At age 62, Ruby is the oldest of the women in the Newport Ladies Book Club, she's also the founder, holding most meetings at her home. To those who see her, Ruby has lived a perfect life. She was married to a man who appears to have been a great guy, they had a great son, and now Ruby appears to live the perfect life. But what most people don't know or see is just how hard her life really has been. Ruby's husband cheated on her for over 30 years, and Ruby knew about most of them, she even has a box with mementos from each of the women. But Ruby also has a dark secret to do with her husband, a secret that she doesn't want anyone to ever know about. Ruby never plans to find love again. But sometimes plans change without the planner ever wanting them to. Ruby gets involved in the local senior center and before she knows it, she's signed up to go on a 2 week trip to Greece with them. It's in Greece that she meets a very handsome man who also happens to be the tour guide for the group, Gabriel. He's Greek, and romantic, really anything a woman can want, but Ruby has no desire to ever open her heart again.
I really enjoyed this book, Ruby is really what the perfect grandmotherly figure should be. She's a great cook, she loves to read, and she's really well traveled. I liked that it was obvious from the beginning that Ruby isn't perfect, if she was a perfect character she would probably be really annoying. But like all of us, Ruby has parts of her that she isn't proud of and that she really doesn't want anyone else to see. What she learns over the course of her adventure is that sometimes it's really important to open up and let someone else see even the dark parts that you don't want anyone else to see, because that's really what bonds us to each other. I love this series, this is the second set and this one and Shannon's Hope, plus the two unreleased books all cover the same time period, so it doesn't matter what order you read them in. Reading all 4 of the books in the set will give you a pretty complete picture of how all the women were feeling during the time period. This is a great series!
I was sent an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Buy your own copy at Deseret Book: online or in stores, also in LDS bookstores everywhere.Labels: clean fiction, Heather B Moore, Newport Ladies Book Club
