Tuesday 3 May 2016

Reviewed: Goodbye Ruby Tuesday by A.L. Michael

TITLE: Goodbye Ruby Tuesday
AUTHOR: A.L. Michael
PUBLISHER: Carina UK

PUBLICATION DATE: April 29, 2016

Amazon - Goodreads

Four friends have become three. But that’s only the beginning.

Ruby, Evie, Mollie and Chelsea were the bad girls at school. But Ruby was the baddest. Evie fought her anger, Mollie fought her mother and Chelsea…well, Chelsea just fought. But Ruby set her sights on a bigger stage. And together, they dreamed of a future where Ruby could sing, Evie could make art, Mollie could bake, Chelsea could dance – and all of them could finally feel at home.

A decade later, the girls are reunited for the funeral of Ruby, who took the world – and the charts – by storm, before fading too soon. And Evie doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry when she learns that Ruby has left them a house on Camden Square – the perfect place for them to fulfil their dreams. But does she dare take the plunge, and risk it all for one last shot at the stars?



I’ve never read an A.L. Michael book I didn’t love so I was excited to start reading her latest novel, Goodbye Ruby Tuesday, which is book one in her new series The House on Camden Square. This one was a little bit of a slow starter for me but once it got going, I was completely engrossed and could not put my Kindle down. I just adore how the author’s books are always so contemporary, so fresh and different. Sure, the themes are the same as you would expect – romance, friendship, overcoming obstacles. But the characters, the settings, the scenarios, the depth to everything, the craft of the story and every other little thing is the reason I loved reading Goodbye Ruby Tuesday because I never felt like I’d read it all before. A.L. Michael delivers something new, relevant and absorbing every single time.

Ruby, Evie, Chelsea and Mollie were best friends for a few years at school, dreaming of bigger and better things. Like lots of school friends, they drifted apart and only Ruby appears to be living her dream of being famous and causing trouble, just like she’d predicted. Ten years on from school, Evie, Mollie and Chelsea are reunited at Ruby’s funeral and just as they’re attempting to accept the new people they’ve become, they discover that Ruby has left them a place in Camden Square where all the dreams they’d shared as teenagers could be brought to life.

I found the whole concept to this book to be something refreshingly different and having not read a scenario too similar to this one before, I was looking forward to seeing how things would play out if and when Evie, Chelsea and Mollie were persuaded to follow Ruby’s lead and return to their school-girl dreams.

Even though Ruby has already died before the timeline of this book begins, I loved getting to know her character through the way the other characters spoke about her and the small titbits we pick up on in flashbacks to their school years. Ruby definitely felt just as well-developed a character as the other girls and this allowed me to become really invested in the story as I bought into it and found myself wondering what Ruby would think if she could see how things were transpiring for the friends she lost contact with. Ruby was a very one-of-a-kind character who I didn’t feel like we missed out on connecting with because she had died – her whims, choices and presence were still felt (not in a supernatural way!) all throughout the book because of the memories Evie, Mollie and Chelsea shared.

I warmed to Evie, Chelsea and Mollie very quickly and enjoyed reading about their friendship and seeing them attempt to reconnect. Evie and Mollie hadn’t lost contact, as Evie was godmother to Mollie’s sweet daughter Esme, but they found that Chelsea represented something completely different than they would have expected having known her at school. Evie is the main character in Goodbye Ruby Tuesday but each of them had a big role in the story and they were all interesting and engaging. Predictably I also loved the inclusion of a bit of romance in this novel as the chemistry bounded off the pages. Also because I think I’ve just fallen for another fictional guy.

Goodbye Ruby Tuesday is a very character-driven book which works well because each character is vividly described and defies any labels. Rather than being “good girls” or typical cookie-cutter characters who are simply nice and likeable, Evie, Chelsea and Mollie are anything but. They are likeable but not in a forced way – I connected and rooted for them because of their flaws, because they weren’t just three women in need of a break. Instead, it was their mentalities and personalities that led the story and had me hooked.

Mostly, though, Goodbye Ruby Tuesday is a fresh, uplifting, and highly entertaining story – perfect to fill a day’s reading with. A.L. Michael’s style of storytelling has you trying to convince yourself one more chapter is enough – but it never is. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.







2 comments:

  1. I haven't read anything by this author but this is a great endorsement.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh you really should! Her books are great.

      Delete

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