Ruby's finding out that life is all about improv . . . Small-town girl Ruby Madden has moved to Marin County, California; home of high-dollar homes and green living. The girls wear shoes that cost more than her entire paycheck at the Underground Coffeehouse & Theater, and the students are well-traveled and full of life experiences that Ruby can only dream of. All the stresses of adjusting to her new life have put a strain on her ability to trust God. Yet when mysterious and eye-catching Kaden invites Ruby to join the school's film group, the puzzle pieces start to fit. Her love of art finds perfect expression and the film friends seem to really get her. When a major Hollywood director hosts an amateur film contest, Ruby and her friends are stoked. But Ruby's old life is tugging her backward and her frantic balancing act throws her new life totally off track. To top things off, Ruby makes a mistake that could cost her the chance of a lifetime. Life would be so much easier if Ruby just had a script to follow with a happy ending guaranteed. But what's the fun in that? Grade 7–10—Fifteen-year-old Ruby, her mom, her new stepfather, and her younger brother move to Marin County, CA, just before school begins. Her older brother, on whom she depends, has decided to stay in Cottonwood, several hours away, with their father and stepmother. Ruby feels alone and is upset with her parents for divorcing. Even though her Christian family is religious, she questions the nature of faith, and she struggles to make sense of her situation. Marin High is filled with students who are rich and privileged. While working part-time at her aunt's Underground Coffeehouse & Theater, she joins a group of film students who are making a movie, and her enthusiasm is ignited. Throughout the novel, Ruby remains reflective, and she begins to resolve her conflicted feelings about the past and the present. Readers will enjoy this comforting and current coming-of-age story.— Lori A. Guenthner, Baltimore County Public Library, Randallstown, MD Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Ruby Unscripted Life is what happens when you lose the script By Cindy Martinusen-Coloma Thomas Nelson Copyright © 2009 Cindy Martinusen-Coloma All right reserved. ISBN: 978-1-59554-356-1 Chapter One " Now he likes me?" I say aloud as I drop my phone to my lap and my heart does a strange little tuck and roll within my chest. My ten-year-old brother, Mac, gives me a strange look from the seat beside me. With the top down in my aunt's convertible, he can't hear my words that are cast into the air to dance with the wind. The orange towers of the Golden Gate Bridge loom toward us, with the darkening blue of sky and water filling the spaces between. Aunt Jenna is driving, with Mom talking beside her. So it's finally true. Nick likes me. I think I'm happy. Everyone will expect me to be happy. It's not been a secret that I've liked him for ... well, ever. Or at least for a few months. And yet I have a very good reason for being completely annoyed about this. The text stating Nick's indirect admission of love, or at least "like," arrives as we're leaving an afternoon in San Francisco behind. But we aren't driving the four hours home to Cottonwood. We're driving toward our new life in Marin County. Everyone at school knew that Nick liked me for a long time. His friends and my friends knew it. I knew it. But Nick apparently didn't know his own feelings. Why can't guys just trust others on these things? I pick up my phone and reply to Kate's text. ME: Is Nick still standing there? KATE: No. I think it freaked him out to wait for your response. The guys went to play Alien Hunter III before the movie starts. So what do you think? Patience paid off. ME: I'm trying not to think that guys are really as dumb as most of us say they are. KATE: Huh? ME: Really now. I mean NOW. He says this on the day I move away? KATE: Well you'll be home most every weekend so it's not that bad. ME: But think about it. What made him decide today? KATE: Who cares? He finally figured out he can't live without you. The car cruises along the bridge, and I stare up at the massive orange beams over our heads. Then I catch sight of a sailboat as it dips and bows on the evening waters of San Francisco Bay. My brother is shout-talking to my mom and aunt. And with one earbud pulled out, I catch bits of the discussion being tossed around the car as the wind twists my hair into knots. The topic is "If you had one wish, what would you wish for?" What poetic irony. Five minutes ago I would've wished that Nick would like me ... and like some psychic genie working even before I wished it, the text arrived from Kate: "Nick said . . ." So Nick likes me after I move four hours and a world away. He likes me the day after I say good-bye to him and all my friends in Cottonwood. I scroll back throu