Real Live Boyfriends (Ruby Oliver, #4)

by E. Lockhart

[Stephanie]

Ruby now has a real live boyfriend, Noel, and she is in love. That is until Noel stops calling her and answering her emails while he's on a trip to New York to visit his brother. When Noel gets back from New York, he acts like nothing is different, and tries to go on without explaining anything to Ruby. And that drives Ruby insane. Why wasn't he answering any of her phone calls? Why wasn't he emailing her back? Why was he ignoring her? And he has the audacity to act like nothing has happened? On top of that, Ruby's dad is depressed and not bathing, and Ruby's mom is experimenting with meat in the kitchen every night when she knows Ruby is a vegetarian.

This is the fourth and last of the Ruby Oliver books. All though it wasn't my favorite, it still had the Ruby Oliver humor to it that makes reading it just as enjoyable as the rest. When I first started reading, I really wished I read the first three over again to refresh my memory, but I didn't, so I was a little out of it in the beginning. Which may or may not have had an effect on how I felt about the book overall.

I really got annoyed by Ruby's mom. It seemed like Ruby and her mom switched places at times and her mom was the teen and Ruby was the mom. Ruby's dad is depressed after his mom (Rudy's Grandma) passed away and cries in his dinner and doesn't move away from the couch for days. The story involves a lot of sad characters (OK, maybe only 3 characters, but oh well). That's just what I remember the most. It seemed like the book had a sad atmosphere for the majority of the story. But then again, that's how life is, right? And the whole reason I love this series is because it's realistic enough that anyone can relate.

Real Live Boyfriends was a great ending to the Ruby Oliver series and I will be happy to reread the series as a whole next time.

Also, it really bugs me that this book cover does not match the rest of my books in this series. They just HAD to change the covers! Not that I don't like the new covers, I just don't like that this book doesn't match the rest of the books I own in this series.