Lock and Key

What can I really say. I loved this book to pieces. It's been a while since I can say that a book was picture perfect from beginning to end, but I really did find this book worked great. I had no issues with the writing, dialogue, plot, setting or pacing. I went and borrowed a ton of other Sarah Dessen books from the library as soon as I finished "Lock and Key." I read this for the "Key to My Heart" square for Romance Book Bingo 2017.

The main character in "Lock and Key" is Ruby Conner. Ruby is a senior at Jackson High School living in North Carolina. Through bits and pieces we find out that Ruby was in foster care temporarily after it becomes known that she is living alone and her mother is nowhere to be found. Placed with her older show more sister Cora that she hasn't seen in years, "Lock and Key" is really Ruby's journey learning to figure out what it truly means to be family, and how sometimes the hardest thing to do is stay and just support someone.

I freaking loved Ruby. I mean loved her. I wanted to hug her, give her some chocolate cake, and tell her that she is awesome. I have never fallen so quickly into another teen character's head since Harry Potter. Ruby's vulnerability and her general belief that she could take care of herself with help from no one we see get reworked from the beginning of the book to the end. Ruby and Cora's shaky relationship due to Ruby's belief that her sister had abandoned her we also see slowly changes through the course of the book. I loved that Dessen didn't just throw out hey Ruby you are wrong from other characters either. Ruby had to see and feel that her way or really her mother's way of acting was just not what she needed anymore. Ruby's reluctant friendship with Nate also got me too. I loved how she got to see that someone who she thought had a perfect life, really did not, and that her just saying this is too hard, was actually not what he or she needed.

All of the secondary characters got to shine in this too. I loved Nate. Man oh man, his backstory regarding his mother and his father was just heartbreaking. A kid who doesn't want to be in the situation he is, but doing the best he can until he is 18 and can be free.

Ruby's sister Cora was also such a great character. There is a scene when Cora's husband Jamie is rightfully angry and yelling at Ruby, and Cora steps in front of her like she did when they were kids and their mom was on a tear. I wanted to hug them both. We get to see that Cora is just as unsettled having what she considers a "good" life and not being used to things like huge family dinners, Christmas cards, etc.

I loved Harriet and Reggie, and heck pretty much everyone. Well except for Ruby's old friends at Jackson who she got to see for herself were not true blue friends at all.

The writing takes a look at a lot of things. Drug and alcohol abuse, child abuse, and even abandonment. Dessen does a good job of not prettying things up which I appreciated. I also applaud her since she writes Ruby really well. I have a hard time with some YA authors having teens talking like characters from Dawson's Creek.

That was always my big thing about that show, no one my age sounded that pretentious. Did we sound like asses though? Yes, all teens do at one time or the other.

The flow was great too. We pretty much get to see Ruby over a course of a school year til her graduation which I really appreciated. Spare me from books that have a character do a day/night change in a month or two. It's not realistic. It would have been great to see Ruby in her therapy sessions, but I was happy with what we got.

The setting of Lakeview, North Carolina sounded pretty polarizing. When Ruby is transferred from Jackson to what she considers the rich kid school, I was so happy we didn't see some Mean Girls shtick in this book. We got to see a lot of secondary characters there with tons of nuance as well.

The ending was really great. I can picture Ruby and now her family and her family of choice. I am going to see if Dessen ever follows up on Ruby and others from this book. It looks like she revisits the town of Lakeview in a lot of books, so it be nice to see a shout out to Ruby and other characters we have met. show less

Mostly loved this one.

When her mother disappears, nearly eighteen year old Ruby is sent to live with the sister who she hasn’t seen in a decade.

Boy next door Nate’s story concluded a little more hurriedly than I would have thought possible given the personality of a certain person in his life, but overall I was really pleased with the arc of the novel, the changes in Ruby emotionally, how it was a gradual process to let people in after years of relying on only herself, her journey had that two steps forward one step back quality that feels fairly realistic to me.

I loved how much the secondary characters added to and influenced Ruby’s story, the bond rebuilding between the sisters and the truth about Cora’s absence for the past show more ten years, Olivia’s gruff and secretly soft-hearted support, the ex girlfriend and the nerd who could have been stereotypes but happily were more than that, the boss who like Ruby struggles to lean on anyone else, and the friendship with Nate which mattered more than anything romantic (there is romance here but not at the forefront to the quite the same degree as a lot of contemporary YA).

