Following the tragic death of her husband, Olivia, a grieving New York City milliner, desperately struggles to rebuild her life, until she meets Ruby, a young, pregnant delinquent abandoned by her family, who takes up residence in Olivia's Rhode Island beach house. 30,000 first printing. Tour. In the year since her husband David was hit by a car and killed while jogging at their Rhode Island summer place, Olivia hasn't come to terms with his senseless death. She's the "consumed by grief" poster child, disturbed that he'd gone jogging when she'd turned away from lovemaking that fateful morning. She's about to sell the summer house when Ruby, a pregnant, 15-year-old runaway, arrives on her doorstep. The teen's a hard case: sullen, deceptive, manipulative, pot-smoking, and a thief. But she's carrying what Olivia wants, the baby she and David never got around to making. Hood's deft characterizations and insight into tangled motivations make for brisk, realistic storytelling. She's Barbara Kinsolver without the whimsy. Olivia and Ruby, both troubled souls, aren't easy to like, and the ending's fittingly anticlimactic. The author of five previous, critically acclaimed novels, her Somewhere Off The Coast Of Maine will be re-released simultaneously with Ruby. Recommended for all libraries.? Jo Manning, formerly Reader's Digest Lib., Miami Beach Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. paper 0-312-19555-9 A widow and a teenager form a friendship that helps both move ahead with their lives. Livia meets David when he walks into her East Village hat shop as she's dancing alone to the strains of ``They Can't Take That Away from Me.'' Four months later, the newlyweds marry at City Hall, accompanied by Olivia's cat Arthur dressed in a custom-made top hat. They settle into cozy domesticity, buying a beach house in Rhode Island, painting each other's toenails, reveling in their shared love for Stickley chairs, Leonard Cohen songs, and Disneyland (``but not Disney World''). The extreme preciosity of this version of marital bliss makes it hard to share Olivia's devastation when, a scant year later, David is hit by a car while joggingespecially since Hoods depiction of mourning is as schematic as her characterizations. The story picks up, however, when Olivia discovers 15-year-old Ruby sitting in the kitchen of the beach house. Pregnant and unmarried, Ruby has been thrown out by her working-class mother; her college-student boyfriend seems unlikely to provide much support, either. Olivia decides that adopting Rubys baby will give her a reason to go on living, and Ruby agrees to the plan, though it's clear that this believably flaky teenager can't be relied on to stick to any decision. Hood makes nice use of physical detail to show Olivia slowly regaining her appetite for lifedue less to impending motherhood than to her growing fondness for Ruby, who also gains a new sense of the possibilities open to her from observing Olivia's more privileged existence. The storys unexpectedly touching denouement commendably resists the temptation to provide easy, feel-good resolutions. Not the most profound exploration of grief and loss, but once past the cutesy set-up, veteran Hood (Places to Stay the Night, 1993, etc.) provides a solid tale and several genuinely affecting moments. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. ...Hood's caustic wit, brightly detailed prose and thoughtful delineations of two women struggling with private, powerful regrets supply Ruby with rich and surprising emotional depths. -- The New York Times Book Review , Megan Harlan After the tragic death of her husband of barely one year, Olivia, a milliner from New York City, must begin rebuilding her life. Ordinarily a vivacious and strong woman, she finds herself unable to surmount her grief...until she meets Ruby. Young, pregnant, and delinquent, Ruby trespasses and enters the seemingly uninhabited Rhode Island beach house in which Olivia and her late husband had planned to build their life together. Abandoned by her family, Ruby has no home and seems far too immature to care for the baby Olivia so strongly desires. With her eye on the adoption of the newborn, Olivia offers the rebellious teen a place to stay. An unlikely friendship is forged as Olivia nurtures Ruby and her unborn child and experiences the daily challenges presented by a wayward teen, who may or may not teach Olivia how to live again. Ann Hood is the author of six other novels: RUBY (Picador USA), WAITING TO VANISH, THREE LEGGED HORSE, SOMETHING BLUE, PLACES TO STAY THE NIGHT, and THE PROPERTIES OF WATER. She lives in Rhode Island with her husband and two children.