Early Review – Emerald Green (Ruby Red Trilogy, Book 3) by Kerstin Gier (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Length: 464 pages
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Release Date: October 8, 2013
ISBN: 978-0805092677
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in the Ruby Red Trilogy
Source: Amazon Vine for Review
Rating: 4/5 stars

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 aren’t really all that clear.

I did enjoy the idea of The Circle of Twelve and enjoyed as the mystery surrounding the Circle of Twelve’s 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 she’s 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.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– 100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge
– 150+ Reading Challenge
– Color Coded Reading Challenge