Ruby & Roland

July 1, 2019
The sudden death of her parents in 1910 sends a teenager on a journey from heartbreak to self-discovery through the American Midwest. Ruby Drake, named for the red birthmark on her chest, would be too sweet to be believed if not for her terrible secret--she's in love with a married man. After being shuttled from her cold great-aunt's home in Beardsley, Illinois, to the farm of a kindly German couple, the orphaned Ruby lands in Harvester, Minnesota, to work for Emma Schoonover, whose own children have died. There, farming becomes an "endless source of wonderment" for Ruby, and Sullivan's (Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse, 2015, etc.) rapturous depiction of farm life makes it ring true. Ruby's parents, who appear in memories and the small mementos Ruby carries with her from house to house, seem to watch over her from above. When she meets Roland Allen, his beautiful wife, Dora, is suicidal after the death of their firstborn daughter. Emma encourages Ruby to help Dora run the farm even though she never approved of Dora as Roland's wife. Somehow, the two young women strike up a friendship, leaving Ruby in the difficult position of following her heart or doing what's right. Barrett Cromwell, a family friend, would be a more suitable husband for Ruby, but will she trade love for stability? Though her droll observations root her in her time and place--"Is anyone ever their own boss?"--Ruby manages to build a life for herself with and without Roland. Whether her ending is happy or sad is a question to sit with and think about. The joyful sense of community within this love story offers a charming and refreshing escape from the modern world.

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Starred review from August 5, 2019
Set in the early 1900s, this moving tale from Sullivan (Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse) centers on the romance between a farmhand and a farmer. Ruby Drake is orphaned at age 12 after her parents freeze to death. Her last living relative, a great aunt, refuses to take Ruby in, and Ruby drifts from town to town as a hired hand, eventually making a home in Harvester, Minn., where she works on the farm of Henry and Emma Schoonover. There, Ruby grows into her own as she’s guided by hard work, the stories and characters in her late mother’s books, and Emma’s nurturing friendship. She also falls irrevocably in love with Roland Allen, the handsome, hardworking, married farmer next door. The two begin an affair, and after Roland’s wife, Dora, injures herself in a failed suicide attempt, Ruby unexpectedly becomes Dora’s caregiver and confidante. Torn between her love for Roland and her growing camaraderie with Dora, Ruby must decide whether to eke out her destiny away from the man, land, and community she loves or continue to exist within an impossible compromise. Fans of Jane Eyre will adore the intelligent, brazen Ruby whose combination of pragmatism and besottedness is winningly sympathetic. Replete with agrarian nostalgia and crisp prose, Sullivan’s quiet tale is a wonderful, arresting meditation on sacrifice.

August 9, 2019

The year is 1910, and Ruby Drake's parents are charming, well-educated, and devoted to their daughter and each other. Their sudden deaths bring change to young Ruby's life, as she is sent to live as an orphan on a distant farm. Ruby willingly assumes her role, learning how to do house chores, work in the garden, and care for the chickens. When she is 15, she's sent to another farm in Minnesota, where her kind mistress Emma becomes something of a second mother. Ruby is focused on working hard for her new "family" and reading Keats and Whitman in the evenings, when she's asked to assist neighbor Roland and his sickly wife, Dora at their farm across the road. Roland is young, and Ruby is soon entranced with his genuine passion for the land as well as his uncommon beauty. When tragedy befalls Dora, Ruby is not sure if she can hide her passion for Roland any longer, even if it causes heartbreak and scandal. VERDICT Sullivan (Goodnight, Mr. Wodehouse) creates a story worthy of comparison to Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome. Recommended for historical and women's fiction fans.--Jennifer Funk, McKendree Univ. Lib., Lebanon, IL

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2019
Sullivan (Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse, 2015) continues her saga of Harvester, Minnesota with another unforgettable heroine. Growing up in a small Illinois town in the early twentieth century, Ruby Drake is the adored child of eccentric academic parents who treat her more like a friend than a daughter. Her world is shattered when they die in an accident when she is 12, leaving her orphaned and penniless. Sent to live with an Iowa farm family, she eventually journeys to Harvester to be a hired girl on the Schoonover family farm. Bright and passionate, Ruby educates herself, reading the volumes of Shakespeare, Whitman, and Greek mythology she inherited from her mother. When she falls in love with a married neighbor, Roland, their affair becomes complicated when she's enlisted to help care for his mentally and physically fragile wife, Dora. As the two women grudgingly become friends, Ruby must reconcile her feelings for Roland with her sense of duty. The path she chooses is unpredictable, unconventional, and fiercely her own. Fans of Sullivan's Harvester novels and resilient female characters will find much to love here.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)