Emerald Green (The Ruby Red Trilogy, #3)

by Kerstin Gier

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

I am sitting outside on a brick wall in a charming little courtyard in the shade of trees. It is precisely 76-degrees out and the skies are blue and sunny and there’s a perfect, quaint little wind. It is an absolutely perfect day, and I am ever so slightly miserable.

Why?

Because after lovingly dragging it out over the course of the last few years, I have finished finished the Ruby Red trilogy.

I adored this story. The only bad thing I can really say about it is that it’s a bit silly. I like that silliness, though, I think it works for Gwen’s character. Listening to these audiobooks has brought me such joy and I’ve anxiously anticipated each next installment. The trilogy as a whole feels very much like one story that’s been split apart due to page count, and now, I’m just waiting for more (which is not coming).

Don’t get me wrong – as the last book in the trilogy, Emerald Green ties everything up quite nicely. The story arc is closed in a satisfying way, and Gwen stays true to her character. That’s a big thing for me, the fact that Gwennie didn’t suddenly become some kick-butt heroine at the last moment for sensation and thrills. In fact, the YA genre has me so spoiled with extraordinary things that I was pleasantly surprised to see that the characters were consistent… and that they always felt real.

Another really nice thing about Emerald Green was the timeline consistency. What with the tiny little subplot here, I’m sure some things changed in the present, but as a whole, it kept to its own rules and followed through. There were bits and pieces from the first book that I’d forgotten about until they were playing back to me in Emerald Green and I’ll admit, it took some self-control not to say “AHA!” in the right moments, though that interruption would have been largely frowned upon in an otherwise mostly empty office. The rules of time travel is the sort of thing that can make or break a story, and right through to the end, this one was consistent (*side-eyes Vortex*).

I’m just… all shades of happy/sad here. I’m so delighted because this book is such a romp and a good time. But I’m also sad because it’s the end of my journey with Gwennie and Leslie and Gideon and the crew. For all that I’m outside of the demographic and the book’s a bit older now, this is easily going to be a comfort read for me. And I knew it from the outset, when I fell in love with Ruby Red. It’s so nice to discover books like these.

It may not have always been surprising, but I cannot deny the sheer delight Emerald Green brought me. It was just the book I needed right now. If you’ve not read this series and you don’t mind light-hearted YA time travel stories, I cannot recommend it enough.