So I finished it. Why did I have doubts? Why did I not buy the sequel at the same time and save myself this hardship of having to wait until payday to buy it plus time for postage? WHY?
WARNING: There will be spoilers from her on so if you haven't read it, go check out my first impressions here.
As you can probably tell I loved this book and not just because of the incredibly sexy book cover. Which I will say has to be one of my favourite book covers, I don't even fully understand why!
So the book starts out with a prologue that gives you no names. Only pronouns, like she and he, are used so you kind of just assume it has to be the main characters at the end of the book or the trilogy or something. It becomes clear as soon as Lucy and Paul are mentioned having stolen the chronograph device thing that it was them because there is reference to never letting 'him' get his hands on the chronograph they have. Then later on they show up briefly and it is confirmed it was them. They also got married on the Titanic according to the prologue, I am torn between thinking "wow, that's romantic" and "wow, that's weird"...
After this we go onto meet the family and truthfully I still have no clue how they are all related. Scrap that I don't know how the hell anyone is related in this book. Whoever has to do that family tree has their work cut out for them. Everyone seems to be related to someone evil...
Gwyneth is at school when she ends up clumsily dropping mash potato on herself when we meet her best friend Lesley, the best friend we wish we had due to her epic one liners. We also meet Charlotte, perfect Charlotte in the eyes of her family. She seems to be one of the popular girls with her "Mona Lisa smile" and she is obviously devoted to the training in time travel.She does exhibit symptoms for time travelling, dizziness and nausea, but these are later put down to Phantom Symptoms. When the truth comes out that Gwyneth has the gene, I really felt for Charlotte. How embarrassing would that be?! Her mother needed a slap and Charlotte didn't handle it the best way but I accept this because of the awkward situation.
When Gwyneth time travels though, the worst stuff happens. Not only is she not prepared, she seems to attract trouble. When you get chased through your own house a hundred years earlier than when you were born it is time to tell someone. She does eventually tell her mum who takes her to this secret building where her grandmother gets mistaken for the Queen outside by Japanese tourists (only in England). This is where the majority of stuff is explain but it is super confusing. It is explained really well though by Mr George (suspicious of this nice man).
Another thing I love about Gwyneth is that she doesn't become magically good at time travelling. In other series, the protagonist seems to take to whatever they are doing really easily and that makes them annoying but Gwen is just consistently sucky at time travelling. Everything goes wrong for her. Also she reacts like a human. In other series when they kill someone they seem to not react... like, at all. Here, however, she freaks out like a normal human being would.
I think Gwen's mother is hiding some stuff though because of her knowing how freaking the Count is. Even though she is not a time traveller, she seems to know a lot about stuff. Maybe from Paul and Lucy. Also she had a romance with this guy called Falk (give Kerstin Gier a medal for these names!) who she broke up with after she got jealous of another girl he was flirting with. Am I the only one who noticed the similarity between that and Gwyneth's doppelganger experience?
So it also makes reference to Count Saint-Germain wanting immortality and then it said philosophers stone so I am thinking, since the series is call precious stone trilogy, that the philosophers stone is what will be unlocked by the other stones. The ultimate precious stone, if you will. That's just a theory but if I am right then I deserve a freaking medal. Chances are that Count Saint-Germain is still alive since he seems to be the main antagonist but there is a whole thing about how Gwen can't trust anyone so I am really confused cause he could end up being a good guy. Not likely since he mind strangled Gwen, but you know. But is he too overtly evil (yes) and does that mean he is too obvious? I do not like not knowing who I am not supposed to like. This is messing with my mind.
I have to mention Mr Whitman! Who is he? He is so randomly placed as a member of the Lodge that he has to be of some importance later. Maybe he is the baddie? I don't know. He has the signet ring so he is obviously involved in some way but he is never seen at the actual secret lair of time travellers. That and he is too good looking for his own good according to descriptions. No one that good looking is ever up to anything that helps the protagonist...
To top off my frustration it ends like the second stuff kicks off! It ends with what seems to be the most awkward kiss ever. Gideon and Gwyneth share their first kiss in a confessional booth which makes me cringe anyway. Seriously, this book has the worst placed romantic moments ever, the Titanic and then a Catholic church... so much is wrong with all of that! Also there are the dimensions. Confessional boxes are tiny, you sit on a small chair as a priest talks to you through a small window. This means that when they kissed and it was meant to be all romantic all I could imagine was Gideon trying to fit his head through a letterbox sized hole as well as having to manoeuvre himself for it as well. Where was the grate? Most confessionals have a grate across the window so that just adds to my awkward mental image.
We also get a bunch of weird references including Gwyneth's grandfather, some brainwashing and a moustache before we are just left clutching the end of the book in a fit of despair.
Overall I loved this book and cannot wait to read Sapphire Blue which I will order when I have money. I don't know if it is the complete uncertainty and confusion about what is going to happen that makes me like this book but all I feel is intrigue about what will happen. It may have even be that the awkward moments just made me laugh so I never felt that Gier did it wrong.
This review was such a ramble but let me know if you have read/enjoyed Ruby Red.
Rating: 5/5 because it has me hooked!
Next on my reading list is either...Angelfall or 5th Wave!
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