A Mama Ruby Novel

2 primary works

Mama Ruby

by Mary Monroe

Published 1 May 2011

New York Times bestselling author Mary Monroe presents an unforgettable tale featuring the rebellious early years of Mama Ruby, the indomitable heroine of her acclaimed novel The Upper Room.

Growing up in Shreveport, Louisiana, Ruby Jean Upshaw is the kind of girl who knows what she wants and knows how to get it.  By the time she's fifteen, Ruby has a taste for fast men and cheap liquor, and not even her preacher daddy can set her straight. Only Othella Mae Cartier, daughter of the town tramp, understands what makes Ruby tick.

When Ruby discovers she's in the family way, she's scared for the first time in her life. After hiding her growing belly, Ruby secretly gives birth to a baby girl at Othella's house. Othella talks Ruby into giving the child away--and with the help of a shocking revelation, convinces Ruby to run off with her to New Orleans.

But nothing can erase Ruby's memories of her child--or quell her simmering rage at Othella for persuading her to let her precious baby go.  Someday there will be a reckoning. And Othella will learn that no one knows how to exact revenge quite like Ruby Jean Upshaw.  .  .

Lost Daughters

by Mary Monroe

Published 1 January 2013

Everyone from Louisiana to Florida knows Mama Ruby--a small-town girl who became one of the South's most notorious and volatile women. Now New York Times bestselling author Mary Monroe reveals how Mama Ruby's past haunts the family she's left behind. . .

Mama Ruby has died and Maureen Montgomery is finally taking charge of her own life. With her beautiful teenage daughter, Loretta, by her side, she returns to Florida and settles into a routine any other woman would consider bland. But for Maureen and her brother Virgil, after Mama Ruby's hair-trigger temper and murderous ways, bland is good. Yet Loretta has other ideas. . .

Set on becoming rich and famous, Loretta convinces Maureen to let her start a modeling career with the help of a Miami photographer. But even as they move in promising new directions, they can't escape Mama Ruby--including Virgil, who's concealed one of her most shocking acts for most of his life. To make a future that's truly hers, Maureen will have to take on a bit of Mama Ruby's strength, forge new bonds--and face down the past.

Praise for the Mama Ruby series

"Magnificent, coarse, funny and terrifying." --The San Francisco Chronicle on The Upper Room

"Monroe's style, like her characters, is no-holds-barred earthy. . .Monroe's characters deal with their situations with a weary worldliness and fatalism that reveal their vulnerability as well as their flaws." --Booklist on Mama Ruby