Ruby Blues

by Jessica Rudd

The Text Publishing Company. Australian, Adult Fiction. Paperback RRP $29.95

Ruby Stanhope is political advisor to the Australian Prime Minister, whom she helped get elected two years before. Ruby fell into the position whilst holidaying from England, knowing nothing about the Australian political system. She was perfect for the job. Efficient, effective and with an eye for detail.

But now Ruby’s life is falling apart. The never-ending fights with her partner, Luke, who got her her job in the first place, have escalated to the point where she never seems to have time for him, only for her job. Her long-distance sister, her gay aunt and pregnant partner are all trying to pin her down for her birthday. Then there is her new assistant who is over enthusiastic, super-capable and way too perky for Ruby’s frame of mind. Ruby is turning 30. A disaster slowly building up from the inside and waiting to explode.

With Ruby’s hectic schedule everything that could go wrong does and with the Prime Minister facing a losing battle with published leaks and bad press, Ruby’s job gets harder and harder.

With the complications of past male friend, present boyfriend and cute, single vet being served up on her platter, it’s a wonder Ruby has time to sleep. But Bettina, her new assistant, helps her in that department … accidentally.

Ruby Blues is a funny but could be a very real story of a woman who has it all except for the hidden obstacles that seem to ensure she doesn’t keep it. Ruby Blues is the sequel to Campaign Ruby, both of which I loved and would recommend to read separately or together.

The Reading Stack reviewed Campaign Ruby in January 2011.

Campaign Ruby

by Jessica Rudd

The Text Publishing Company. Australian, Political, Romance. Paperback rrp $32.95

Reviewed by Barbara Brown

Ruby Stanhope is a British investment banker who gets sacked by email. She replies with an angry email that goes viral throughout the internet and the world of banking. Ruby finds that her life as an investment banker anywhere in the world may now be cut short thanks to her erroneous yet brilliant reply email.

Ruby goes home to drink a very nice bottle or three of Australian peanut noise and in her drunken state finds she has booked a ticket to Australia on a tourist visa in the search of the peanut noise and some quiet time.

Next thing Ruby finds herself in Australia with a job as a political adviser to the Leader of the Opposition (LOO), Max Masters. Everything Ruby does from the moment she clicked SEND, to the night of the Australian Federal Election and losing her boss’s Blackberry, is unbelievably funny. But everything happens for a reason. Whenever Ruby trips over her Louboutin-clad feet and lands smack into another problem, she picks herself up with as much decorum as one can, dusts herself off and gets on with the job in hand.

Max and his group of devoted employees find that Ruby can not only can get them out of some pretty hot problems but that she has a great Toolkit that has everything in it from shaver and shaving cream to double sided tape and shower in a can. She may just save the political career of Max Masters if she doesn’t stuff up her life in the meantime.

Ruby has a To-Do list that grows with each passing day and each day that list seems to make Ruby see what a wonderful life she has fallen into. Having trouble with the language, the fashion, the political stance and entrances/exits out of hotel rooms and bathrooms, Ruby spends an incredible month travelling around Australia, seeing the people but never seeing the places. Life on the campaign trail isn’t easy.

Campaign Ruby is a funny but great read and brings the humorous side to life of a politician and his/her road to becoming/or losing Prime Minister of Australia without making it trivial.