Ruby Red

Today's post is 'Ruby Red' by Kerstin Gier, translated from german by Anthea Bell. It is 330 pages long and it is published by Henry Holt and Company. It is Young Adult fiction with young women as the intended readers. Spoiler Alert.

Gwyneth Sheperd is sixteen and from a family of female time travelers. But she does not have to worry about that because the gene skipped her. Her cousin Charlotte is the one who is going to be next. She has been trained for this all her life and Gwyneth feels sorry for her cousin. Because of the training Charlotte does not have any friends only the training. Everyone is just waiting for Charlotte to eslapse for the first time. The start of the story is with Gwyneth feeling dizzy but she pushs that off because she does not get sick and Charlotte is the one who is going to travel. But Gwyneth learns that the gene did not skip her. All the years of training for Charlotte was a waste because Gwyneth is the one. She is last time traveler of her house called the Ruby. She is the one to close the circle not that she or the reader knows what that is. after proving that she can eslapse, Gwyneth is pulled into world where she does not know anyone and her mother warns her to not trust anyone. One of the reasons that the people in power have a problem with Gwyneth is because of her cousin Lucy who stole something very important to their mission. Then she ran away with Paul de Villiers a traveler from a male only line. The people in power will not tell Gwyneth about the real reason for the device that Lucy stole and why it is really so important but as the reader I have some thoughts about it but I will keep my thoughts to myself so that I will not ruin that for others.

The setting is London for this book. The author knows London very well because of the descriptions that the reader gets. Gier keeps the mystery very close to her chest. I have a general idea about where the story is going but I do not have any idea about what Gwyneth's real power is, how she is going to stop the villain and how she is going to safe Lucy from evil people who want to kill her. The prologue and the epilogue just follow Lucy and Paul at different points in the story. I will hold back a rating because it is the first book in a trilogy and I think that sets of books need to looked at together. I will say that this is a very fast read, I sat down and read it in about five hours one Sunday afternoon.