Time-travel, in Gwyneth's world, is controlled by a device operated by the mysterious society. Those who read time travel stories for the excitement of exploring the past won't find that emphasized here. She's a great narrator-matter-of-fact, observant, and entertaining.

And in large part this momentum comes from Gwyneth. This is great fun! The twists and complexities of the plot make for fast reading-along with Gwyneth, the reader has little clue at times what's happening in the larger scheme of things, but things roll along nicely before too much doubt creeps in (sometimes I have doubts when reading about centuries-old mysterious cabals of mystic-ness, but not here at least not until I closed the book). Plunged into mysteries, caught between two different factions among her time-travelling kin, and accompanied in her time-travelling by the insufferable (but very handsome) Gideon, Gwyneth must decide (with too little information to make it easy) just whom she can trust. Living beneath them in grand style are her grandmother, her aunt, and her polished and beautiful cousin Charlotte, the special one, the one the family assumes has inherited the family ability to travel through time.īut it is ordinary Gwyneth who finds herself time-travelling, and who finds herself in the midst of a conspiracy stretching back centuries-a secretive organization of Guardians wants Gwyneth to fill a crucial role in their machinations. Ruby Red, by Kerstin Gier (Henry Holt 2011, YA, 336 pages)ġ6-year-old Gwyneth lives with her mother and siblings on the top floor of the family's ancestral home in London.

Saphirblau by Kerstin Gier