Goodbye Ruby Tuesday by A. L. Michael (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

Friday 56 (share from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice
& Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader

Amazon Description

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 fulfill their dreams. But does she dare take the plunge, and risk it all for one last shot at the stars?

Right now I'm only at the 40% mark of the book and even so I'm already loving it and already looking forward to getting my grubby little mitts on the next book in the House on Camden Square series.  Oh ... wait ... I just DID get my grubby little mitts on it thanks to NetGalley! (Like, seriously ... I got the notification on my phone as I was typing this on the computer. Bonus!) Maybe you'll be getting graced with blips from that next Friday!

Anyway, Goodbye Ruby Tuesday. It may already be one of my favorite books of the year even though I'm not yet half way through. I adore the flashbacks and memories of Ruby and how Evie describes her:

'She was Lula Mae in Breakfast at Tiffany's and Dorothy on the yellow brick road. Although she hated the idea that anyone would choose to go back to monochrome.' (26%)

Heck, just having the mention of Lula Mae made big bonus points for me! Everyone's always all about Holly Golightly without really talking about Lula Mae at all (and yes, there is a decided difference) .... but I'm getting off track (again).

My absolute favorite thing about the book, though, is Mollie's ten-year-old daughter and Evie's goddaughter, Esme. She's a book nerd. She speaks her mind. She's wise beyond her years. She's what I always imagined my daughter would be like if I had one. Heck, she even uses my favorite "not my circus, not my monkeys" bit and in the most clever of ways.

'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I'm just tired of people treating me like a kid.'

'You are a kid,' Killian snorted.

 Esme frowned at him, looking up in irritation, 'Not your monkeys!' (36%)

I adore her. I've even already told A.L. Michael that I want Esme to have a sequel all of her own when she's grown up. 

Luckily, so far I adore everything else about the book as well. Well, I'm not so sure about Chelsea yet, but she has 60% to come around and the next book does appear to be focused more on her so I'm holding out hope ....

I'll let you know in a week!