RUBY TUESDAY
Jennifer Anne Kogler
HarperCollins
Fiction
ISBN: 0060739568
320 pages

• Read an Excerpt

It's natural to have an annoying name and not understand your parents, but Ruby Tuesday Sweet has it worse than anyone else. When your father is a bookie, your mother is more in love with rock 'n' roll than you, and you've always called your father's bookie "Uncle" Larry, your life is far from normal. But oddly enough, Ruby Tuesday considers it normal, until the day Uncle Larry is murdered and her life turns upside down.

This is the premise for Jennifer Anne Kogler's debut novel, RUBY TUESDAY. The Dodgers have just won the 1988 World Series and Ruby's father made a hefty bet on the outcome. When his bookie turns up dead and he becomes a suspect, Ruby's mother Darlene is called in to take Ruby away until things cool down.

Darlene takes her daughter to Las Vegas to try to keep a few steps ahead of the men following them. There, Ruby sees her grandmother, Nana Sue, in her element: the elderly woman has been "visiting" Las Vegas for twenty years and goes to the casinos to play Blackjack with her pet iguana, named Twenty-one.

Throughout her adventure, which takes her from home to Vegas to home again, Ruby learns about her family, and why things are the way they are. What was it that made her mom decide to leave her family and choose a life of rock 'n' roll? And why did her father become a handicapper?

Ruby is a completely believable character. Tweens, teens, and adults all can enjoy this story for its realistic aspects. Ruby narrates, and you'll feel as if you're running alongside her every step of the way. This well-written novel has enough adventure, emotion, and new places to make you want to travel the world and meet people as interesting as the ones in Ruby's family.

   --- Reviewed by Hannah Gomez (gingermulatta@kiwibox.com)

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