Rated YA-MA discussion

Ruby Oliver series




Stand Alone Books

thanks for adding these!

I was thinking of you. :) I do want to read the books because you gave them such high praise!

These are fun books, all in all.

Are they light and humorous? I have a few heavy reads planned, so I might need to find something to break them up with.

Stacia wrote: "Are they light and humorous? I have a few heavy reads planned, so I might need to find something to break them up with."

all four books are rather quick reads... definitely funny. ruby is the definition of quirk. she's a little self absorbed, in dire need of perspective and of better people around her. :)

Yeah, they're definitely light. Ruby is self absorbed and obsessed with boys, definitely a teenage girl, but so much fun.

I had no idea that this was a series!! I loved The Boyfriend List. I'll have to check the rest of these out.

Fly on the Wall is also really good.

Loved the Ruby series! soooo good.

Interesting. I never came back and commented after reading book 1.

I thought it was cute, but I had a hard time relating because I was never that innocent in high school (and neither were most of my friends). I was pretty much sexually active and doing unsavory things by the time I was Ruby's age, so watching her dotting her i's with hearts and musing about kissing different boys felt more like how I was at age 12, not her age.

But I did think it was cute and funny at times. The parents' neurotic behavior was the best part.

It improves with each book IMO Stacia. It grew on me.

Just went back and read my review. I also thought the footnotes were hilarious.

I will also say I was pretty innocent until around age 16 and then got into the party scene - so since Ruby is 15 here I could see being innocent at that age.

Oh, I definitely don't discount that! I'm sure a lot of girls are caught at that age between the realm of learning and knowing. I just had a very hard time relating because I was sneaking out and crossing county lines with shady boys by that point.

(I had a very - as in obsessively - sheltered childhood, so I'm sure some of that was a big middle finger to my parents)

I snuck out quite a bit myself! I would recommend you give book two in the series a try one day because IMO the series gets better with each book :)

I might have to if you think they get better.

I think the author's name is Lockhart?
But, on topic, I've only read We Were Liars, I hadn't realized she had so many books. I'm not anxious to check out more from her just based on my feelings from what I've read. I don't know, though. It wasn't like the writing was bad.

ok, I don't know what I was missing, I tried We Were Liars and ended up putting it aside about 60pgs (2CD's in) - it just wasn't grabbing me, but everyone seems to rave

I feel similarly about We Were Liars. Everyone hyped it up, and I was expecting something mind blowing. The story was okay, the ending was good, but the writing was... I don't know. It felt very middle grade to me. If I was 11 reading this, my head would have exploded. But as an adult, the writing lacked crossover appeal. I know that might be purposeful (because her accident took her out of commission), but idk, it didn't feel authentic.

But the ending made the book worthwhile. If it hadn't been as hyped up, I think I might have liked it better.

I really liked the fairytale bits at the beginning of some of the chapters but the rest was pretty meh to me. And I didn't find the twist so shocking or worthwhile in all honesty.