Ruby Red (Precious Stone Trilogy, #1)
by Kerstin Gier, Anthea Bell
My inner 13 year old gives Ruby Red five stars.
Since I'm actually twice that age (my inner 13 year old says "wow, really?"), I'm going to ding it slightly for an unnecessarily obtuse main character, predictability (I'm... pretty sure I know what all the major plot twists are going to be), and not always grasping the intricacies of time travel. Why bother threatening to fire a secretary when you can threaten to go back in time and never hire her in the first place? If you're a shady secret society of wealthy aristos, how have you not systematically used time travel to make yourselves filthy rich on the stock market? And how is it possible for the "baddies" to know when you're going to meet with someone in the past, even though you've chosen the date at random? Easy, she told them after the meeting had taken place, and they hopped back for a visit. But only slightly, because my inner 13 year old wants the next book.