Emerald Green (The Ruby Red Trilogy, 3) Hardcover – October 8, 2013

I've been told that I often look at things from a...different perspective than most. As I sit here after finishing this trilogy, my first thoughts are not on the twists and turns of the plot or mooning over Gideon or even snickering at Xemi, although I did. It just that I am currently too amazed at the author. She's brilliant. Not just as an author who can draw you in, cause you to fall in love with both primary AND secondary characters, or cause you to continually think about her story long after the final page. She's brilliant in that she kept all the time traveling (who was where when, and why) stuff straight. All of these different threads that weave around each other, over the top of each other, and through each other are woven together to create this novel of time travel that encompasses SEVERAL characters that travel through time. How did she keep it straight? Did she use magic? A 1000 post-it notes maybe? Perhaps there is an app for that? However she accomplished it, the story was spectacular from the very beginning.The characters are wonderful, all of them! Gwen grows and changes so much, as does Gideon. Their romance is rout with all the insecurities of young love, as sweet as a first kiss, and enduring enough that one is willing to die for the other.Xemi was just delightful! Who would have thought a gargoyle would be? An example: (Gwen had suspected for some time that Xemi read Aunt Maddy's romance novels over her shoulder) He commentates--"Even the shadows on the walls were silent, while the two of them looked at each other as if they'd just on a whoopee cushion, romantic violin music began to play.....When the clever and extraordinarily handsome demon returned from his outing, full of hope, he was disappointed to see that in his absence the girl had lost neither the piss-yellow blouse nor her innocence."I could go on and on about the characters, the plot, and superb writing....but seriously you should be reading the book instead of listening to me prattle on!

I've been anxiously waiting for the conclusion to the Ruby Red trilogy since the cliffhanger ending of the previous book. Fortunately, Emerald Green does not disappoint! Gwen is still as fun and kooky as she was in the previous two books, and Xemerius (ah, Xemerius), had me cracking up even more than in Sapphire Blue. Kerstin Gier's final installment in the series will highly entertain you with the tale of a thoroughly confused time traveling girl and a crazy cast of characters as they discover the truth behind the chronograph. First, I'll begin by stating the pros:As soon as you pick up the book you're sucked back into Gwen's world, right where we left off. The author made sure to recap what had happened before without using a mass info dump, so the reader can read the story without being dragged down by information you've already heard.Next come the characters. Throughout the story Gier continues to show us her amazing skill of making her readers care for the characters. As I've already mentioned, they are as memorable as ever and stay true to the previous books. Another plus for me was that we got to see Lesley play a larger role in the time travel aspect of Gwen's life and Raphael became more involved as well. And of course, we can't forget Gideon. Thankfully for the readers, we don't have to suffer through as much of his hot and cold attitude as before and he won a lot of brownie points from me because of that.The time traveling part of the story is as exciting as ever! I loved every moment of it, and much to my relief this time around there were no embarrassing punch accidents or public performances of songs from the musical Cats.The ending of Emerald Green tied up all loose ends quite nicely, and while for some books this might annoy me I found it satisfying for this particular book. Also, any questions from the previous books are answered in this one. (I had a lot of "oooooohhhh" moments myself because of the explanations).Overall, the tone of the book was light and not serious at all, which was good. The pace was fast and I found the pages flying by. As another reviewer said, it definitely is a chick lit type book, but nonetheless enjoyable.Now, onto the cons:The plot of Emerald Green is there, but it hobbles along in leaps and jumps reminiscent of that of a three legged race. Often I would find myself going back to reread something, trying to figure out a character's logic. Also, while the plot itself didn't really lag, it didn't feel like it was building up to a definite climax, exactly. You knew something would happen, but the events in the book seemed to follow a more 'let's try this and see what happens' approach than a straightforward one. Contributing to my confusion was the time travel factor of the story. Obviously, in any time travel story there will be confusion, but it still made the story more difficult to understand.Another thing that bothered me was the sheer amount of drama in the story. While it does read like a chick lit, the amount of crying was unbelievable. In fact, during the story Gwen said she'd cried enough to help Africa in a drought. While some circumstances were understandable, others were not. Perhaps more sympathetic readers will tolerate it, but it was more an annoyance to me than anything.Altogether, the story is fantastic, and I enjoyed every second of time I spent on the series. While the third book wasn't as strong as it could have been or as memorable as the first book, it has its charm. I will most definitely read this series again and have already recommended it to several of my friends who also enjoyed it. If you want a unique plot based around time travel and heart warming characters, try the series and be pulled into the wonderful world that Kerstin Gier has created. I can wholeheartedly say you won't regret it!Rating: Four StarsBrooketheBookworm