Australian author Jessica Rudd’s latest novel, Ruby Blues (Text Publishing, 2011) brings Ruby Stanhope back to readers – two years older and just as hilariously frantic as she was in Rudd’s popular debut novel Campaign Ruby (Text Publishing, 2010).
Plot Summary – Ruby Blues
In the closing pages of Campaign Ruby, energetic but accident-prone ex-merchant banker Ruby Stanhope had just helped the Australian Opposition Party to a victorious win at the Federal election and had fallen in love with a sweet guy with bad taste in ties.
Two years later, Ruby’s life is still frantic. She works as a senior political advisor to the Prime Minister, trying to juggle policy meetings, speeches, media leaks, office blackmail and a peppy new intern called Bettina. On the personal front, Ruby is just as busy trying to avoid thinking about her approaching 30th birthday and wondering how to find time for a personal life when 4 hours straight is considered a good night’s sleep.
Tired and stressed, Ruby has lost her optimism and most of the items in her previously indispensible ready-for-any-disaster toolkit. Her wardrobe is drab and so is her relationship with Luke. Life has lost its sparkle, but Ruby is simply too tired to care.
As Ruby bounces from one faux pas to the next near disaster, she is surrounded by a cast of entertainingly quirky characters. Familiar favourites are back with Luke, Ruby’s aunt Daphne and her now pregnant partner Deb, her sister Fran and her precocious niece Clementine Genevieve Gardner-Stanhope. New faces include the bright, bubbly, stationery-obsessed parliamentary intern Bettina and the temptingly gorgeous vet Elliot.
As she struggles to turn around ever dropping opinion polls, uncover the source of blackmail threats against the Chief of Staff and find a pair of stocking that aren’t ruined, Ruby takes readers on an entertaining journey behind the carefully staged public face of politics.
Entertaining Australian Women’s Fiction
Filled with witty dialogue, hilarious misadventures, quirky characters and a disaster-prone heroine that you can’t help but love, Ruby Blues is just what fans of Rudd’s first novel Campaign Ruby have been waiting for.
In the sequel, Ruby is well settled into the Australian lifestyle. The focus is no longer on the clash of cultures between Ruby’s English background and her Australian experiences. Instead, readers find out how two years of working in the Office of the Prime Minister has affected Ruby’s outlook on life. Her enthusiastic optimism has faded and she is now exhausted and slowly giving in to the cynicism which seems to be rampant within political circles.
In addition to her professional woes, Ruby is trying to ignore her approaching birthday milestone and her lagging relationship. Ruby’s life is unravelling and many readers will relate to her desperate attempts to maintain some kind of balance despite the constant demands of her job.
There is some mild coarse language used in the novel (Ruby does tend to utter more than the occasional f-bomb when frustrated or stressed), but the more frivolous aspects of the story are balanced with some interesting dialogue about political issues such as same-sex marriage and Ruby’s gradual realisation that she has allowed the demands of her job to affect her friendships, relationship with Luke and her outlook on life.
Australian Author Jessica Rudd
Jessica Rudd has had three career changes in as many years – law, PR and politics. Her professional experiences and personal insights into Australia’s political scene gained through her father’s position as Prime Minister of Australia (2007 – 2010) help her to create an appealingly realistic setting for Ruby’s adventures.
Jessica Rudd lives in Beijing. She is active on Twitter (@Jess_Rudd) and has recently used the social network to announce that she and her husband are expecting their first child in May 2012. Updates on book signings, giveaways and author appearances can be found at Jessica Rudd’s Facebook page.
Great Campaign Ruby Sequel
Ruby Stanhope is an engaging and entertaining heroine – intelligent, likeable and sincere. She is flawed and accident prone, but her love for her family and friends and her desire to make a difference result in a story that is enjoyable and interesting.
Ruby Blues is highly recommended for readers looking for an appealing heroine and a fresh Australian urban setting. Hopefully Rudd will follow the success of the first two Ruby Stanhope stories with further adventures for this likeable character.
Review Copy Details
Ruby Blues (ISBN: 978-1-921758-56-0, 329 pages)
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