Ruby

A Midwestern girl named for the jewel that is believed to ward off evil spirits, Ruby has a sixth sense that makes her at one with nature and gives her the ability to know her own fate. After growing up in an abusive family, Ruby escapes to Los Angeles and learns of her soul mate, Orion, a British actor. She travels to England, where she works at a potions and herbs shop, and through a series of coincidental circumstances, she ends up nursing Orion back to health without confessing that she has been on a quest to find him all along. But just when she thinks her dream is becoming a reality, Ruby is stopped in her tracks by the violent demons of her past. Only by facing the darkness together can she and Orion finally fulfill their destiny. Francesca Lia Block, the beloved author of the Weetzie Bat series and Necklace of Kisses, and cowriter Carmen Staton enchant us with a modern-day fairy tale featuring an unforgettable heroine in a world both shockingly real and transcendently magical—a breathtaking story of the power of our minds to overcome the past and ultimately change the course of our lives.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Fiction, Romance, Fantasy. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.