Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier

Ruby Red
by Kerstin Gier
Date Released: May 10, 2011 (American publication)
Pages: 324

Summary:

Gwyneth Shepherd’s sophisticated, beautiful cousin Charlotte has been prepared her entire life for traveling through time. But unexpectedly, it is Gwyneth, who in the middle of class takes a sudden spin to a different era!

Gwyneth must now unearth the mystery of why her mother would lie about her birth date to ward off suspicion about her ability, brush up on her history, and work with Gideon—the time traveler from a similarly gifted family that passes the gene through its male line, and whose presence becomes, in time, less insufferable and more essential. Together, Gwyneth and Gideon journey through time to discover who, in the eighteenth century and in contemporary London, they can trust.

My Review:

I can pretty much sum up this book with one onomatopoeia: eh. It was just eh.

It started off awesome! I was hooked right away. The main character wasn't awesome, but I figured I would warm up to her. And the plot was interesting enough. But at about half way through the book, it just went downhill from there. The plot started to lose steam, I started disliking the main character even more. Characters I had originally liked I started disliking.

Then I stopped reading for two days because I had a bunch of tests and I just could not get back into the story. I struggled through the last fourth of it for about a week. And then 20 or 30 pages from the end, I just couldn't finish it. At first I thought it was because I was reading at night and I was just really tired, but then I tried reading it during lunch the next day. I still only got through a page in about 20 minutes.

The element that really helped this book sink down was the plot. At first it sounded so good! Time travel because of a gene was something I had never read before. But after the author tells us about Gwyneth's first time traveling incident, the plot lost all of its steam. It felt like there were holes. Whenever explanations were offered they were rushed through. And some things that need more detail were just lacking and had me slightly confused.

I would urge you away from reading this book. Do not be enticed by the pretty cover!

My Rating: