After finding out that Saint Germain and Gideon have been manipulating her this whole time, though she still doesn’t know why or what’s the endgame, Gwenyth just wants to wallow in her heartbreak.

But her friends, Lesley and Xemerius will not allow it. Now, they’re just a few clues from finding out where the treasure chest Lord Lucas (Gwenyth’s grandfather) hid and the final revelations may be so Gwenyth can finally know who is the real bad guy.

The meaning of the prophecy turns out to be much more fatal than Gwenyth ever thought.

Once again my plot summary will be limited because of the spoilers and time travelling complications so I’ll stick my review of the characters.

Gier has gone through a pretty big tonal shift from the basic exposition of the first. This one seems to add much more humor and romantic melodrama than previous ones, sometimes at the expense of the plot’s urgency.

While Xermerius’ humorous asides and snarky commentary were all wonderful, the influx of Gwenyth’s family acting like lovable kooks, a drunken teenage party and Gwenyth’s immature monologuing was too much. Especially as Gwenyth went from somewhat level-headed and active in Sapphire Blue to constant worrying over what Gideon thinks of her, spouts of nervous babbling around Gideon and then compulsively crying. Even her near-death experiences are muted by her making a joke out of it soon after. I liked her more balanced personality from the previous books that matched her adorkable 16-year old self with her desire to take control of her crazy circumstances. Here, it was like she was back to just 13.

Which leads me to the plot which is still wonderfully fast-paced and exciting from Gwenyth trying to outthink her various rivals and enemies, the reveal of new antagonists, and time travel jumps that confirm this universe’s time travel operates on a continuous loop that you can’t change what came before. I really enjoyed how scenes from previous books where Gwenyth and Gideon almost bump into their future selves are finally explained.

Yet I also felt that Gier was padding the plot a bit with extra scenes focused on Gwenyth’s happy family (albeit, it was adorable as Gwenyth’s siblings and mom didn’t get much page time in the other novels), the drunk teen party, Gwenyth’s wallowing, and Gwenyth travelling to save her ghost friend James from his future death. It was interesting at the time but unnecesary in the long run of the story.

Gwenyth and Gideon’s relationship continues to be a sore spot. Of course, they end up together, it’s not a spoiler since this is a YA love story must. Even though Gideon’s frosty behavior had an actually clever explanation fitting with the story’s longer narrative around the prophecy deception, I still can’t see them together.

They’ve only known each other for two weeks and most of it is spent with antagonism, lying and miscommunication. It’s hard to believe their declarations of one true love when I just don’t see what they have in common beyond time travelling. Gwenyth isn’t interested in intellectual/historical discussions and Gideon finds stuff about movies, shopping and such to be superficial. I guess they have the same sense of humor but seriously, they needed more scenes of them regularly bonding than trauma-bonding to make me root for them. The jokes about Gwenyth letting her hormones control her decision-making were somewhat meta. Too bad they still end up together.

It’s a shame because Gier does actually a really good job between Lucy and Paul and Lesley and Raphael (Gideon’s little bro) so she can write romance but the supernatural insta-love is not my jam.

Some of the supposed plot twists like Gwenyth’s parentage (unfortunately this scene happens off page!), Gwenyth’s powers and the real meaning of the prophecy are predictable and obvious that I’m surprised the others didn’t figure it out. They’re going on about how vague it is but I figured it out last novel. However, Gier really comes through with the final climax I didn’t expect at all for how Gwenyth and Gideon would outwit the Count and the Count’s true identity. Good stuff.

The epilogue left a bit to be desired in not wrapping out certain questions like the time travelling society no longer having a purpose, Gwenyth’s seeing ghost powers, why Dr. White turned into an ally, Gwenyth’s parents and family situation. . . just ended it as if it was another ordinary school day for Gwenyth and Lesley. I mean I’m happy it didn’t end with a sappy Gwenyth/Gideon kiss but it was so anticlimatic after such a riveting final fight.

Hoenstly, the series doesn’t hold up even though the premise and the side characters were really cool. I think I’d rather have a story of Lucy and Paul’s forbidden relationship and their underdog fight against the Count and the Inner Circle.

3 stars.