Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

"All I new was that I was flying through the night in a fancy car with a woman who showed up out of nowhere and offered to take me, messed-up life and all, to a place called Savannah"

Twelve -year-old CeeCee Honeycutt is in trouble.  For years, she bas been the caretaker of her psychotic mother, Camille - the tiare-toting, lipstick-smeared laughingstock of an entire town - a woman trapped in her long-ago moment of glory as the 1951 Vidalia Onion Queen.  But when tragedy strikes, CeeCee is left to fend for herself.  To the rescue comes her previously unknown great-aunt, Tootie Caldwell.

In her vintage Packard convertible, Tootie whisks CeeCee away to Savannah's perfumed world of prosperity and Southern exxentricity, a world that seems to be run entirely by women.  From the exotic Miz Thelma Rae Goodpepper, who skinny-dips in her backyard bathrub and uses garden slugs as her secret weapon, to Tootie's all-knowing housekeeper, Oletta JoVes, towViolene Hobbs, who entertains a local2Police officer in her canary-yellow piegnoiz, to the women of Savannah who keep CeeCee entertained and entralled for an entire summer.

I read the mixed reviews and decided this book was at least worth trying.  Put it on my wish list and then found it at a garage sale.

First, this is no Gone with the Wind or The Help.  I do believe there may be some error in authenticity for the time perioe] however, this is fiction.  I do not expect any fiction book to be 100% accurate but I do expect it to be believable.  While some reviews said this book was a Southern cliche', others disagreed.  I just enjoyed that fact that it was not dripping molasses on every page I read.

While many reviews said this should be geared toward younger women, I say, hogwash. 

Having been a foster parent,  my heart ached at CeeCee's story and her bag of emotions she toted around with her mother's name on it.    I fell in love with the women whose names became written in CeeCee's Life Book, so much so, that at times I felt like I was peeking through the hedges and into their lives.  In some ways, I wanted to hear more of each of their stories.

Please don't pick up this book to pick it apart.  Granted, it is not the best book ever written and as I said, there are probably some errors in the time period authenticity.  Do read this book just to enjoy getting to know CeeCee and the merry band of women who help her heal and grow.

Sorry guys, but this is definitely chick lit.