To be normal, sixteen-year-old Julia Parker would shed her empathic gift in a second. Life has been difficult since her mother's mysterious disappearance ten years earlier - an event she witnessed, but can't remember. Julia's situation becomes more complicated after a near death experience from a blood thirsty stalker. As high school students go missing it is clear there is a connection to her own experience--past and present. Someone has to stop the madness and a chance encounter with a creepy psychic foretells that only Julia is the key to stopping the madness, but it may require the life of the one she loves.

Review:
After adoring Brenda's other book, Everblue, and loving it, I knew I would have to try her Talisman series. When the chance arose, I took it immediately, reading it fairly quick, finding myself getting very involved quickly. With the characters, I really found myself to enjoy Nicholas a lot, he was always there for Julia, but he still did make mistakes, making him realistic as well. My only issue with this novel was with Julia at times, who was the human protagonist, sometimes she could rub me the wrong way for some reason. The lesser characters in this novel were great, they had emotions and depth, which made them an enjoyable backdrop to the leading characters and the story.

The writing and plot were both highlights of this great book. The writing featured Brenda's signature quality writing, never letting the reader down. The writing featured beautiful details and helped the reader visualize all the events and characters, it also greatly donated the reader's emotional connection with the characters. As for the plot of the book, it never stopped moving and kept the reader's attention, while still having a clear goal of where the plot was to get to. The ending was great, and I cannot wait to see how many of the aspects of the book play out in the next two books. Altogether I would recommend this book to any fan of mysterious books with a great setting, I give Emerald Talisman a 4/5.