Book Review: Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier

Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier

Henry Holt © 2011

Hardcover

Urban Fiction

Reviewed by Leah

Ruby Red on Amazon

In the beginning, I adored this book.  By the middle, it had settled into a more firm liking.  At the end, I slammed it shut and threw it.

Summary:

Gwyneth Shepherd thought the hereditary time-traveling would pass her by, since she wasn't born on the right day and her cousin Charlotte clearly was.  So it comes as quite the shock to everyone when Gwyneth takes a spinning dip in the past while Charlotte suffers only from phantom symptoms brought on by high expectations.

The only person the family has to blame is Grace, Gwyneth's mother.  Having lied to everyone these past sixteen years, it made it impossible for Gwyneth to be properly trained.  Now, she's got to stumble her way through a secret society--who still won't induct her into their mysteries, despite her being the Ruby--with an arrogant nineteen year old, Gideon de Villiers, who has had his time-traveling duties for two years now.

It's no surprise, therefore, when Gwyneth finds herself with a bit more than reservations about all of this.  Especially when she meets the creator of the society, the formidable Count Saint-Germain, sometime in the eighteenth century.  Her mother's warnings not to trust anyone are beginning to seem a lot more valid and the questions mount with each passing hour.

Even Gideon, who is becoming less arrogant and more considerate as their mission proceeds, is a lot more dangerous than he seems.  A fact Gwyneth really does not want to believe, since she's falling in love with him.

Initial Thoughts:

I loved Gwyneth's voice.  Her relationship with her best friend was real and energetic.  And the mystery surrounding the time-traveling gene was something to sink my teeth into.  The beginning of this had me really loving it, but about mid-way through I was beginning to see the flaws.  Once we hit that ending though…  *shaking my head*

Characters:

Gwyneth was a little immature, it's true.  Everything she knows about history typically comes from a film she and her friend Lesley watched.  And while the name dropping of films caught my attention at first, it eventually got to the point of redundancy.  She was also lacking in a serious backbone, but I can't say that much of it was unrealistic.  In the same situation, when it was supposed to be her cousin and not her, it would make sense the amount of fear and confusion that pervades her mind.  The biggest problem was that she did nothing to clear the confusion and she just accepted that no one was going to tell her anything.  That shit is not okay.  I'd have pitched a fit from here to high heaven before I decided to do as these people asked of me.  And when your mother is that adamant about you not meeting someone and won't say why in front of all these people, you can bet your ass that it is a BAD IDEA!  Gwyneth, on the other hand, ignores all such warnings and decides to go through all of this as if they really can protect her.  Moron.

Lesley would have been fun to see a lot more of.  She's about the only person with real common sense, even if she has a lot of quirks.  And her dedication to helping Gwyneth is shown in the thick file of research she does at her friend's bidding, in the hope to keep Gwyneth safe from the baddies.  Again, she's a bit immature, but I know that you never act more immature than when you're with your best friend.

Grace Shepherd…  I'm just going to quote a passage from Khanh's review of Witch Song to describe exactly what I think of this woman:

"Her mother has a condition that many mothers in literature suffer. It is called lol-i-ain't-telling-u-nothin-bitch-itis.

Lol-i-ain't-telling-u-nothin-bitch-itis: symptoms may include...

- not telling you daughter a single fucking thing about who she is despite the fact that the Big Terrible Secret might kill her

- keeping everything a secret like your life depends on it...oh wait, your life DOES depend on it

- ignorance is bliss: because if your daughter doesn't know that there are people out to kill her, it means she's totally fucking safe, right?!"

That, exactly, covers everything wrong with Grace's character.  She informs no one that her daughter has likely inherited the gene … in order to protect her.  Are you fucking serious?  There's no excuse for this shit and authors really need to stop doing this with parental figures.  I understand wanting to take the MC by surprise, but this could easily have been solved by people not factoring Daylight Savings Time and have Gwyneth actually born on the 8th of October.  Simple fix.  UGH!

