Ruby McQueen never thought that a guy like Travis Becker would notice her. He’s rich, timelessly beautiful, and he has a motorcycle. Travis brings out a side of her that Ruby doesn’t recognize and isn’t 100% sure that she likes. As Ruby gets in deeper with Travis, she starts to pull away from her family and others who love her. She knows Travis is bad for her, but she can’t seem to make herself stay away.
I felt like I could really relate to this book. In my case, it was just a friend in high school who wasn’t that great for me. In hindsight, I can definitely see that I should’ve broken the friendship off much sooner than I did, but at the time it was kind of exciting. In this book, we see Ruby make a series of bad decisions. We know they’re bad, she knows they’re bad, but we have to watch her make them anyway. It’s frustrating at times, but because of my past experiences, I feel like I understand why she makes the decisions she does. She knows that her family loves her, but all the same, I think she feels a little neglected by her mom. Ruby’s looking for someone to give her attention and make her feel special–even if that person isn’t doing it in the right away.
“Sometimes we are so convinced someone is throwing us a life preserver that we don’t notice that what they are actually doing is drowning us.”
I thought this book was great. It was messy and the characters are far from perfect. Like I said earlier, I feel like Ruby is very relatable and all of the secondary characters are on point. Chip Jr is definitely my favorite. He’s so smart and I love that he and Ruby are on the same team! He actually reminds me a lot of my little brother so I particularly enjoyed his character. I also love the Casserole Queens. What a riot! I was literally laughing out loud the entire time during the “old folks home breakout” scene. Another character that I want to give a shout out to is the dog, Poe. Poe is seriously indescribable.
This book made me think about things from Travis’ perspective as well as Ruby’s. What did Travis want with Ruby? What drew him to her? Is everything just a game to him or does he really care for her? They’re so different and we’re given a closeup look to what Ruby sees in Travis, but I really wonder about the other way around.
Overall, I really liked this book. Fun characters, real story, awesome community/family moments. It left me so satisfied–a great summer read.
Overall Rating: 5
Violence: Mild
Language: Moderate
Sexual Content: Mild
Smoking/Drinking: Mild
What's She Reading? 