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Paperback Hero
Jack Willis seems like any ordinary outback trucker - but in secret he's a romance novelist. And he's about to become very successful. But real men don't write romance novels, and so Jack's been writing under the name of his friend, Ruby Vale. The only problem is, Ruby doesn't know.
When glamorous publisher Ziggy Keane arrives to do business with 'Ruby Vale', Jack must do some fancy footwork in order to keep his writing career afloat.
Jack hatches a scheme, but will he be able to get Ruby to go along with it? What about her plans to marry the local vet? And, more importantly, what about Jack's growing attraction to Ziggy?
In this entertaining comedy of errors, does Jack have what it takes to be a true romantic hero?
When glamorous publisher Ziggy Keane arrives to do business with 'Ruby Vale', Jack must do some fancy footwork in order to keep his writing career afloat.
Jack hatches a scheme, but will he be able to get Ruby to go along with it? What about her plans to marry the local vet? And, more importantly, what about Jack's growing attraction to Ziggy?
In this entertaining comedy of errors, does Jack have what it takes to be a true romantic hero?
308 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
52 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 24, 2018
3 Stars
This is the novelisation of one of my absolute favourite Australian romance films, Paperback Hero (trailer here). As I understand it, Bowman, the writer and director of the 1999 film, adapted his own screenplay into a novel after the film was released, so one would expect the movie and the book to have the same impact. Unfortunately, that was not my personal experience.
I was a teenager when I first saw Paperback Hero, starring a young Hugh Jackman at his absolute hunkiest, and Australia’s most underrated actress, Claudia Karvan. The film has remained a rom-com go-to for me over the years, so when I stumbled across the novelisation I enthusiastically decided to give it a go.
Paperback Hero tells the story of outback trucker Jack Willis, who secretly writes romance novels in his spare time. The thing is, Jack has been writing under the pen name Ruby Vale – his long time frenemy – and when a big-wig publisher, by the name of Ziggy Keane, shows up with a huge book deal for ‘Ruby Vale’, Jack must convince Ruby to play along.
With Ruby’s upcoming wedding to the local vet costing them a fortune, Ruby decides to go along with Jack’s scheme as long as her wedding will be paid for in full. With this agreement, the two then head off to Sydney with Ziggy on a promotional book tour, with Ruby playing the part of talented new romance author and Jack acting as her manager.
Ruby and Jack have always shared a sparky relationship, sort of like two kids on a playground, tormenting each other and acting like they don’t like each other when they actually do… very much.
The two end up together, which is the whole point of the story for me, but I wasn’t impressed with how it went about in this book.
In the film and novel alike, I cannot stand the character of Hamish – Ruby’s veterinarian fiancé. He undermines her at every turn, while still coming across as a good guy, and it just shits me. Add to that, the character of Ziggy is a stuck-up snob and I never understood the attraction shared between her and Jack. So you’ll understand my frustration when both of them shared way more page time here than they ever did on screen. In fact, the fling between Jack and Ziggy was way too much for me to handle in this book, with them still getting it on well into 90% of the book, which DID NOT work for me. In the film it felt more like a meaningless fling, and I barely had to witness it, but here I actually felt like I was reading about two relationships – one between Ruby and Hamish, and one between Jack and Ziggy… with no real romance between Ruby and Jack in sight. How that happened, I have no idea. My only explanation of this is that by expanding the screenplay into a novel, Bowman incorporated so much more story on both Hamish and Ziggy, and somewhere along the way lost sight of the main romance he’d created in his film.
My reaction to this book was a damn shame because most of the movie was well represented here, with only a few alterations to plot; I just could have done without all the extra crap that was used to expand the story.
I’m now going to go rewatch the movie for the millionth trillionth time and just pretend this novelisation never happened. And if you haven’t seen the movie in question, GO WATCH IT!!
This is the novelisation of one of my absolute favourite Australian romance films, Paperback Hero (trailer here). As I understand it, Bowman, the writer and director of the 1999 film, adapted his own screenplay into a novel after the film was released, so one would expect the movie and the book to have the same impact. Unfortunately, that was not my personal experience.
I was a teenager when I first saw Paperback Hero, starring a young Hugh Jackman at his absolute hunkiest, and Australia’s most underrated actress, Claudia Karvan. The film has remained a rom-com go-to for me over the years, so when I stumbled across the novelisation I enthusiastically decided to give it a go.
Paperback Hero tells the story of outback trucker Jack Willis, who secretly writes romance novels in his spare time. The thing is, Jack has been writing under the pen name Ruby Vale – his long time frenemy – and when a big-wig publisher, by the name of Ziggy Keane, shows up with a huge book deal for ‘Ruby Vale’, Jack must convince Ruby to play along.
With Ruby’s upcoming wedding to the local vet costing them a fortune, Ruby decides to go along with Jack’s scheme as long as her wedding will be paid for in full. With this agreement, the two then head off to Sydney with Ziggy on a promotional book tour, with Ruby playing the part of talented new romance author and Jack acting as her manager.
Ruby and Jack have always shared a sparky relationship, sort of like two kids on a playground, tormenting each other and acting like they don’t like each other when they actually do… very much.
The two end up together, which is the whole point of the story for me, but I wasn’t impressed with how it went about in this book.
In the film and novel alike, I cannot stand the character of Hamish – Ruby’s veterinarian fiancé. He undermines her at every turn, while still coming across as a good guy, and it just shits me. Add to that, the character of Ziggy is a stuck-up snob and I never understood the attraction shared between her and Jack. So you’ll understand my frustration when both of them shared way more page time here than they ever did on screen. In fact, the fling between Jack and Ziggy was way too much for me to handle in this book, with them still getting it on well into 90% of the book, which DID NOT work for me. In the film it felt more like a meaningless fling, and I barely had to witness it, but here I actually felt like I was reading about two relationships – one between Ruby and Hamish, and one between Jack and Ziggy… with no real romance between Ruby and Jack in sight. How that happened, I have no idea. My only explanation of this is that by expanding the screenplay into a novel, Bowman incorporated so much more story on both Hamish and Ziggy, and somewhere along the way lost sight of the main romance he’d created in his film.
My reaction to this book was a damn shame because most of the movie was well represented here, with only a few alterations to plot; I just could have done without all the extra crap that was used to expand the story.
I’m now going to go rewatch the movie for the millionth trillionth time and just pretend this novelisation never happened. And if you haven’t seen the movie in question, GO WATCH IT!!
February 1, 2025
J’ai écouter le livre audio après avoir vu le film. C’était tellement bon!! J’imaginais le beau Hugh Jackman dans le rôle de Jack hihi ;) 💕
September 28, 2012
So hilarious! I never got so bored by read this book. In fact, I've read it for 6th times!! Love it, end of!
January 1, 2016
Loved the movie (starring early days Hugh Jackman). The book was based on the screen play and written by the same guy, and felt fleshed out enough in the circumstances. I listened to this as an audio on an Aussie road trip - fun given it is about an Aussie truck driver. The only thing that annoyed me was the male narrator's squeaky voice when undertaking Ruby's voice. No Claudia Karvan here.
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January 12, 2014Having seen the film years ago I was interested in this novel, and enjoyed it as a light summer read. While reading I had Hugh Jackman's face in my mind, as he played Jack in the film, and that was not a bad thing;)
Sweet, if as unbelievable as most in the rom/com genre.
Sweet, if as unbelievable as most in the rom/com genre.
June 27, 2008
Cute and funny!
May 14, 2017
Absolutely loved this light hearted fun aussie story.
December 11, 2024
Yeah not that great hey. Movie is far better.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews