Lock and Key

Cover

Title: Lock and Key

Author: Sarah Dessen

Summary: Ruby knows she can make it. She only has a few months left before she turns 18, and as long as she can keep up with the bills, her schoolwork, and her full-time overnight job, no one will find out that she has been living alone since her mother abandoned her. When her landlords figure out what has been going on, Ruby is whisked away to live her her estranged older sister Cora and her wealthy husband. The only reminder she has of her old life is the key around her neck – the key to her old house, her old friends, and her old, risky habits. Ruby has always believed that you have to protect yourself, and not let yourself get too close to anyone. But now she is surrounded by something she has never known: A loving family and new friends who won’t let her seal herself off. Can they unlock Ruby’s heart, or will she go back to being a one-woman operation?

I’ve never read anything by Sarah Dessen before, and this book had me hooked from the first page. Ruby is a  funny, brutally honest character, and you will be rooting for her the whole way through her journey. It isn’t too dramatic or too sensational – it is realistic fiction at it’s best.

Who will like this book: Fans of realistic fiction and coming of age stories. Don’t let the pale pink cover fool you – this is a great book even for girls who despise ‘chick lit.’

If you like this, try this: Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiacby Gabrielle Zevin. Story of a Girlby Sara Zarr.

Recommended by: Nicole, Teen Librarian