Emerald Green (The Ruby Red Trilogy, #3)

by Kerstin Gier

[nitzan_schwarz]

Well... Turns out there are a *lot* of reviews I didn't post to GR from my old blog... so expect some reviews coming your way. They're not going to be any good (probably), but there you have it..

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I am so very sad this series has ended, because I'm proud to say I enjoyed every second of it. Anybody wants to petition for a spin off about Lesley? *wink wink*

I'm actually not quite sure where to begin with this review. I already talked about the cast - Gwen, Gideon, Lesley and Raphael (there is also the matter of the dead gargoyle, but I'll let you discover that one all on your own). They were as awesome and fantastic as usual, still as lovable, still had great voices.

The romance was great, mostly because even though it does follow similar patterns as other YA books, here, Gwen and her surroundings are aware when she's being overly angsty, know she has no time for it, and snap her out of it. It doesn't validate breaking down and stopping your life because of a guy, but rather it says - "it's okay to hurt, it's okay to cry, it's okay to feel your insides crumbling... but you have to keep living. You have to continue with life, because ultimately, there is more to it than this one guy". I love, love, love that message.

Most of the questions from books one and two have been answered, we finally got to see some of the scenes we were promised from books one and two happening, we discovered the real bad guy - which, I am happy to report, was the one guy in all the cast I hated and suspected. I kept fearing it'll somehow be one of my favorites and that would've broken my heart .

The final Epilogue of this book was pure genius. There are simply no words to describe it. I was squealing at the awesomeness of that last tidbit. I never saw it coming. If anything shows off Gier's amazing-ness, it's that.

One of the things I'm quite sad about is Raphael's place in the plot... or rather, lack of thereof. It seemed to me like this awesome character of which we saw way too little of was thrust into the book for one single reason - to be a love interest to Lesley, so she won't be alone, and perhaps also to assure us that Gwen and Lesley will become a true family one of these days, via their partners. I love this, I honestly do. But I felt like his character had a lot more to offer, and could have some meaning to the plot itself, which sadly he didn't.

Now, from this point on, I'm going to muse aloud. Most of it is going to be hidden behind spoiler tags, but those of you who read the books and want to discuss with me - please feel free to do so!!

There were a few things that just didn't make all that much sense to me, or at least made me think a lot.

1. James's storyline - I love that the guy got to live, I do. But if Gwen prevented his death, than shouldn't all of her memories of his existence as a ghost be gone, as she's never actually encountered him as a ghost in this new reality she created? But not only does Gwen remember, so do her friends.

I've pondered about this quite a bit. The best I could come up with is the next theory: Because Gwen is above Time, being both a time traveler and an immortal, she got to keep her memories of James, so in her head he still existed even though she has changed the course of time and he had never died from the fever to become a ghost. Because she retained her memories, so did the other people around her because to her he still existed, even if he didn't due to her actions. Do I make sense??

Also, I'm really sad she couldn't save Robert. He was such a cute little thing. Although, I suspect the reason she can't save him is that it would affect her directly, as Dr. White would be a completely different man had his son not died... But still, dead kids make a sad me.

2. Gwen's "condition" - So, Gwen's immortal. While it's fitting with the whole Time Traveler who Sees the Dead, I did feel like it kind of came out of nowhere. We had no indication (that I noticed, at the very least), of her condition before she... well, died (And then didn't). Not even an oddly quickly healed wound or something. Did I miss something, or am I right? I kind of dislike when, for the shock value, authors pretend something doesn't exist until the Big Reveal. So, I kind of hope it's just me who missed something :)

3. The Count's Deceit - this is actually something that I have been pondering from book 1. The Count, by all means, knows Charlotte is not the Ruby. He knows that Gwen is. He knows she is going to doubt him, and fight him, and disobey him. Sure, he thinks that he killed her, but still - wouldn't everything have been so much easier for him if he had made sure they all knew Gwen's the one, and so she could've been brainwashed into submission much like Gideon was? What could he possibly have to gain by keeping it to himself?

That's it! All in all, I love this series, and already convinced more than one person to give it a go ;)