Yasmine Galenorn – Legend of the Jade Dragon

The second book in the Chintz 'n China series, published May 4, 2004.
Genre: paranormal mystery
Cover: pretty



Delicious blends of tea aren’t the only draw at the Chintz ‘n China Tea Room – Emerald O’Brien, owner and medium, also offers her customers a tarot reading. But Emerald, a single mother of two, never saw herself as a sleuth – which proves that even seers make mistakes...

Legend of the Jade Dragon.
Tarot cards never lie. So when they predict chaos and bad luck for her last client of the day, Emerald gets more than a little worried. For her trouble, he leaves Em a charming jade statue of a dragon –and dies in a hit and run accident outside of her shop. When other terrible things begin to plague Em and her family, the only explanation is the jade dragon. To thwart its evil spell, she’ll have to follow a trail of heartache all the way back to China’s Ming dynasty and its ancient mysteries....


When a sad man enters The Chintz ‘n China Tea Room, Emerald O’Brien doesn’t really want to read his cards. There is some strange aura around the man. And when she does, there is nothing there for her to read. It is like he doesn’t have an aura. The man is not surprised by it, he has gotten similar readings before. When he stands up to leave, his coat pocket catches on a corner of the table, ripping it. Emerald helps him gather his belongings, and the man leaves. But then she spots something else, a lovely little statue of a dragon. So when she hurries out the door, hoping to catch the man before he disappears, fate intervenes. Just when she calls out to Daniel, and he starts turning around, he gets hit by a van. Emerald feels horrible about it, if only she had not called before he had crossed the street. And did he try to warn her about the dragon, or tell her to keep it?

Bad things start happening for Emerald and her family. Her shop gets robbed and destroyed, her house gets broken into, and she loses some really beloved heirlooms and other stuff. A real crime streak seems to have hit the town. Her prized neighbour Ida has to go away to help an injured friend, leaving Emerald with the task to look after her nephew Oliver, who has just been released from prison.

And when a drunk biker hits on her in a bar, and won’t take no for an answer, Emerald certainly did not have her day. She also doesn’t get much support from her boyfriend Andrew, who is a romance novelist and just got a movie deal for one of his books. He will be off to Hollywood. But even though the sex between them is amazing, the other parts of their relationship don’t really work. He can’t just seem to understand that she is a working woman with kids who come first. She can’t just up and leave everything behind to go away for a weekend with him. And there is Joe, the fireman, who wants to be much more than friends, but he is 10 years younger. And Em does not want to cheat on Andrew, especially after her ex-husband Roy did just that on her.

Finding out about Daniels past, and the history of the Jade Dragon really upsets Em. Even if she would sell the statue, or give it away, its curse would haunt her and her family. Every previous owner and his family have died in freak accidents. The only way to break the curse, is not something Em is willing to do either: bath the dragon in a thieves blood...

An action filled mystery, when Emerald stumbles upon some evidence of the theft of her things, and the culprit comes after her again and takes her son with him as insurance. And in desperate times, strange allies are made, when Jimbo the biker comes to her rescue.


I loved this story, it is certainly a bit creepy with the dragon parts, but it is human evil that is causing most of the mayhem.
I love Emerald, her family and friends and I am certainly curious about what will happen next in her love life. I did not really like Andrew, so, good riddance of him.

I will dive into book three very soon ...

9 stars.

© 2014 Reviews by Aurian