Ruby Red - by Kerstin Gier

Title: Ruby Red

Author: Kerstin Gier

Published: 10 May 2011

Series: Precious Stone Trilogy #1

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis:

Gwyneth Shepherd's sophisticated, beautiful cousin Charlotte has been prepared her entire life for traveling through time. But unexpectedly, it is Gwyneth, who in the middle of class takes a sudden spin to a different era!
Gwyneth must now unearth the mystery of why her mother would lie about her birth date to ward off suspicion about her ability, brush up on her history, and work with Gideon--the time traveler from a similarly gifted family that passes the gene through its male line, and whose presence becomes, in time, less insufferable and more essential. Together, Gwyneth and Gideon journey through time to discover who, in the 18th century and in contemporary London, they can trust.

I listened to this as an audiobook. It is also translated by Anthea Bell, but it's done well so you can't really tell it's been translated.

My favourite parts about this book are the cover, and that romance is involved in the story but action is the main focus.

I loved that  Gwynn grew up around all the time travel aspects in her family, but didn't really know a single thing about it. How does she solve this issue? The internet! Having a main character simply Google something when they didn't know the answer was quite nice.

The time travel machine using a drop of the traveler's blood is an interesting idea to help control when and where they travel to too. Plus Madam Risini sounded quite lovely, and little Rob sounded pretty cute.

One "Omg!" moment was who I guessed the people Gwynn saw when she time travelled at the high school were. I may be right, or I may be wrong, but if I'm right then I'm quite excited to find out about that story.

I do have a couple of questions though. Why does Gwynn see herself each time she time travels? And what is the note/quote after each chapter about?

Overall, this was a good story to read and I didn't really want to stop.

Spoilers!

From the start, my guess was that Charlotte probably couldn't time travel but Gwynn could, so it wasn't much of a surprise when we find that out.

I'm curious to see if Gideon is a double crosser or not. Can't remember what specifically made me think that, but it would be interesting to find out.

One confusing point for me was that I'd guessed that Paul and Lucy were the ones at the start holding the baby, but how were they holding Gwynn and calling her their daughter if they aren't her parents?

End Spoilers!

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All books in this series:

    1 | Ruby Red
    2 | Sapphire Blue
    3 | Emerald Green