Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday

by Donna Hay

Ruby Tuesday Moon grew up hating everything about her life. Her daft name, her hand-me-down clothes, her mother's habit of turning up to school parents' evenings dressed like Shirley Bassey. Most of all she hated being the daughter of Normanford's only single parent, failed nightclub singer and resident goodtime girl, Sadie Moon. As soon as she could, she decided to quit Yorkshire. She bought a one-way ticket to London, changed her name and escaped - for ever, so she thought. But nearly twenty years on, fate has conspired to send Roo Hennessey, now a successful management consultant, back to Normanford. Back to the friends and family she once knew too well, and the boy who broke her heart. And back to the infamous Sadie, now in her 50s and still acting like a teenager. But as Roo discovers, there are two sides to every story. Perhaps the past is not exactly as she remembers it ...

Genres: Chick Lit

Hardcover

First published July 7, 2005

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.


Donna Hay's first novel, Waiting in the Wings, won her the RNA New Writers' Award, and since then she has attracted praise from critics for Kiss & Tell and Such a Perfect Sister. She writes regularly for TV Times and What's On TV, and has a weekly soaps page in Chat magazine. She lives in York, England, with her husband and daughter.

Reviews

[Preet · Rating 4 out of 5]

The blurb on the back of the book says: "Ruby Tuesday Moon grew up hating everything about her life. Her daft name, her hand-me-down clothes, her mother's habit of turning up to school parents' evenings dressed like Shirley Bassey. Most of all she hated being the daughter of Normanford's only single parent, failed nightclub singer and resident goodtime girl, Sadie Moon. As soon as she could, she decided to quit Yorkshire. She bought a one-way ticket to London, changed her name and escaped - for ever, so she thought. But nearly twenty years on, fate has conspired to send Roo MacPherson, now a successful management consultant, back to Normanford. Back to the friends and family she once knew too well, and the boy who broke her heart. And back to the infamous Sadie, now in her 50s and still acting like a teenager. But as Roo discovers, there are two sides to every story. Perhaps the past is not exactly as she remembers it ..."

Wow! This book is something else! The punches just keep on rolling, one after the other! I was hooked from page one, and even though I could see some of the twists coming, the ones that I didn't were big ones! This book is all about relationships, especially those of family. Usually there's a villain or two, but in this case, the fact that no one is entirely in the right/wrong works amazingly well. The gray shades of each character make them more realistic and life like. Having read almost all of her books, I can certainly say that Donna Hay has become a name that I will be watching out for in the future, and hopefully she'll be publishing something soon!

[Juanita Ellingson · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a wonderful read with many twists and turns. Emotional and beautiful, with fantastic characters I could easily see and picture. Donna Hay had me hooked on page one with her descriptions and that gut punch of relating to her main character and her mom. Mothers and daughters can be a volatile sort, Roo and Sadie made this book exciting.

[Vanessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a lot to say about this really!

[Felicia Buhler · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit slow paced. An easy read and sort of predictable.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

When 16 year old Sadie Moon gives birth in 1970, she refuses to give up her baby, Ruby Tuesday Moon, for adoption. Instead she struggles to bring her up in difficult circumstances in the northern town of Normanford, making a living as a small town nightclub singer and bringing home numerous boyfriends. Ruby escapes to University, goes to London, changes her name to Roo, and makes a successful life for herself as a management consultant, married to David, with a six year old son, Ollie, who she leaves in the care of a Nanny, Shauna while she works long hours. When Roo is sent back to Normanford by her firm, to help save or close down Fairbanks Fine Furniture, she is forced to face up to her past. She finds herself working with Billy, her childhood sweetheart, who married her cousin Cat, and she struggles with the difficult relationship with her mother. The town turns against Roo as they think she is shutting down Fairbanks and then her domestic life takes a dramatic turn. She also finds herself with a love/hate relationship with her new neighbour. As I read this book I struggled to think what it reminded me of, and I suddenly realised it was like an updated, full length story that I used to read in my mother’s Woman’s Own magazines 35 years ago. Sure enough I saw a review from Woman’s Own on the cover. It’s a story of family life, love, disappointment and endurance and although it was written in 2004 it feels dated and predictable. The story pivots on the fact that a whole town is unable to understand Roo is not the one responsible for closing down the factory or that she is only there because of the firm’s problems. There’s nothing wrong with the book, but it’s off the shelf easy reading and fiction has moved on.

