Title: Emerald Green (The Ruby Red Trilogy #3)

Author: Kerstin Gier

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Published: October 8, 2013

The book picked up where the second left off. Gwen and Gideon were trying to figure out what Count Saint-Germain was up to.

I am almost tempted to say the first hundred pages could be skipped altogether without the reader missing anything. It was full of melodramatic teenage angst. If I was physically capable I would have plucked a daisy, given it to Gwen, told her to play he loves me he, loves me not, and told her to live with the answers she got. After a couple of pages with her moaning on his lack of feelings towards her I was ready to just get on with the story. I think part of my problem was my inability to find the romance between Gwen and Gideon believable. Maybe if he had been nicer to her in the first two books, or if they had bother to actually talk and get to know each other. The blanket almost smothering outpouring of love between the two made me believe outside the covers of fiction the characters would have had a really nasty breakup around three months after the story ended.

I did enjoy the mystery of what the society was really trying to accomplish and why it could have been a good or a bad thing depending on who was telling the story. I was interested on how they were going to manage to come out on top.

My favorite character was Xemerius, the demon gargoyle only Gwen could see. He had the most humor and the most sense of anyone in the book. His ideas were the best and any time Gwen began crying or going on about something he didn't care about he would either leave the room or take a nap. I grew almost envious of him a couple of times.

In the end I could see the appeal certain people would see in the life Gwen would end up leading, but it is one of those times I am walking away from the story thinking I am grateful that is not how my life will end up.

Overall I gave this book 3 stars out of 5.