Item: Finding Ruby Draker
Author: Gina

Finding Ruby Draker by Marianne Scott | Review & Giveaway (4 winners)

Thank you to the author, publisher, & Lauren at iRead for providing me with the information for this tour.

Book Details

Finding Ruby Draker by Marianne Scott
Published by Marianne Scott on 01/20/2016
Genres: Espionage, Fiction, Thriller
Format: eBook, Hardcover, Paperback
Pages: 328

Kathleen Jones has lived a protected and typical suburban life, nothing unexpected in her carefully controlled existence. She has just completed her Psychology degree and is about to start her internship but after completing her last exam she comes home to find her house on fire and her parents and little brother killed.

But at the scene of the fire, two men posing as police officers grab her and drug her. When she wakes up, she finds that everything has changed - her face, her identity and everything that she once believed was true. But things get worse. Hardly recovered from facial surgery, she is whisked away under the cover of darkness as more men storm the clinic with guns. It seems that her abductors are not her greatest threat. Now on a plane to Nice, France, her abductors are calling her Ruby - Ruby Draker.

Source: iRead Book Tours, Received from the author or publisher for review.

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Purchase Links for Finding Ruby Draker

Amazon-OneLink for all countries BookShop/IndieBound

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My thoughts on Finding Ruby Draker

What to say about Finding Ruby Draker? It’s a riveting, fast-paced, mysterious thriller, with gorgeously described settings. Well, that’s a start but it doesn’t begin to describe all the feelings this book invoked.

The characters are well written with enough backstory to give the reader a richer understanding of the tale. The twists and turns rival the best spy thrillers out there. Pacing is key to a great book for me. This one kept me turning pages long into the night.

The reader is drawn into the story from the opening pages describing a typical college student whose biggest concerns are passing her final exams and planning where to have her family celebration. When her life is ripped away from her in a moment of devastation, we can all put ourselves in her place. Losing everything dear to her, including her identity, is a nightmare no one wants to face.

Marianne Scott is an author I’m sure we’ll be hearing much more from in the future. She penned a fabulous debut novel in Finding Ruby Draper.

I recommend this book to all lovers of mysterious, suspenseful, gripping tales. Grab your copy today. You won’t be sorry.

I received a copy of the book for the tour. This review is my honest, unbiased opinion.

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I love to read books through my Amazon Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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About Marianne Scott

Marianne Scott is the Canadian author of four mystery thrillers and is currently finishing an edit on her fourth novel, a murder mystery. She has a BA and a Diploma in Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, CA. She studied creative writing through Conestoga College and Humber College. She enjoys writing workshops such as those offered by Brian Henry, publisher of the blog, Quick Brown Fox, and One Lit Place, a writers’ hub by creator/editor Jenna Kalinsky.

She has an author’s website and blog is the president of The Cambridge Writers’ Collective and is a member of the Guelph Genre Writers. In September of 2018, she completed a fourth-year course in Writing Fiction at the University of Guelph under the expert teaching of Lawrence Hill. Her novels, Finding Ruby Draker and Shadows in the Aftermath are self-published. She is actively seeking representation to break into the traditional publishing world with her third and fourth novels.

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Guest Post from Marianne Scott

Don’t Fall in Love with Your Characters

By Marianne Scott

When you say it out loud, this sounds like a rather ridiculous rule. Characters are not people. At least they don’t have physical substance. They sort of talk and walk around in your head. They are non-entities, figments of a writer’s imagination; so how on earth can a writer become attached to them in a personal way?

That’s a hard question to answer. All I know is that as I was writing my first novel, Finding Ruby, I kept running into a wall known as writer’s block. I knew the plot. I knew the ending (sort of) and I knew that the excitement had to peak and wane. Yet, there I was in front of my computer dumb as a doorknob without a single idea as to how to move the story forward.

I lamented to my editor, Jenna Kalinsky. What she said nearly sent me into psychotherapy. I was shocked. We’ve been working together for years, she is my editor. She is also the founder of One Lit Place, a literary hub and collective, a place where writers can gather and have all the resources they need to succeed as writers. Her advice seemed completely out of character. “Kill someone,” she said. I distinctly remember my reply. “I can’t kill anyone. I love my characters,” I said. Well!!!! Now what? I kept up my protest for about a week as I continued to search that empty receptacle of my mind for the next scene in my book. Nothing!

Desperate, I yielded to her suggestion but let it marinate for a while. The idea of killing a character was somehow akin to killing a member of my family. But, the more I thought about it, the more I saw merit in the elimination of a subordinate character, however distasteful it seemed. I realized there are times when people provoke you into ominous thoughts. I don’t like to admit it openly but I remember real-life personal incidents when I wanted to quickly and efficiently bring about a person’s demise. Fortunately, these thoughts are fleeting albeit delightful. Thank goodness for laws against murder as it saved several of my bosses from an untimely yet satisfyingly (for me anyway) brutal death.

As her advice ripened, it made me think. Can I exploit that dark side of my personality? But, how would I justify such a thing? I found the answer in the Indiana Jones knife to a gunfight scene. From my writer’s perspective, every time I watch it, the devil whispers in my ear, and this time he won. After all, a writer must do what a writer must do. Maybe I did have the killer instinct.

The problem is that becoming a literary executioner takes a bit of practice. I started with Leonard, a newly invented character, who I inserted into a scene and then masterfully crafted a shootout where my darlings (my beloved good guys) had to shoot not only him but two other bad guys in an attempt to save their lives. Ah, like a vampire getting her first taste of human blood – it felt good. But just in case, I’d kept my therapist’s number handy.

After the endorphins settled, I started to feel guilty. No bad deed goes unpunished. A few chapters later I hit another wall. It was as if the writing gods were punishing me for doing such an evil deed. I was beginning to doubt that I’d ever finish my novel. Still in mental anguish from being such a bad influence on the moral values of my characters, I decided I needed more counseling.

Yep! Jenna to the rescue again. Her solution? You guessed it; more killings, but this time a good guy had to die. It was like she thrust a knife into my gut. I have to say; this woman is good at what she does – very good indeed. I trusted her completely, but this was a side of her I’d never seen before. Yet, she had keen instincts and knew how to break down that brick wall I was facing.

Her advice has never failed me before. Jenna knew; when you’ve already had a taste of blood, the next killing is a bit easier and because I’m a quick learner I outdid myself. By the end of a rather heart-wrenching and intense scene, two of my characters lay dead, in an inky pool of blood in the dirt of a country driveway. “Well done,” Jenna said.

‘My God. Did I really do that?’ I suffered, conflicted. Wasn’t an author’s writing a reflection of her moral principles? So why did this corruption feel so powerful? The answer is that I’d lost focus on what is real and what is just ‘writing’. It’s the separation of fact from fiction that liberates a writer to craft her story with outrageous details. Armed with this new skill, I knew I could kill any character that stood in the way of the completion of my novel.

Love became ambition and to hell with any character who might be shot in the crossfire. I needed to finish the novel and wanted an explosive and unexpected ending. It was a given that my antagonist had to die but sculpting the scene into a horrific finale would require the sacrifice of more of my beloveds. Because I was no longer emotionally tied to their safety, I could concentrate on the kind of drama it takes to hold the reader captivated until the very last word. How good is it when your reader says, “Damn, I didn’t expect that!”

Of all the attributes an author has to possess, viciousness somehow claws its way to the surface. For me, it’s a lesson learned. Don’t fall in love with your characters because in writing you are not an angel nor are you the devil and you are not a parent so allow your characters to find danger at every turn. It’s the story that has the final say.