I'm Not Julia Roberts

Booklist

Riffing on the idyllic view of blended families presented in the movie Stepmom, starring Julia Roberts, Ruby offers a more rueful, realistic, way-funnier version as bitter ex-wives, angry teenagers, and beleaguered second wives attempt to wade through daily negotiations involving clashing schedules and wounded feelings...novelist Ruby captures both warring emotions and fleeting moments of connection in this smart take on fractured families.

Booklist

Ruby captures both warring emotions and fleeting moments of connection in this smart take on fractured families.

People

...mordant, well-observed. Ruby makes hilariously, heart-wrenchingly clear that breaking up is hard to do.

Redbook

When it comes to emotional baggage, the extended clan in I'm Not Julia Roberts by Laura Ruby needs a full set to carry all their issues. This hilarious story of blended-family tumult will make you see your own brood in an entirely new light.

Publishers Weekly

Ruby, whose third YA novel Good Girls is due this fall, starts off with a fresh, sardonic wit in this linked collection of divorce stories, but the unnerving stepchildren, sordid affairs and malevolent exes soon begin to blur. Suburban, self-absorbed Lu ("Lupe Klein, neither Hispanic nor Jewish") never expected to play mother to Ward Harrison's three complicated sons or have to deal with his ex-wife, Beatrix. While Beatrix is in a state of blind marital bliss with her new husband, Alan, she is not ready for Alan's mean-spirited, teenage daughter, Liv. Liv's mother, Roxie, not yet remarried but dating her friend Moira's unscrupulous ex-, Tate, is desperately trying to figure out how to balance her relationship with Tate while maintaining her bond with Liv. There are five couples in all, including Moira and second husband Ben, and Tate's sister Glynn (divorced from Derek) and her second husband, George plus assorted children. A chapter moving backward in time and composed of e-mails, instant messages and snail mail detailing their entanglements is more disorienting than anything else. (Jan.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

The title refers to actress Julia Roberts's role, all wide-eyed and naïve, in the 1998 film Stepmom. Are real-life stepmothers truly this way? In ten interlocking stories, children's book author Ruby, a stepmom herself, attempts to find out. Lu married Ward, who has three boys, two of them teenagers. Not only does she have to deal with these three difficulties, but Ward's ex, Beatrix, can be a ruthless troublemaker. Then we see into Beatrix's life, which includes a new husband and trying stepdaughter, Liv. Then onto Liv's mother, Roxie, whose dating life is always dramatic. And the connections between each story flow on, letting the reader experience second marriage and stepparenting from many different perspectives. These connections work very well, with the reader able to follow easily. The characters often appear in one another's stories, making for a fun read. And while the demanding times of all the stepmoms may make you vow never to get divorced (or to marry someone with children), some glimmer of peace and understanding shines through. Considering that the first wave of Bridget Jones-like characters is approaching the age of divorce and remarriage, this charming book will find an audience. Recommended for public libraries.
—Beth Gibbs

Kirkus Reviews

Five suburban step-families fall apart and reconnect in ten linked stories. Pencil and paper ready? Here goes: Lu married Ward after Beatrix divorced him to marry Alan, who divorced Roxie to tie the knot. Moira married Ben after divorcing Tate, who now dates Roxie (see above). Tate's sister Glynn, Moira's ex-sister-in-law, married George. And then there are the kids: Liv, Alan and Roxie's truculent, too-thin teenage daughter; Ward and Beatrix's three sons: Devin, who refuses to speak in the presence of either parent, Britt, master of sarcasm, and Ollie, who cries; Ryan, Moira and Tate's OCD handful, and Ashleigh, their 15-year-old sexpot (she dates Devin; see above); and Joey, Glynn's son, who has more in common with Glynn's new husband-especially a love of "Mortal Kombat" video games-than with her. Everyone lives nearby, in Oak Park, Ill. In the first three stories, "Loopy," "Restoration" and "Ballad of the Barbie Feet," YA novelist Ruby (Good Girls, Sept. 2006, etc.) begins to develop her many characters by moving a peripheral player from one story to the center in the next, and so on in the third. This deft technique deepens the stories' competing personalities by letting the reader weigh the characters' opinions about each other. Unfortunately, this daisy chain of narrative revelation breaks with the gimmicky fourth story, "Dear Psycho," the collection's weakest link. The remaining six stories, hampered by too many character sketches standing in for characters, are hit-or-miss: "Picture of Health" stretches so far out on one family tree's limb-it introduces the girlfriend of a dead cousin-that its relevance to the whole fails to register. "Hug Machine" undermines Lu, otherwise themost appealing character of the lot. Only the title story, "I'm Not Julia Roberts," in which a current and a former wife attempt to have an impossible conversation (think of the movie Stepmom), returns to the same storytelling ‚lan of the opening three. An uneven collection from a writer who shows promise.