GoodRead - Sapphire Blue

My first review I wrote/posted on my blog this year was Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier (my review for that is here). And I enjoyed it. It was fun, fast and addictive read, and I did make plans to read the second and third  in the trilogy, Sapphire Blue and Emerald Green. And, several months later, I finally went, after wanting to "try and save money", I manage to get the paperback edition of Sapphire Blue a little cheaper and more indie bookshop than via Amazon and Book Depository.

Picking up immediately after the events with Ruby Red, Gwen is trying to get to grips over what happenings. The time-travelling gene her cousin, Charlotte, should have gone to Gwen so she is unprepared. She is the Ruby, the last member to complete the Circle. But with everyone trying to keep her in the dark, Gwen has to figure it out for herself.

But with the weirdness of time-travelling, there's Gideon, the diamond of the Circle. Gideon who is cold one moment but warm the next. Who kissed her at the very end of Ruby Red. But this is he like this? Gwen wants to find out...

Very much like Ruby Red, this was fun and addictive read. It felt so easy to slip back into the book after several months. And with a new characters of Gideon's younger brother, Raphael, and Xemerius (a demon ghost in the form of a stone gargoyle - I know that sounds weird, but he is such a cool character. I love him and Gwen's best friend, Lesley!), it made the read have more humour than Ruby Red (and Ruby Red have quite a bit of humour, thanks to Gwen).

And this book doesn't try to make time-travelling simple. This is complex time travelling where things happen but not in the right order, and while this is very confusing (more on this in a sec), it felt refreshing to read a time-travel book that goes "You think time travel is easy, fun and makes sense? You think it's like Doctor Who? Ha!"

Saying that, though, this does make you go "Wait, what?" as this happens quite a lot. And as this series happens in a very short period of time (Ruby Red took past over a course of a week and this is the same with Sapphire Blue, if I did my maths right), you literally have to either go with it and accept what's happening or you have to stop every now and then to think it over and keep track.

And Gideon and the Court - I dislike and distrust the Court (am throwing that out there now) and Gideon... Ok, I have problems with Gideon in Ruby Red and while I warmed up to him a bit more, I still found it hard to accept that, within such a short amount of time, that Gideon and Gwen would have strong feelings for each other but, at the very start of the series, Gideon had feelings for Gwen's cousin, Charlotte. And yes, dramatic events happen within these books, but still... I find it hard to accept when I am not reading the books that Gideon can switch his feelings on and off like that...

But I need to know what happens next. I need to read the last book in the trilogy, Emerald Green. But I don't know whether to get the hardback edition now or wait till October for the paperback. Decisions, decisions...

My only word of caution is that if you do want to read this series, read this series back to back. A lot of things happen and if you take longs backs between books, you might get lost and a tad confused.

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...