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!

I really enjoyed reading this book, I enjoyed getting to know Ruby through this book. The plot was everything that I wanted and thought the characters were everything that I was searching for. Mandy Robotham wrote this perfectly and can’t wait to read more from her.

i had such a great time reading this book!! it was so fun. the characters were amazing and sweet and wonderful. it was just such a pure joy and i'm so very thankful to netgalley for letting me read this one early!!!

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.

Was a bit slow at times but overall a solid read. If you liked The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, this is right up your ally!

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!