Relook in a Book #6: Ruby Red Series by Kerstin Gier
I first heard about this book in 2016, three years after the German film Rubinrot was released based on the original German novel by Kerstin Gier, when one of my brother showed me the film cover on IMDb. I ended up finding an English dubbed version of Ruby Red on Youtube. Almost immediately after I was done watching the movie, I was reading not only Ruby Red but the two other books in the series, Sapphire Blue and Emerald Green. I've recently gotten the chance to reread this series. I'd have to say it holds up beautifully. I still enjoyed every second of it.
Ruby Red as well as the two other books in the series, is supernatural/sci-fi teen novel about a girl named Gwendolyn that discovers she has inherited her family's time-traveling gene. Due to some mysterious reason, her mom lied to the family about what date Gwendolyn was born on. Because of this, everyone in the family and this secret order that protects time travel thought it was Gwendolyn's cousin, Charlotte, that had inherited the gene based on a mathematical equation by Sir Isaac Newton himself, that predicted the day that the final gemstone, the ruby, would be born. With the fact that Charlotte and Gwendolyn were unknowingly born on the same day, Charlotte was prepared almost from birth to travel through time with training in the art of dance and martial arts, lessons in history, and proper etiquette of the different time periods. Gwendolyn, not so much. While everyone was waiting for the time that Charlotte would randomly disappear for a short period into the past, thus starting her destiny as a bona fide time traveler, Gwendolyn was being thrown into the past at random moments, not fully understanding what was happening as all she really knew about this time travel gene and the secret order was the secondhand information that her psychic Great Aunt, who may or not be crazy, would occasionally share with Gwendolyn and her two younger siblings. Now, Gwendolyn's mom has to reveal the truth about Gwendolyn's birthdate to keep her from traveling through time uncontrollably.
Enter Gideon, the diamond and the 11th time traveler in the series of 12. He's from a family where the time travelers are male, as opposed to Gwendolyn's family has all female time travelers. He's nineteen years old and has been traveling through time for the last two years with the aid of a machine that the secret order keeps locked up. The machine, known as the chronograph, can control the time and date that a time traveler would like to go to. This travel is overseen by the secret order as they have been tasked to complete the circle of blood within the chronograph that needs the blood of all 12 time travelers entered to do so. Gideon has been traveling back in time collecting blood from the previous time travelers, on the commands from the order's founder and a time traveler himself, Count Saint-Germain from the 1700s (who may or may not be a real count like he says he is) as the original chronograph was stolen by the last two time travelers, Paul and Lucy before they escaped to the past, the year Gwendolyn was born, with the chronograph as they believed something bad would happen if the circle of blood was ever completed. The order believes that the chronograph will bring about world peace, but Lucy and Paul found out some information that caused them to believe otherwise.
I could literally tell you the whole story because I love talking about it so much. This was only the beginning of how it all started. I love how everything is connected. You'll wonder why a character is there, and by the end, it's all so clear. You'll seriously need to read this one. It has been one of my favorite rereads so far. I gave it five stars back in 2017 and I'll give it 5 stars again here in 2023.
Oh, did I mention that Gwendolyn can see ghosts? She even has this pet/friend that is a ghost of a gargoyle demon. It makes sense in the book, trust me! Go on. You'll appreciate the time spent on this awesome read.
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