how else is she supposed to have any fun? It’s hard to go on adventures with your three rambunctious male cousins while dressed in skirts and having to worry about a corset. But all those childhood escapades are nothing compared to the adventure in store when the heirloom of her family, the famed Newington Emerald, is stolen during a storm obviously conjured by magic. Truthful embarks on a quest to reclaim the emerald, disguised as a man by day and donning ballgowns come nightfall. Will she survive the harrowing experience of hunting down a malignant sorceress AND getting through her first London season??

GUYS. This book is utterly, supremely delightful. I can’t even. I had so much fun reading it that I genuinely lamented the fact that it’s only 200 pages long. I’m sure you all know that I’m not the biggest reader of ‘Regency romance’ as a genre, but I do love fantasy, and I definitely love Garth Nix (author of some of my favorite books ever, notably The Old Kingdom trilogy), so when I realized this was out I immediately threw $3.99 at my iPad and ordered it to download the eBook ASAP. (No one else throws money at their tablet around here? Oh, fine.)

Fans of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer will feel right at home with Newt’s Emerald. Also in danger of falling head over heels in love with this book: anyone who loves magic, mayhem, cross-dressing, and prefacing sentences with the word, “La!” (I am SO going to start integrating this into my vocabulary, along with all the new antiquated swear words I’m learning from reading The Scarlet Pimpernel…) It’s a short read, but enormously funny and witty. I spent a lot of time laughing like an idiot while highlighting entire paragraphs for posterity. It IS a stand-alone title, which is rare in this day and age, but I’m honestly a bit sad about that because this is a world and a cast of characters I wouldn’t mind spending more time with.

Garth Nix has written some of my favorite female leads ever, so I wasn’t surprised to find that I loved Lady Truthful right away. She was a fantastic heroine. I loved that she took initiative, even when this meant getting into crazy dilemmas. I loved that she was clever and beautiful, with a lot of things going for her, but also that she was young and made mistakes. She wasn’t perfect, but she made the most of it, and she had me cracking up all the while. I loved that she rocked a magical fake mustache and ran around impersonating a French chevalier to investigate the whereabouts of her family’s missing emerald. I loved that at one point she considered carrying a pistol to a ball. Can we be best friends?? Seriously.

“She both wanted to see Harnett again and never see him again. For the moment, the “never seeing again” feeling was stronger.

Since this is a Regency romance, you’re probably wondering what I thought of the romance in the book, but I won’t talk about it much because I don’t want to ruin it for you. I definitely enjoyed it, though. From my description of Truthful, you should be able to guess that whoever she ends up with would have to be just as sassy, headstrong, and spirited as she is. They would need to be able to keep up with her, and keep her guessing. Oh, and they would probably have to be super frustrating, to keep things interesting. Never fear — our hero, the dashing but ill-tempered Major Harnett, accomplishes all of these things. Especially the bit where he’s super frustrating. But then he does stuff like yell, “MALIGNANT SORCERY!” and go running after the perpetrators with Truthful right behind him and I spend five straight minutes shouting, “JUST BEEEEE TOGETHER!!!” as I read. Hahaha.

I had a blast with all the other characters too, particularly Truthful’s three cousins, the Newington-Laceys, and her crazy elderly great-aunt, Lady Badgery. The boys are hysterical, whether they’re drunk or sober (ahaha), and I liked that Truthful had such a strong bond with them. And all I have to say about Lady Badgery is that she owns a sword cane. SHE OWNS A SWORD CANE, PEOPLE. If you aren’t sold yet, then I have no idea why!

RATING: 5/5

Way too much fun — that’s the best way to sum up this book. Dangerous spells, nautical misadventures, full dance cards, gentleman callers, disguises under disguises under disguises… I couldn’t ask for more. I am so glad Garth Nix decided to rewrite this manuscript all these years later and share it with the world. (The original version, according to the author’s note, was written between 1990 and 1991!) By the way, anyone else excited for Clariel in 2014????!!! *fangirls to death*