Emerald Green

The Ruby Red Trilogy, Book 3

By: Kerstin Gier

Narrated by: Marisa Calin

Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

In Kerstin Gier's Emerald Green, Gwen has a destiny to fulfill, but no one will tell her what it is.

She's only recently learned that she is the Ruby, the final member of the time-traveling Circle of Twelve, and since then nothing has been going right. She suspects the founder of the Circle, Count Saint-German, is up to something nefarious, but nobody will believe her. And she's just learned that her charming time-traveling partner, Gideon, has probably been using her all along.
This stunning conclusion to The Ruby Red Trilogy picks up where Sapphire Blue left off, reaching new heights of intrigue and romance as Gwen finally uncovers the secrets of the time-traveling society and learns her fate.

©2013 Kerstin Gier (P)2013 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“Ruby Red series fans will not be disappointed with this surprising and romantic finale.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Adventure, humor, and mystery all have satisfying roles here.” —Booklist, starred review

good listen

Good conclusion to an entertaining trilogy. All three books were fun to listen to and the narration was very well done!

An adult story wrapped in a child facade

This book is good. Let me say that first before I start.
The story is the both in-depth and captivating. With all the time travel and overlapping story lines it really messes with you and causes you to think about what's happeing next and when thell intersect again.
BUT!
This book is clearly written for teenage girls. There are tons of pop culture referances and the way she talks about relationships is very tweeny.
If you can handle the way the story is told I do advise readying it. It will keep you intrigued to the last word.

Leaves you spell bound! Love the magic behind it.

Leaves you spell bound, makes you want to dive more into the story. A wonderful ending to the trilogy!

Holly Black meets Christopher Moore

Binge-able, sweet and sophisticated, this series has a tantalizing story comparable to Holly Black’s YA Elfhame series with the light hearted quip of Christopher Moore’s A Dirty Job. The performance is perfectly executed. An enjoyable tale needing the gentlest of mental yoga to keep pace with. Some predictable outcomes but plenty of satisfying surprises. It’s nice to see a strong female lead that’s relatable in place of a magic-wielding gymnast ninja tortured genius.

I love the whole series.

to me it was like a futuristic pride and prejudice. the performance was well done. Enjoyed it, wish they should make a movie!

Best Book in Series!

This book kept me awake and listening through several nights. In my opinion, it is the best book in the series. A wonderful, nail-biting conclusion ties everything up nicely! Trust me, it’s worth the credit or money!

Fun and enjoyable

PG - some acts of violence

While I can enjoy/tolerate some relatinship emotions in young adult novels, when it came to the emotional relationship between the two protagonists, it often was tragically over the top. Other than that, it was a fun time travel trilogy with enjoyable characters.

I Hope They Make Movies

This series is so engaging it belongs on the big screen. I'd pay to see it.

The end!

What a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. May contain minor spoilers.

I love how neatly everything about Gwen's family was tied up - it was an excellent decision on Gier's part to head in that direction.

I love that the butler gets in on the adventurous action!

Nothing in the world is going to convince me to get behind Gideon, however, but that's mostly because I'm really bored of the Darcy trope. I get it, he's mean because he loves you. I did like their ending, it was sweet and well-deserved.

Final book, predictable but entertaining

Originally posted at: A Girl that Likes Books

First impressions

I started reading this series mostly because Audible was having a sale on first of a series books. The premise of time travelling seemed appealing and so I went for it. The first installment, Ruby Red, was good enough, I liked the fact that Gwendolyn wasn't just a boy driven character, even though it was obvious that they were going to get together and hence I went for the second one.

The second one, Sapphire Blue, was ok, but I think I fell more for Xemerus than the other characters. I did want to know what the whole mystery was, but the love part felt a bit forced, sadly enough.

So here we are, at the end of the series, and I am giving it a round and final 4, even though I was a bit disappointed at certain points.

Final thoughts

Let us start with the things I liked, both in general and in the series.

As I mentioned the premise of time travelling was appealing to me. The whole building of it around a secret society as well as the workings of the chronograph was nice additions, and I would've liked a bit more of background there. We didn't have it, the whole references to the "gene" and the need of blood for the chronograph to work are not explained, but maybe this is a better option than bad science.

The descriptions of the dresses, and hence Madame Rossini, were delightful. If you follow my blog or my reviews, you probably know that I am a sucker for period dressing. If you didn't know that...well now you do.

There were a couple of twists at the end of the series, a couple as in two major ones, at least from my point of view. I will not extend on this point since I do not want to give spoilers, but one of them was pretty obvious, and the other not so much, so I will give it a "meh" on plot twisting. Some people have complained about the ending, and it does feel like suddenly this was more than a trilogy, but then again it could just be that Gier likes her cliff-hangers, no?

Now, the things I didn't like. It is a bit sad when you like the secondary characters more than you do the primary ones, or at least it seems like a lot of energy is invested in characters you never got to care for, and this was the case for me. Give me more Leslie! More Xemerus...Gwendolyn and Gideon felt flat a lot of times and I felt like the story could've been carried almost without them.

As I mentioned their relationship suddenly happened and while this is a bit typical (not that is a good thing) when portraying teen love situations, it makes it even more "blah" since it has been overdone. But it gets point for not pushing on a love triangle.

So I gave it a 4, mostly because as predictable as it was at times, it was enjoyable, it gave me exactly what I was expecting from it, no more and just a little bit less. I would recommend to someone looking for light series with fun secondary characters.

Good job by Marisa Calin!