Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier

Title: Sapphire Blue
By: Kerstin Gier
Published: 2012
Call #: YA Fiction Gier.K
eBook: https://dlil.overdrive.com/nsls-evanstonpublic/content/media/658655
eAudiobook: https://dlil.overdrive.com/nsls-evanstonpublic/content/media/1088312

This enthralling novel, which contains elements of fantasy, science fiction, and romance is a close relative of its predecessor, Ruby Red. This trio of Kerstin Gier novels, Ruby Red, Sapphire Blue and Emerald Green flow into each other seamlessly. It might be suggested that they are three installments of the same story, like old time serial novels. The author has simply divided up the action to avoid the reader having to digest a very long book.

However, with action of this calibre, length is no object. The enigmatic Count Saint Germain is back on scene, manipulating our heroine, Gwyneth, to do his bidding. Whereas in Ruby Red, the count was an evil man whom Gwyneth feared, in Sapphire Blue, the count is more subtle in his conduct, engaging in genteel conversation with her, including fatherly comments on the nature of men, women and love. Gwyneth is rightfully suspicious of the count reverting to a more grandfatherly figure. And, speaking of grandfathers, the miracle of time travel enables Gwyneth to travel back to a time when her grandfather was a young man deciding who to marry. Gwyneth participates in this discussion, without letting slip that her grandfather’s eventual choice of wife was Lady Arista.

Gwyneth’s grandfather, Lucas, also gives away that he was involved in the unauthorized time travels of Gwyneth’s fellow time travellers, Paul and Lucy. Paul and Lucy are considered outlaws by the Guardians, the keepers of the time travel secrets. They stole the original chronograph, a time machine, and have thwarted the attempts of Count Saint Germain “to close the circle” of time travellers, in their belief that the count has impure motives. In order to oppose the count, Paul and Lucy have formed a tie with the Florentine Alliance, an extremist group currently led by Lord Alastair, who believes that time travel is a sacrilege. He confronts Gwyneth directly and taunts her with his intentions to destroy her, calling her and all other time travellers, “demons”. Truly frightened, Gwyneth is dependent upon her time travelling partner, Gideon, to protect her. Gideon, an expert swordsman, engages Lord Alastair in the rousing combat which is one of the highlights of the book.

There is a seething tension in the story between the diabolical actions of Count Saint Germain, the treachery of Paul and Lucy, and the hostile attacks of Lord Alastair, all forces for ill: confronted by the forces for good: the friends and allies of Gwyneth who rise up to comfort and protect her. Her mother,  brother and sister are there to prove that home is indeed where the heart is and a safe haven for the loved one. Gwyneth’s ghostly friends are to be counted on, including her precious gargoyle friend, Xemerius, who is as much a secret weapon as a supporter. Best of all, Gideon, who in the admiring words of  Count Saint Germain is now a “young Adonis” defends Gwyneth with his life.

Reader, you will not be disappointed.

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