Reminiscent of Evelyn Hugo. Emotional and really beautiful especially in the second half (after 1968). The Jude storyline was both touching and sad — but rounding out the story perfectly.

I enjoyed this book for the first half and then around 2/3s in I just hit a point where I lost my connection with the main character. She experiences every possible relationship trope within this book and it was just too much for me. I wish there had been less love interests throughout this book. I was also expecting a bit more social drama for the title being Scandalous Life, but throughout she doesn't really face much of what I'd consider scandal. She definitely lives a very eventful life to say the least, but it went past of the point of realistic and made it hard to keep interest. She lived a completely different life with every man and outside of her being an author it didn't feel like the story was about the same person throughout the read. It felt like a bunch of short stories about different relationships. I didn't hate it but it definitely wasn't what I was expecting.

I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Not quite the book for me, The writing style just could not keep my interest and the pace was a tad too slow

I read this book in one day. Cover to cover. It's giving The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins, and I mean that in the best way possible. The writing was excellent and the made you want to keep turning the page. This book takes the reader on a journey through the protagonist's 90 years of life and the 12 men she met along the way. She is charismatic and the author really transplanted you in each of the stories. Fantastic read!

This feels like a grab - a reworking of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. The book was way too long, and some of the editing makes things challenging as a reader. I found it hard to stay engaged, and found myself just flipping pages and scanning rather than enjoying the story. I think if this was edited down to be more concise, it would be a lot better.

This book was very slow moving. Towards the end it seemed to drag on. It had some good parts and was well written but I found it hard to keep my attention.

This was a book that was far too long. Ruby came across as a spoiled, vain woman who had to much time to spend galavanting. As much as she wanted to be a woman of the world, she depended on the connetion she had made with Harvey for the majority of her grown life. While I know she eventually made her own way, she very much took advantage of his friendship and used it to live life as she wanted..

The Scandalous Life of Ruby Deavereaux ( I read the book under the title Ruby Devereaux: A Life in Twelve Men) is a book that had me laughing with Ruby, crying with her and cheering her on.

Everyone needs a Ruby in their life.

Ruby is 90 and about to write her final book as stipulated in her contract with her publisher.

Ruby's story is a fascinating one that indeed does include 12 men and we watch, laugh, cry, sometimes cringe but always admire her character and the life lessons learned on the way.

Its a journey that the reader simply must take for themselves to get the full benefit of Ruby's lessons learned and losses faced.

The Scandalous Life of Ruby Devereaux ( or either title ) I predict will be a Book Club choice for many clubs once published.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA, Aria for the privilege of reading and reviewing this book that I hated to finish.

I wasn't really a fan of this book. Very little character development and if you didn't like one of the twelve men, you were then "stuck" until you finished the chapter. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC!

"I thought this was really well written and I look forward to reading more from this author in the future. I think it will find readers at our library, so we will definitely be purchasing for the collection.

I was really looking forward to this book after loving The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, but it ended up being way too long. The editing was another hiccup—there were lots of spacing issues that made the text hard to navigate. Hopefully, that gets fixed in future editions.

Big thanks to Bloomsbury and Netgalley for letting me dive into this one!

Ruby's story- spanning decades- is told through her relationships with 12 men in this novel that skims the surface of history. I've been a fan of Robotham's WWII novels but this one didn't evoke the same feelings because I never had a good sense of any of the characters,,even Ruby. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It's good to see an author shift gears but this didn't engage me.

3.5/4 stars. 'Ruby M. Devereaux: A Life in Twelve Men' tells the story of 12 men who marked 12 chapters of the main character, Ruby's, life. Some of these chapters were better than others, my favorite being about Daz, and my least favorite probably being the one set in Vietnam.

My main critique of this book is how reminiscent it is of Taylor Jenkins Reid's 'The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.' While the individual story lines of each man are very different, the premise of the book remains almost identical. In The Seven Husbands, there's a writer who's tasked with getting a cover story of a semi-aloof celebrity; each chapter is a different one of Evelyn's husbands, and those chapters are interspersed with current-day dialogue between the writer and Evelyn, who's finally ready to do a tell-all after all these years. In Robotham's 'Ruby M. Devereaux,' you replace writer with book agent and husbands with 'men,' and you get an almost identical book - even down to the minor plot-twist of an ending where a shocking turn of events comes straight out of left-field.

This leads me to my second critique of the book, where I found the storyline involving Jude to be almost unnecessary to the rest of the book. He's linked back to 1 of the 12 men... and distantly related at that... This just felt unnecessary.

Overall, I would recommend this book to others, but probably not if they have read 'The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo' recently.

I enjoyed this one a lot. It was different than I was expecting, but that kept it really interesting. I liked that all the relationships weren't romantic and it showed that not every relationship has to turn into something romantic.
I liked Ruby, I thought she was a good character. And I felt that Marina learns a lot about life and love from Ruby.
I can see this one succeeding and getting a lot of attention.
Thanks NetGalley for this ARC!

When I read the premise of this book, I thought I would love it, much like I did the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Unfortunately, I found that the length of this book was far too long and would probably benefit from cutting 2-3 men from the 12. Storywise, I look at Ruby a bit like I do Forrest Gump, she is always in the most spectacular places at the right time (sometimes the same place as Gump). It really took me away from the story as I don't think there is a way one person could find herself in so many important places with important people, even when famous.

However, I absolutely adored the fact that not all the men were lovers, demonstrating the different relationships men and women can have with one another. I adored those chapter the most.

Lastly, the editing in this book was rather painful. Almost every page has an issue with the spacing where the words run together into one word. It drove me crazy trying to figure out what the sentence was supposed to say. I hope future electronic editions of this book takes those out!

Thank you to Bloomsbury and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book!