The Ruby Notebook

Sixteen-year-old Zeeta and her flighty English-teaching mom Layla have traveled the world together settling in a different country every year making a whole new set of friends and adopting new customs. This year theyve chosen to live in Aix-en-Provence France an enchanting city full of fountains creamy yellow light and a fascinating group of scarlet-clad street performers.Zeeta soon begins to receive mysterious notes and gifts from someone she calls her fantmeor ghost admirer. But she is expecting her boyfriend Wendellthe love of her life as her friends call himto arrive in Aix for a summer program very soon. Zeeta brushes off her curiosity about her fantmeand her simmering attraction to one of the street performers Jean-Claude until Wendell arrives and she begins to fear that her feelings for him have truly changed. Perhapslike Laylashes simply not made for long-term romance.As Zeeta tries to draw away from Wendell however circumstances seem to force them together. Zeetas friendship with a local antiques dealer and his reclusive artist friend leads to a dangerous adventure. When Zeeta and Wendell join forces to find a secret underground spring whose water is rumored to bring immortality they are forced to reconsider their own desires and their beliefs about true love. Yet as soon as Zeeta decides that her mind has cleared shes confronted with the biggest shock of her life: the incredible true identity of her fantme.Vibrant warmhearted and evocative The Ruby Notebookis a remarkable novel about learning to accept love in all of its wondrous and imperfect forms.