EMERALD HOUSE RISING

By: Peg Kerr

Reviewed By Robert Thompson 1/19/98

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Emerald House Rising Is a nice little book. No grand Fantasy Epic, but while you are waiting for the next Robert Jordan book, this is a entertaining way to spend a couple of hours.

I believe that this is Peg Kerr's first book- I ran across it by accident at the Library-- haven't seen it at any bookstores.
The main character of this book is Jena- she is a young lady gemcutter- jeweler; Apprentice to her father Collas, a fairly successful jeweler to the upper classes in the city of Piyar in Piyanthia. By all appearances she is just an average young lady, until the day that Lord Morgan shows up at her fathers shop to commission the cutting of a gemstone. Upon the advice of his friend Arikan, a magician, Collas decides to refuse the commission.

While out chatting with her boyfriend, Jena has a premonition that Lord Morgan is going to harm her father because of his refusal. Rushing home to warn her father, Jena encounters Lord Morgan, grapples with him and suddenly is transported across three quarters of the continent to Lord Morgan's ancestral home where Jena soon finds herself in the middle of a conspiracy to take over the government of Piyanthia.

I probably would not have read this book if not for the fact that the heroine had many parallels to my own life, but I'm glad that I did. It is an entertaining story, suitable for any age- Even young children should enjoy having it read to them, yet it is not a childish tale- although light reading, it will entertain adults as well.