Gwen’s snotty cousin Charlotte has been groomed her entire life to be the final piece of the time-traveling “Circle of Twelve,” the so-called “Ruby” who will complete the Circle and cause an as-yet unnamed secret to be revealed. However, in Gier’s previous book, Ruby Red, Gwen discovered that she, in fact, was the Ruby, a discovery that flipped her once normal life upside down. Unlike Charlotte, who has been trained since birth for future time travel missions, learning deportment, ballroom dancing, and history, Gwen is just your typical London teenager, happier to hang out with her best friend Lesley and make fun of their teachers than to study up on the fashions of England in the early 1900s.

But Gwen is quickly pulled into this new life, especially when she discovers that it is now her responsibility to gather blood from four other Circle members in order to power the chronograph, the device that will ultimately cause the Circle to close. Along with Gideon, the 11th Circle member (and a really cute guy, to boot), she must figure out whether fellow time travelers Paul and Lucy are really traitors, what her part actually is in all of this, and what is going on with Gideon’s fickle moods (first he kisses her in an abandoned church, then he ignores her completely!). Oh yeah, and then there’s the matter of the ghosts and demons that she keeps seeing…

Kim reviewed Ruby Red last year, and while she had some issues, I really enjoyed the first novel in this trilogy, especially for its mix of a solid backstory, intelligently explained time-travel rules, and a thoroughly modern heroine. I enjoyed Sapphire Blue, as well, just not as much. Honestly, I’m not even sure why. It just didn’t seem to have much of an impact. While Gwen and Gideon did time travel a few times, nothing really happened in this book. The bad guy from the previous book was given a bit of a sympathetic backstory and a new bad guy was introduced, but nothing was revealed to illuminate the details behind the Circle of Twelve. Gwen also seemed, well, a bit stupid to me. I understand that Gier wanted to emphasize that she wasn’t as ‘trained’ as Charlotte, but some of the basic facts and word definitions that she didn’t understand were a bit jarring. As a whole, though, this was a quick, entertaining read, and I’ll be looking forward to how Gier wraps up her story.

Disclosure: Sapphire Blue will be released in the U.S. on October 30, 2012. Review copy received from publisher.