Working it Out

by Nicola May

[Leah]

Ruby Matthews has a plan. Twelve jobs in twelve months, until she finds the one of her dreams… After an unexpected redundancy, Ruby begins to question her priorities. Inspired by a quote from Kahlil Gibran about loving your work, she launches her mission to find the ideal job. Her year of gainful (and sometimes painful!) employment includes nannying for clients in the South of France; dealing with embarrassing ailments in a Harley Street Clinic; waiting tables in a buzzy Soho cafe; and meeting the celebs of years gone by in a home for retired actors. And even though love is no longer top of her list, relationships just seem to start happening along the way – which sees her handing out some P45s of her own! But will any of the jobs, or men she meets, see her dreams come true? Or will Ruby just end up back where she started?

The first I heard of Nicola May’s self-published debut novel came when I was on Twitter one day and Scott Pack mentioned that Working It Out shouldn’t be a self-published novel and that it’s better than most of the Chick Lit out there today. I thought that was quite a thing to say so when Nicola emailed us to ask if we would like to review the novel, I jumped at the chance. It sounded like a great read, and I’ve never read a novel with the same premise as Working It Out. I thought the novel was fascinating, but I did have some problems with it.

The best part about Working It Out is indeed its fascinating premise that sees Ruby Matthews take on 12 entirely different jobs in 12 months. It’s a great way to hook the reader in and the short, snappy chapters lend itself to some easy reading. The novel is some 313 pages long but it’s an incredibly quick novel that I managed to speed through in about three hours once I got going. I found each of the jobs Ruby finds herself doing fascinating, I loved that she was willing to try any job at all in her bid to complete her task and end the year having tried 12 new jobs. My favourite job of hers was her first, when she worked as an auxiliary nurse at an old people’s home. I thought the characters we were introduced to during that time were incredibly sweet – even so sweet as to make me tear up when Ruby left. The other jobs were equally as enjoyable, though some were briefer than others so some jobs we didn’t really get ‘into’ as much as I’d have liked.

The issues I had with the novel were two-fold: Ruby’s relationship with men was borderline slapper and some of the writing was questionable. I’m a Geordie, I speak like a Geordie, but when I write my reviews I do not write like a Geordie (and if I wrote a novel I wouldn’t either) and it irritates me no end when people do that in books. You don’t have to have your Geordie character call everybody ‘Pet’ and say ‘Whey aye’ all of the time. For the record, I have never in my life called anybody pet and I rarely say whey aye. It’s one thing for somebody to speak like that but there’s no right way to make that come across on the page. It’s just cringe-worthy, if I’m totally honest. I feel the same way with Scottish characters, Irish characters, and American characters. No matter what the author, trying to make your characters seem authentically Geordie/Irish/Scottish/American/whatever doesn’t work, I’m afraid. It just doesn’t translate.

My second problem is Ruby’s love life. I can understand people fall for who they fall for. Truly, I can. But Ruby, throughout the novel, finds every single man she meets attractive and after a while it starts to grate. I had no idea who we were meant to be rooting for mainly because the men were presented in such a way that most of them were rather vile. There was ‘Gorgeous George’ who spoke about Ruby’s bum most of the time, then we had Bentley, an old man (which grossed me out I’m sad to say), then there was Adam, who was actually particularly nice. Then there was George’s flatmate James (the Geordie). Finally, there was Justice. I found it hard to believe Ruby was REALLY that attractive to seemingly attract all of those guys. To be honest, I’d have taken out Justice, James and Bentley. It was unfortunate that Ruby’s love life was so tangled, because the novel wasn’t long enough to let it all work out without seeming over the top.

Overall, though, Working It Out was a quick and (mainly) pain-free read. With some work I could definitely see why so many people are talking about the novel. It has a beautiful cover (the best self-published cover I have ever seen in fact), the writing flows nicely (bar the Geordie-isms) and the initial premise of the novel is inherently interesting. The characterisation lets it down, but a good editor could help to fix that, particularly as George doesn’t necessarily come across as the dashing hero I’m sure he was meant to be. I would definitely recommend picking up Working It Out though, because it’s a breezy read and one Chick Lit fans will appreciate. I’d definitely read more of Nicola’s work if she decided to self-publish it – and I hope she does decide to self-publish more of her work, she does have the talent.