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| I want to kiss whoever designed these covers on the mouth. |
Remember how I got all excitable about The Fire Chronicle being a Good Middle Book in a trilogy, and how that is rare? (Review of Book 1 here)
This is another example! I am tickled pink. I may like this one even
better than the first book, but at the very least it’s a photo finish.
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| So do you, David. So. Do. You. |
All right. There have been 10 time travelers before Gwen (the Ruby) and
Gideon (the... Diamond? I had to return the book to the library...), and two of them went rogue. They - Lucy and Paul who went rogue, not Gwen and Gideon - stole the chronograph with the blood
samples of nearly all of the previous time travelers and disappeared with it
into the past so that the final travelers couldn’t be “read” in - that is, put their blood in the machine - and complete
the Circle of Twelve, which we learn could be a Very Bad Thing instead of the
Goal of the Circle as we previously thought. Those of us who have read Justin Cronin's books will immediately recognize the number twelve as a very. bad. number. indeed.
There’s a page in the book where all the gemstones are
attached to their correct people, along with their musical notes, spirit
animals, and a VERY VAGUE reference to their specific magical power. I am lazy
and forgot to mark it, but Gwen’s magical power is something about speaking
with the voice of the raven, and I am like “I KNOW WHAT THAT POWER IS” because
waaaaaay back at the beginning of book 1, Gwen reveals that she sees and
interacts with ghosts. And ravens, in case you come from a different place
where this is not canon, are messengers between the world of the living and the
world of the dead.
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| This guy also saw ghosts! |
Ok, but lest we forget, Gwen is a teenager, so she is ALSO busy figuring out what on earth Gideon is doing,
because he makes out with her one day and then berates her for not knowing how
to properly gavotte the next – and really, who can blame him? Doesn’t everyone
know how to gavotte? Silly Gwen.
 |
| I imagine it looks something like this. |
And in the mean time, there is more time travel and more
costuming and more creepy 18th century shenanigans, along with the
Drinking of Punch at a Ball! And Gwen gets adopted by the ghost of a gargoyle
named Xemerius, who says things like this:
“Leave her alone, can’t you see she’s unhappy in love, bonehead? All because of you!”
I need one of these little guys to follow me around and yell
hilarious things at bonehead dudes. Or just people in general, even if I'm the only one who can hear him.
I basically laid in bed for an entire Saturday and read this book, and I wasn't even sick! The pacing is brilliant, the Golden Rule of Show-Don't-Tell is followed scrupulously, and everything is brilliant. Book three can be published any time now. Do you hear me publishers? ANY. TIME.
8.5 out of 11 Glasses of 18th c. Punch - Alcohol Included for Fun!