And then there’s Jamie, I especially loved Jamie, Ruby’s brother-in-law, how he not only accepted Ruby, he very much welcomed her, and I loved the way he loved Cora, going overboard with holidays and really everything else to make up for the rough start his wife had in life, he’s easily one of my favorite nice guys in fiction. show less

What is family? That is the question posed to seventeen year old Ruby Cooper on her first day at the exclusive Perkins Day School. Sent to live with her estranged older sister and her husband after it is discovered her mother disappeared two months earlier, Ruby’s life is turned upside down. Ruby has lived an almost transient lifestyle with her mother, believing that her older sister, Cora, abandoned her without a second glance ten years earlier. Now that she has been reunited with Cora, Ruby is forced to face some truths about their past and their biological family. Along the way, she also learns that a person can have many families over time.

At the heart of nearly every Sarah Dessen novel is the story of a girl and a boy, and in show more Lock and Key, that boy is Nate Cross. Nate is the next-door neighbor of Cora and her husband Jamie, and the night that Ruby moves in, Nate hides the fact that Ruby was trying to run away from Jamie. As the novel develops, so does the relationship between Nate and Ruby, though Dessen shares the emotional connection rather than the physical. And while Nate rescues Ruby a few times at the beginning of the novel, his life falls apart while hers begins to come together. In the end, it is Ruby and Cora who must rescue Nate.

It is not plot, but characters, that drive Dessen’s novels. Her gift is in creating characters that the reader can identify with. This is certainly true of Ruby, who feels out of place in the perfect life her sister has created, and more at home in the large, anonymous crowds at her previous high school. Teens struggling to find their place in the world will relate to Ruby’s desire to control even one aspect of her life. On the whole, I found this to be a satisfying, engaging read, with the quality Dessen fans have come to expect. show less

"What is family? They were the people who claimed you. In good, in bad, in parts or in whole, they were the ones who showed up, who stayed there, regardless."
Seventeen-year-old Ruby has a plan...perhaps not a good plan, but it's better than nothing, at least that's what she tells yourself. Ruby's mother has disappeared and suddenly the authorities send Ruby to her sister Cora. When Cora lived at home, she made it her job to care for Ruby and protect her from their mother...but Cora's been gone for ten years, and Ruby's heard little from her since. This is anything but a happy reunion. Ruby doesn't want to let anyone in or let anyone close. She would rather just rely on herself. No one else is ever going let her down. So, she makes a show more plan to just stick it out at her sister's until she turns eighteen, then she's out of there. Then she discovers Nate...the cute next-door neighbor and he becomes the reason she stays. The night she met Nate she not only discovers that the whole world is not against her but leads her to begin to understand the true meaning of family. I think the best description of this one is definitely a "feel-good" story. show less

Sarah Dessen has a formula: lost, vulnerable female narrators learning how to love and be loved. The formula works so well on me. When Ruby‘s mom disappears, she finds herself living with the sister she thought had abandoned her. As she tries to settle into private school, new friendships, and an idyllic life with her sister and brother-in-law, she can‘t help but feel out of place and as if her new life is only temporary.

As her walls start to come down, she begins to realize that she‘s not the only one who needs some help and for at least one of her new friends, she is the only one equipped to give it. As always, Dessen‘s full cast of characters is well-drawn and relatable, and Ruby‘s journey from abandonment to belonging has show more the perfectly satisfying emotional arc I‘ve come to expect from Sarah Dessen at her best. show less

Sarah Dessen is a mastermind at writing heart felt young adult books. This was my first time reading this one and it quickly became one of my favorites. The content touched on so many real struggles and the emotions ran deep. The words held me captive and the vulnerability had me clinging to the pages. It followed the normal Dessen flow, but brought new flaws into focus.

Ruby is abandoned by her mother and has to fend for herself. The bills weigh her down and housework becomes her turmoil. When social services takes her away, it's her long lost sister that comes to her rescue. It's all confusing and a tad overwhelming... Ruby has a hard time adapting to her new life of letting people in and learning to trust. The cute neighbor next door show more ends up being her undoing. While at first it's a friendship built on secrets, slowly it progresses to a deep rooted relationship that turns into so much more. Together they expose their demons and help one another conquer them. It's a story of family issues, new friendships, and first love.

While most of the book was your average teen read, there was also a strong focus on adult issues that made this book appealing to diverse readers. Being a woman that struggles with infertility, I found the parts about Clara to be really insightful. I felt connected in an emotional sense and comforted by the similar battle. This topic gets overlooked so much... It's always made out that pregnancy is easy, so shining a light on the darkness really made me appreciate the book that much more. I highly recommend it! show less

I really enjoyed Lock and Key. The characters seemed so real, and they really made me feel. I felt sad and lonely and happy and many other emotions throughout the course of the book. I didn't always agree with the things that Ruby did or said, but I definitely understood why she did them. The romance and friendship between her and Nate wasn't necessarily easy, but it was really sweet. I think Sarah Dessen did a really good job exploring Ruby's difficult situation.