Review: The Tower And The Emerald by Moyra Caldecott

Title: The Tower And The Emerald
Author: Moyra Caldecott
Publication: April 26th 2005 by Bladud Books
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
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Rating: 4/5★

Viviane, a beautiful Celtic princess, unwittingly unravels the spell that binds the spirit of the evil Idoc within a circle of tall stones. Once released, the sorcerer-priest uses his powers to deliver vengeance upon those responsible for his original enslavement - including the Princess Viviane. With Idoc in possession of the body of Prince Caradawc, her betrothed, Viviane can no longer judge safely between friend and foe, between this life and previous incarnations. Yet to rescue Caradawc from his nightmare, she must risk everything to reach the dreaded dark tower where Idoc waits. And, to ensure victory over evil, she must seek out Lucifer's Emerald. She journeys through dreams and nightmare, beauty and horror, good and evil to save her lover and destroy the sorcerer-priest. This is a quest for spiritual grace which is beautifully depicted and includes all the timeless ingredients of legend.

I bought this book last summer at a thrift store for a very cheap price. It's a slightly older book but I really liked the cover and how the description of the story spoke to me. It sounded like a magical adventure, which is exactly what it was.

I thought Viviane was a great heroine. She wasn't just a typical princess that needed help everywhere she went. She knew how to ask for help when she needed it but mostly went off on her own a lot to fulfill her quest. I also liked that she had a really great group of friends who supported her.

I definitely liked Prince Caradawc, Viviane's fiance. I wasn't so sure about them at first, but I quickly warmed up to them. Especially when they kept being seperated, that's when I started really rooting for them. I just loved the whole doomed lovers aspect that they had going on.

The villain of the story, Idoc, was really intriguing to me (I know, shocker.) At first he seemed to be plain evil, but the more I read about him the more I realized he definitely was redeemable, which is something that Viviane saw as well. I also thought it was interesting how most of the characters were all connected in a way, since in another life, centuries ago, they also knew each other. In fact, Viviane used to be a celtic priestess in that former life, as well as the lover of Idoc before he got taken over by dark forces. In this story they had to stop those particular dark forces again as they did in their previous life.

I obviously enjoyed the whole story arc with Viviane, Caradawc and Idoc but the one character that stood out to me was Olwen. I loved her personality and her budding romance with another character called Gerin. She really ended up shining in the story, even though to me she started out as a pretty ordinary character. Gotta love that!

Overall, The Tower and the Emerald by Moyra Caldecott was an unexpected but great magical story. It had romance, dark knights, fierce battles and the writing was beautiful!

About the author:
Moyra Caldecott was born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1927, and moved to London in 1951. She earned degrees in English and Philosophy and an M.A. in English Literature, and wrote more than 20 books.

She has a reputation as a novelist who writes as vividly about the adventures and experiences to be encountered in the inner realms of the human consciousness as she does about those in the outer physical world. To Moyra, reality is multidimensional.

Moyra died peacefully on 23rd May 2015, aged 87