I used to be an avid reader. The books on my nightstand changed every week and the city library did not hold any new secrets to me. But somewhere in puberty it went all wrong. I valued boys over books ( and I see my mistake now since books make MUCH better friends) and I had the tendency to buy semi-intellectual books that did not interest me much anyway… So it was a big surprise to me when I got hooked on Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier. And by hooked on I mean the “Oh em gee! It’s already 4 am and I have to get up at 9… one more page…” kind of hooked.

“Kerstin Who?” I can hear you ask bored and lazy in your Ikea office chairs upon which i go into full fangirl mode and scream “Kerstin fucking GIER!” from the top of my fangirling lungs. Ruby Red and the Gem Trilogy did not really make it out of their German boxbed so no hard feelings there… Admittedly : Germany went completely wild for Gier’s books but the rest of Europe kept oddly quiet. A perfect example was my lengthy and burdensome quest to find these books in English in my local book shops (yes ALL my local book shops in the not that small city of Antwerp). They did have them in Dutch but the reassured me these books did not sell exceptionally well. Some of them even gaped at me as if I just asked them if they also delivered “Oliver Twist” By Tolstoy.