First of all, I have to say thank you to Magan (half of the amazing blogging duo at Rather Be Reading) for her recommendation of this novel. Magan wrote an amazing review of the entire series last month (seriously, check it out, it's in LIST FORMAT -- how cool is that?) and I immediately wanted to jump aboard the Ruby Oliver train. I'm glad I did.Before I express my love for the book, let's talk about the covers. I usually post the cover of the edition that I read in my review, but I had to include both in this one. The top picture, the one with the girl on the cover, is the version that I read, which is a newer cover release. Although both covers were in the library, I chose the newer one because the book looked unread. (I do make frequent use of my library, but I usually prefer to peruse the "new titles" section on the website and put books on hold that are still on order, so that I'm the first one to read them and other people haven't had their dirty paws on the book. Have you ever read a library book where all of a sudden there's some smudge on a page and you have no idea what said smudge is? Ew. Ew ew ew. The copy with the frog cover looked like it had been read a million times by LOTS of dirty hands, so I opted for the cleaner book). I have to say that I prefer the frog cover for three reasons: 1) ceramic frogs are part of the title, 2) the frog is so freakin' cute and 3) I have issues when the cover design includes a real person, and therefore influences my thoughts on what I imagine Ruby to look like while I'm reading the book. Does anyone else think so? It's like reading a book AFTER seeing the movie, and you can only imagine the lead actor as the main character. Kind of ruins the imagining part for me.Although I loved the story, and Ruby's list making, there was one issue that I had with the story, which prevented me from giving it a five star rating on Goodreads: FOOTNOTES. Footnotes in a novel drive me NUTS. I think it's because I'm a fast reader, so I have a tendency to miss those little numbers and, when I get to the bottom of the page, I realize that I've missed a footnote reference, so I have to scroll back up through the story, looking for that little number so that I know where the footnote fits into the story. I'm thankful that I read this in print format though, because some of the comments on my previous e-reader post expressed their thoughts on footnotes in an e-book, and I think it would drive me even more batty if I had to keep flipping to the end of the chapter.ANYWAYS, that was a lot of bookish ranting. Let me just say this: I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Ruby and I am super excited to finish this series. When I go to the library this week, I'm hoping that book two is sitting on the shelf (and also hoping it's a non-grubby copy! *fingers crossed*) Ruby is a really fun character and I loved watching her grow throughout the book. Her character reminded me a little of Jessica Darling, but at the same time she's so uniquely Ruby that it's hard to fully compare her to anyone else. I loved how she grew throughout the book, as she worked through the boyfriend list with her therapist, revisiting all of the boys that had played a role in her life. Ruby's a sweet, funny and extremely likeable character and I'm intrigued to see how she grows as the series develops.If you're looking for a fun, lighthearted contemporary, The Boyfriend List is a great book to add to your TBR list.
