Spoiler Free Review: Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier

I recently finished reading Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier. I had so many emotions reading this book. Happiness, sadness, anger, annoyance, fear, excitement.

I believe I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars on GoodReads. Partly because I get frustrated with cliff hanger endings and partly because I now have high expectations that the next two books will get better as the story moves on.

The basic plot of the story is about a girl named Gwenyth. She lives in London with her mother, grandmother, brother, sister, batty great-aunt, aunt, and cousin. Quite the full house. Some people in the history of Gwenyth's family get what is called a time travel gene. It begins to show itself between the carrier's 16th and 17th birthday. And, everyone thinks it's Gwenyth's cousin, Charlotte, who has the gene. She's been training her whole life. She knows how to speak in different languages, how to act in different time periods, how to fence, how to dress. But, it turns out Gwenyth is the gene carrier and suddenly she is thrust into this world of time travel and a secret society and a huge secret quest beneath all of that.

The writing was entertaining. I felt like I was inside Gwen's head as she was telling the story. The detail was excellent. I felt like I was in London. I could picture her house and all the locations mentioned quiet well in my head. The flow of the story kept me interested. I was confused reading the prologue, at first, but as the story went on, details began to click together.

Characters. Oh, where do I begin with the characters? I go back to what I said earlier about the wide range of emotions. I could completely relate to Gwen. I thought she was a wonderful character. Some reviews I've read criticize that she is too childish to be 16 because she is over emotional. But what 16 year old girl isn't? And that's on a normal day. Throw in a crazy family, the fact that she suddenly has this ability to travel back in time, and being told she has to go on this super secret mission, I'd be a little emotional, too.

I wanted to punch Aunt Glenda. The whole time I thought, "Is this woman related to Cinderella's wicked step-mother?" Her attitude of "My sweet little girl (Charlotte) is God's gift to humanity and every other child can either kiss her feet or jump off a bridge."

I also loved Lesley, Gwen's best friend. She's so fun and is always trying to help, even though she's not supposed to know about any of this. Gwen tells her everything which is a wonderful thing to have in a friendship. Reminds me of the relationship I have with some of my friends.

I can't say much about the possible villain because that would involve spoilers so I will just say that he creeps the heck out of me so much! I had chills when I read about him.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes sci-fi, fantasy. When I first heard about this book, I was intrigued because you don't see a lot of female time travelers. Doctor Who, Back to the Future, etc. are all male leads. So, this was a fresh change. I also suggest having at least Sapphire Blue on hand because you are going to want to jump right into it as soon as the first book is done.

Let me know what you think in the comments below!
Have a great night and thanks for reading!

Carey