This is the final book in the Ruby Red trilogy by Gier. It was a fitting ending to the series and overall I enjoyed it.

Gwen knows she is the Ruby in the secret and time-traveling Circle of Twelve. She also thinks that something is wrong with the founder of the Circle, Count Saint-German. She needs to prove that collecting the blood of the Twelve and feeding it into the chromograph will result in dire consequences before Gideon is able to collect blood from all of the circle members. Unfortunately Gwen and Gideon are on the outs after their brief romance, and getting Gideon to work with her will be difficult.

Very well done conclusion of this mystery time travel YA series. At times the language is a bit awkward and stilted sounding, that's probably because this is a translation. Still there were a lot of times where I found myself thinking...well that sounded odd.

This book does suffer some from the same thing a lot of time travel books suffer from...and that is confusion. Trying to keep track of who did what in which point in time is confusing for the reader. The characters cross their own paths in time over and over and the ramifications of this arent really all that clear.

I did enjoy the idea of The Circle of Twelve and enjoyed as the mystery surrounding the Circle of Twelves founding and the mystery of the founder himself was revealed. There is a bit of steampunk flare to the story; the devices the characters use to time travel are very steampunky and they spend a lot of time in history so there is historical taste to the story as well.

The biggest part I did not enjoy was Gwen. Gwen pretty much cried for over half the book I understand shes emotional but I got really sick of reading about it. I don't think I've ever read about such a soggy heroine. Gwen also whines quite a bit, which only added to my dislike of her character.

Gideon is an excellent character and he comes off as much more capable and smart than Gwen. Him and Gwen have excellent chemistry and there are some wonderful scenes between the two throughout the book.

Aside from the above complaints, the book was engaging and fast paced. I thought things were tied up well. There were some fun surprises as well.

Overall I enjoyed the book. At times the language is a bit stilted and awkward. Gwen is a bit of a wishy washy mess throughout. Aside from those things I really enjoyed the story. Things are wrapped up well, the world is well done, and the mystery is interesting. I would recommend this series to those that enjoy time travel stories.

Share/Like this Review?

Summary:
Picking up almost exactly where Sapphire Blue left off, Gwen is learning how to deal with pain of a broken heart and understanding what her life as a member of the Circle of Twelve means. She thinks that something is going on with Count Saint-German, but she can't convince anyone to be on her side. Also, Gideon's been using her and dealing with the emotions of being manipulated by someone she is completely in love with. Seriously, what's a time traveling teen girl to do?

My thoughts:
If you haven't read the other two of the series, this will be very hard to follow. All time traveling novels have the difficult chore of letting the reader know exactly who is where and when without being redundant. Since all of the characters cross paths at different places and times, this can be confusing. Since the first two novels got me ready for this one, I was already used to the characters and Gier's style of writing. Even with that background knowledge, there were times where I was lost. I would have to skim through a few pages before to figure out what happened that I may have missed. Generally, I only write things down with mysteries, but I felt like I needed little post-its to tell me "when" I was. If I had to try to figure out character relationships and learn everything as if this was a stand alone, then I would not have enjoyed this at all.

So, for those of you who have not read Ruby Red or Sapphire Blue, don't start here.

Other than that, I enjoyed this novel. It was a good wrap-up to the series. The only question that I was really left with was why seeing ghosts was such a big deal. I'm pretty sure the major plot lines could have been kept without that feature, or it could have been brought more to the forefront. Either way would have given me more satisfaction. Also, as mentioned, there was some confusion with the crossing of paths within time travel. This confusion can be hard to avoid, but sometimes just a few more words in the sentence would have given me a firm grounding of where and when we were. While the introductory elements can get redundant, sometimes they are necessary.

Share/Like this Review?