GoodRead - Ruby Red

WELCOME TO MY FIRST REVIEW OF 2014 (even though I am writing this two days before Christmas so, technically, it's not my first review of 2014 just yet)!

But let's stay the year with a good read, shall we? So here is the first book in a trilogy, Ruby Redby Kerstin Gier.

In an alternative London, people can time travel. Well, only 12 people can and this is because of a rare gene. Everyone in Gwen's family is positive that Gwen's cousin, Charlotte, has the gene and has been trained her whole life to become a time traveller. Learning all about history, how to fence, how to survive. But when it's Gwen that is thrown through time, not Charlotte, Gwen's life is turned upside down and enters a world of time travel and secret societies. But secrets are everywhere. Why did her Mum tell her to "trust no one"? What is the Guardians's real purpose to complete the Circle? What really happened the mysterious Lucy and Paul?

Now, this book is huge in it home country of Germany. They turned this into a movie (I'll put the English-dubbed version at the bottom of the post) and they are, to my knowledge, making the sequel, Sapphire Blue. And the book is appearing on a lot of US book vloggers channels recently (hence how I became aware of this - thank you Christine from Xtinemay [here's her spoiler-filled video on this very book! Click at your peril!]).

I really enjoyed this. It was fun, addictive and it never felt dull. I kept turning the pages with this and it reminded me a lot of the lighter Doctor Who episodes. And as someone who would like to read more time-travelling books (I blame Doctor Who and the Hourglass series by Myra McEntrice) and this is a translation, this ticked all the boxes. And we have a female time traveller - that is something that is rarely seen in books that tackle his subject!

There are one or two things that bothered me. This is the first book in the trilogy so, of course, everything has to be set up and we only get the sense that what we are seeing is just the time of the iceberg. So, if you want the complete story, it would probably be for the best to have the sequels, Sapphire Blue and Emerald Green on standby. I have a tiny issue with Gideon, the male lead/love interest as it felt like he was into Charlotte but events happen (and this book takes over a very short time frame - barely 5 days, if I remember right) which made me go "Ok. What is wrong with you?" and there was only two times that a word was used and it felt jarring to read (not sure if it was because of the translation or because I was so into the book, reading the word made my brain go "Gwen would NEVER say that!").

But I need to know what happens next. I need to buy the rest of the series (yes, am going to get both Sapphire Blue and Emerald Green) sometime in 2014. But I am in a book buying ban at the moment so... has to play the waiting game for now...