[Georgina Ball · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! It was realistic, believable and heart warming! The plot was interesting and modern but also very predictible. It is based around a failing business, which given the current economic climate over the past couple of years, is very relevant. This makes the story relatable and current, and it might be an intriguing read for those who have been recently made redundant. If a failing business sounds too dull it also contains a number of other story lines revolving around different relationships. There are a lot of issues people can relate to and I believe this book would appeal to lots of people. I did, however, predict every event in this book, often way before it happened. It's not overly obvious, but I found it easy to piece the story together and work out what was going to happen. I didn't find that this ruined the book, as the plot and characters were very good, and the predictibleness was forgiveable. In a way, because of the easy way to predict the plot, it made you want to read on and on just to see if you are correct in your theories. It is definately a page turner, I didn't want to put it down! The characters are probably the best part. They are all so real, they have realistic characteristic, they're not overly dramatic and their mannerisms do not conflict. The characters are believable and I think that it what makes this story so readable. Would I read it again? Possibly, it was a good read and I did read it rather quick. And I definately want to read more of Donna Hay's books!

[Janice Forman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ruby Tuesday Moon grew up hating almost everything in her life and couldn't wait to escape to London where she changed her name and escaped. Nearly twenty years later, fate sends Roo Hennessy back to her home town of Normanford, where she encounters old friends, family, the boy who broke her heart, and her mother.

The plot of Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday reads like a soap opera, but it is captivating and very-well written. It is a story of love and commitment to family, but its real strength lies in the fact that there are two sides to every event; no one is right or wrong. I was fascinated by Donna Hay's skill at presenting how something said can be misinterpreted; how communication goes awry because the parties communicating bring their preconceived ideas, insecurities and prejudices to the discussion.

Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday left me thinking about how we, as humans, fall short in properly communicating. Although this is a fiction novel, there are definitely some lessons in psychology to be learned!

[Aileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Roo Hemessy is a successful Senior Management Accountant she is married
to David with a son Ollie, David is unemployed so they survive on her
income, even although David complains they don’t see her very often.
Roo has to go away for 3 months to Normanford (her home town where she
grew up) she hasn’t been there for 2 years. Roo changed her name from
Ruby Tuesday as she hated her name and her mother, she moved to London
as soon as she could. But what happens with her family when she
returns? A brilliant book I couldn’t put this book down I would
definitely recommend.

[Chenice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I purchased this book in my local charity for a small amount and had it on my bookshelf for over a year. However, after reading the rest of my collection, I decided to give it a go.

The book is easy to read but is somewhat predictable, but not in a bad way. It's one of those books where as you can predict what's going to happen, you keep reading to see if it really will turn out how you think.

*SPOILER* While I predicted Shaunna and David would sleep together, I didn't think Billy would be Ruby's brother. That was a good twist.

[Mark Nunn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this for 15p from a stall at my daughters school Christmas fair. Although I was not ripped off I don't think it's really a bargain either. The books OK, although the story's fairly straightforward and predictable and the characters are pretty simple it did have enough to keep me reading to the end. I guess it felt a bit like one of those ITV mini dramas that sometimes get put on Sunday nights.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay, I expected more based on the back blurb.. It turned out to be formulaic. Girl hates childhood. Girl escapes. Girl makes new life. Girl is successful career hard ass. Girl sent to cute idyllic town to 'insert nasty deed here'. Girl get emotionally attached. Girls priorities realigned. Girl rights all the wrongs, saves the town, gets the boy ...lives happily ever after. Meh!

[T · Rating 3 out of 5]

Posted review in my blog.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it. Lots of reminders of life in Yorkshire and the terminology used kept me smiling.

[Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Couldn't keep my fingers from flipping to next page.

[Veru · Rating 5 out of 5]

Naprosto výborný...Na to,že čtu raději fikci,tohle je úžasné..Nemohla jsem se od toho odtrhnout,bohuže lna úkor učení se :D