If you asked Ruby, she'd tell you she's happy with her life. She's tough and independent and doesn't depend on anyone else. The road that has led her here has not been easy, and she's blocked a lot of it from her memory.
But things aren't as rosy as she would have everyone believe, and the road ahead of her is filled not only with gangs, drugs, and depression, but other challenges that Ruby hasn't even imagined.
—You know it’s a great book when you have to keep reminding yourself that the characters are not real people. I really cared about Ruby, and she gave me some bad moments. I desperately hoped her story would have a happy ending.
— "Ruby" exposes the complex and brutal relationship between mental illness, poverty and abuse … a page turner I had to finish
— “Ruby" really put me through the wringer and I actually had to put it down a few times because I needed to return to reality … There was no chance I was going to stop reading until I knew how the story ended! … I seriously can't wait for book two!
average 4.1 on Goodreads
There was a crash. Ruby jumped, and so did Mike, beside her.
"What was that?" he hissed, sitting up and fumbling on the bedside table, knocking things off. There was a blinding light in Ruby’s eyes, she couldn’t open them. She covered her eyes with her hand.
"Get your hands up, Mikey!" a harsh voice screamed.
Ruby tried to squint through her fingers to see what was going on. All that she could see was the light pointing at her eyes. She tried to shade her eyes from the light and turned aside to look at Mike. He was frozen, one hand on the nightstand, grasping for a gun that he must have knocked to the floor. He was as white as the sheet on the bed, his eyes wild.
"Mikey, Mikey... didn’t you hear me? I said get your hands up!" the voice screamed.
Mike slowly raised his hands. The light divided in two and one of the lights moved towards them. Mike started to lower his hands.
"Keep’em still," the voice warned. He approached on Ruby’s side of the bed. Ruby cowered back, trying to avoid him. She could just barely see his outline, his shadow, behind the light. He reached towards her. Ruby tried to avoid his grasp. He wrapped his fingers around her long, blond hair and jerked her towards him. Ruby winced in pain and couldn’t resist.
"This your girlfriend? She’s very cute."
"Leave her alone," Mike said shakily.
The hand in her hair jerked again, hard. Ruby choked back a cry. The light that the man was holding went out. Then there was a gun pressing against her temple. Ruby held her breath and tried not to blink her eyes, hoping that she wouldn’t cry.
"How’d you like us to kill her, Mikey?” the voice taunted. “What do you think of that?"
Mike swore quietly.
"Please..."