Gideon de Villiers is an awful character.  He is not consistent in any way, and that irritates me more than anything in this entire book.  When he first meets Gwyneth, he's an arrogant, angry ass.  I understood that.  Because of Grace, the girl he's been training all this time with is now clearly not what they thought she was and now he has to deal with someone who will be playing catch-up through everything.  He has a right to be angry.  Gwyneth is unprepared and now the entire plan is altered.  That's fine to think Gwyneth is inadequate and unhelpful, because she is.  What is not okay is to drop the arrogant facade the moment they travel back in time and become nice to her all of a sudden.  And he stays that way.  Even after kissing her cousin on the cheek, sending Charlotte away beaming with happiness, and then turns around and acts all worried over Gwyneth's safety.  And (SPOILER) for him to up and declare that she's not just an "average" girl to him and that she's special in the end there, I wanted to punch him in the face.  I literally THREW THE BOOK when they kissed, because he hadn't acted the slightest bit interested the entire fucking novel, and now he's all but declaring himself to her.  What a little twatwaffle!

Lucy and Paul were the pair I really wanted to get to know.  In the prologue and the epilogue, they are the most endearing characters and I really enjoy Paul's tone of voice.  And the way he calls Lucy 'Princess' makes the reader think it's almost sarcastic, but that's just his voice and the context.  After a while, you realize that it really is a pet-name and denotes affection rather than sarcasm.  The fact that his voice was that easy to establish in my mind makes him my favorite character, hands down.

Plot & Setting:

Okay, the setting here was next to nothing.  But I understand that when you consider most of the focus was on the dialogue or the events, rather than where they took place.  However, when your premise is that your characters can travel back in time, I need some details.  Telling me what era it is and giving me the dress code does not bring that era to life.  Half the fun with time-travel is that it can take place in any time and your character gets to experience it all.  So give us an experience, would you?

Plot wise, this book missed the mark by a wide margin.  Why?  Because there wasn't a full arc at all.  We have the beginning and an initial event, but that is all.  Everything from there on out was rising action only.  And then the book ended abruptly with that stupid (SPOILER) declaration of specialness and a kiss.  This was not A book.  This was PART of a book.  Which just makes me all the angrier at authors and publishers who think this shit is okay.  It's not.  If it's a series, that's fine.  A trilogy is okay.  But ONLY if you have distinct books with their own plots that happen to fit into the main plot.  Come on people, the Harry Potter series should have taught you better by now.

As I said, this was all rising action.  This was about Gwyneth discovering she's been lied to and ends up being the gene-carrier.  It's about her having some very scary experiences in the past and having Gideon to comfort her.  It's about her using modern technology to try and figure out who she's dealing with.  And it's about her having a crush on--what appears to be--her cousin's boyfriend, only for the tables to turn and Gideon ends up (SPOILER) kissing her.  There is no climax (though there's a poor imitation of one), no resolution.  Nothing.

Writing Style:

Despite the issues contained within, this was a book I could not put down.  It was a beautifully polished piece containing little to no superfluous information and no editing errors that I am aware of.  Which is always worthy of a gold star.  And the writing flowed so well that I truly did not wish to put down this book.

Overall Opinion:

Hmm.  You wouldn't think, after reading this far, that I actually loved this book in the beginning.  I even still like it enough to buy the sequels and finish off the series.  Obviously, it has issues.  Lots of them.  But they were brought together in such a way that I still want to know what happens from here.

Odd, isn't it?  Since this sounds like such a negative review…  But I enjoyed Gwyneth as a narrator--though she wasn't the brightest bulb in the chandelier.  Gideon had his dashing moments that I liked, despite his personality disorder.  And Lesley…  C'mon.  It's Lesley.  She's pretty cool and served as comedic relief rather well, I thought.  I also completely understand why Grace is intent on keeping her secrets, so that was alright even.

My biggest issue was the instalove on Gideon's part.  (I can't say on Gwyneth's because at least the reader can see that she's attracted to Gideon.  And she doesn't get all mushy about him in a way that denotes love, so much as attraction.  Hers is a crush that could become more, but it's not to the point of love yet.  Gideon on the other hand…)  That is literally what made me throw the book.  Right up until the very end, I still liked the book well enough to gladly pick up the second two seconds after I was done reading (if I had it), but once I hit that end, it took me a minute to even read the epilogue.  Of course, I think it was Lucy and Paul's epilogue that saved this book from my 'burn it with the fire of a thousand suns' list.  *shrug*

Okay, I'm done.  Other stuff to do today and I can't think of any more comments about this book.  So go forth and read, people.  Whether this or another novel that takes your fancy.