Summary (from
Goodreads):
Gwen has a destiny to fulfill, but no one will tell her what
it is. She’s only recently learned that she is the Ruby, the final member of
the time-traveling Circle of Twelve, and since then nothing has been going
right. She suspects the founder of the Circle, Count Saint-German, is up to
something nefarious, but nobody will believe her. And she’s just learned that
her charming time-traveling partner, Gideon, has probably been using her all
along.
This stunning conclusion picks up where Sapphire Blue left off, reaching new
heights of intrigue and romance as Gwen finally uncovers the secrets of the
time-traveling society and learns her fate.
Review:
I’ve had so much fun reading this series. This book was a
little hard to read because I knew it was the last one, and I kind of kept
postponing finishing it –just because I wasn’t ready for it to be over. On the
plus side, this book is a lot thicker than the other two (447 pages!). I just
love all the sarcasm. I love the characters (particularly the sassy best friend
and the comedic gargoyle). And it’s hard saying goodbye to of it.
Book 2 ended with a bit of tears for the main character. And
I wish I could say everything gets cleared up with Gideon right away, but I
can’t. Gwen has a lot of tough stuff to get through in regards to him, but she
becomes so much stronger because of it. The way she knows that there are more
important things in life than boys is just so wonderful. And for every moment
she had to see him, and think he’d only been using her was just so, so spot on
for teen relationships. Nothing is worse than dating someone and then having to
see them all the time post break up…Not that I’m saying things don’t work
out…I’m just saying the scenes that were hard for Gwen were just so spot-on.
Add this to now having a very “illegal” object in her
possession, a bigger mystery brought on by her grandfather, and an even crazier
relationship with her cousin Charlotte, and Gwen just doesn’t seem to have much
going easy for her. She has to hide something really important from her family.
And she soon learns some crazy family secrets that were hidden from her. We
finally learn the real reason Gwen’s mom lied about Gwen and her birthday. We
also learn why Lucy and Paul did what they did.
The kids all figure out what the prophecies were talking
about (with much digging on her friend’s end). And apparently the secret time
traveling society believes that when everyone’s blood is added to their
machine, they will discover something that can help solve all of the world’s
illness and disease. But what they don’t realize, that Gwen soon learns, is
that all of their combined blood will cure illness in just one person and not
the world. Also, for that one person to be granted eternal life, another time
traveler has to be killed (and guess who it is!).
Also, a couple of characters go through some seriously
insane (superhero-type) changes. There’s gun wounds, poison, high school
parties gone wrong, training, heartbreak, family drama, family dinners, and
romance. We finally get to see the ball that Gwen visited briefly in book 1 (to
see her future self kissing Gideon passionately). Gwen gets her chance to help
her ghost friend, but learns that’s it’s a lot harder to do than she thought.
And we also got to see why Gideon was mad at Gwen for knocking him unconscious
in book 2.
There’s a lot of answers in this one. There’s also just so
much hilarity. I absolutely love Gwen’s crazy family, and there was definitely
more moments with them that I was grateful for. I wasn’t expecting certain
things to happen the way they did. I did predict a few things, but I was
pleasantly surprised by others. I loved the race for time. I loved how close
the kids bonded. I loved seeing Charlotte in a different (comical) light. I
loved how strongly Gwen’s family believed in her and how willing they were to
hide things from Charlotte for her. And I loved Gideon more in this one than in
any of the others (for various reasons). And I love watching Gideon and Gwen
argue and learn from each other.
The one thing that nagged me a bit, were the time jumps and
skipped scenes. Sometimes the story would lead up to something (like a
particular time traveling moment), and then with no warning you were back in
Gwen’s school in current time, and you’re like, “ I don’t get to see this
scene?” The author did sometimes summarize these scenes she skipped. But a
summary is almost worse than skipping it completely. And sometimes I found
myself re-reading scenes and thinking I skipped pages because scenes didn’t
always transition smoothly. This was a little confusing considering stuff would
jump around in different time periods.
All in all though, I thought this was a great conclusion to
a remarkable series. The characters were wonderful. This book was about family
(of all kinds), about the best of friendships, about love, and about growing
up. The history, the wardrobe changes, the balls, and the mystery kept my focus
for all three books. While the writing did skip around a bit, particularly at
the end, I did think things ended surprisingly smoothly. I give this a 9/10. If
you like time travel books, books with strong/sassy main characters, books with
two bickering love interests that you just want to work, and books with a good
amount of family, you’d love this.
