by Kerstin Gier
“Gwenny, I hate to say so, but all this miserable weeping and wailing does no one any good. You have to stop it!”
“I’m not doing it on purpose,” I told her. “It just keeps on breaking out of me. One moment I’m still the happiest girl in the world, and then he tells me he…”
“Okay, so Gideon behaved like a bastard,” Lesley interrupted me. “Although it’s hard to understand why. I mean, hello? Why on earth would girls in love be easier to manipulate? I’d have thought it was just the opposite. Girls in love are like ticking time bombs. You never know what they’ll do next. Gideon and his male chauvinist friend the count have made a big mistake.”
PRAISE FOR RUBY RED
“Humorous, romantic and suspenseful, the plot is fast-paced and impossible to put down.”—Justine magazine
“Gier succeeds on her own terms, keeping the reader moving along, forward and backward in time, and ending with a revelation and a cliffhanger. Both will leave readers anticipating the publication of the next installment, Sapphire Blue.” —The New York Times Book Review
“What makes this such a standout is the intriguingly drawn cast, stars and supporting players both, beginning with Gwen, whose key feature is her utter normality.… Adventure, humor, and mystery all have satisfying roles here.” —Booklist, starred review
“The characters in Kerstin Gier’s stellar story come fully to life, and veteran translator Anthea Bell (who translated Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart books) preserves the book’s abundant humor.… There’s something here for everyone.” —Shelf Awareness
“Ruby Red is a wonderfully intriguing adventure filled with mysterious time travel, breath-catching action and heart-fluttering romance.” —TeenReads.com
“A page-turner.” —ChannelOne.com
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Text copyright © 2012 by Kerstin Gier
Translation copyright © 2012 by Anthea Bell
All rights reserved.
First published in the United States in 2012 by Henry Holt and Company, LLC.
Original title: Kerstin Gier, Saphirblau—Liebe geht durch alle Zeiten copyright © 2010 Arena Verlag GmbH, Wurzburg, Germany, published by arrangement with Rights People.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gier, Kerstin.
[Saphirblau. English]
Sapphire blue / Kerstin Gier ; translated from the German
by Anthea Bell.—1st American ed.
p. cm.
“Originally published in Germany in 2010 by Arena Verlag GmbH under the title Saphirblau: Liebe geht durch alle Zeiten.”—Copyright p.
Sequel to: Ruby red.
Summary: Sixteen-year-old Gwen, the newest and final member of the secret time-traveling Circle of Twelve, searches through history for the other time-travelers, aided by friend Lesley, James the ghost, Xemerius the gargoyle demon, and Gideon, the Diamond, whose fate seems bound with hers.
ISBN 978-0-8050-9266-0 (hc)
[1. Time travel—Fiction. 2. Family life—London (England)—Fiction. 3. Secret societies—Fiction. 4. London (England)—Fiction. 5. England—Fiction. 6. Great Britain—History—Fiction.] I. Bell, Anthea. II. Title.
PZ7.G3523Sap 2012 [Fic]—dc23 2011034011
eISBN 978-0-8050-9635-4
First American Edition—2012
1 We may assume, with probability verging on certainty, that the initial denotes Giovanni Alessandro, Conte di Madrone, 1502–1572, cf. also Lamory, Noble Italian Families of the Sixteenth Century, Bologna 1997, p. 112 ff.
2 Here, child of demonic origin.
3 The conte may have invented the cloud of smoke and the smell of sulphur to lend greater credibility to this story.
4 R.M.: probably Rudolfo, a member of the Medici family, who created a great stir with his spectacular suicide in the year 1559, see Pavani, Legends of the Forgotten Medici, Florence 1988, p. 212 ff.