Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman: Book Review

Synopsis from GoodReads:

Steel Magnolias meets The Help in Beth Hoffman’s New York Times bestselling Southern debut novel, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt

Twelve-year-old CeeCee Honeycutt is in trouble. For years, she has been the caretaker of her mother, Camille, the town’s tiara-wearing, lipstick-smeared laughingstock, a woman who is trapped in her long-ago moment of glory as the 1951 Vidalia Onion Queen of Georgia. When tragedy strikes, Tootie Caldwell, CeeCee’s long-lost great-aunt, comes to the rescue and whisks her away to Savannah. There, CeeCee is catapulted into a perfumed world of prosperity and Southern eccentricity—one that appears to be run entirely by strong, wacky women. From the exotic Miz Thelma Rae Goodpepper, who bathes in her backyard bathtub and uses garden slugs as her secret weapons; to Tootie’s all-knowing housekeeper, Oletta Jones; to Violene Hobbs, who entertains a local police officer in her canary-yellow peignoir, the women of Gaston Street keep CeeCee entertained and enthralled for an entire summer.

A timeless coming of age novel set in the 1960s, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt explores the indomitable strengths of female friendship, and charts the journey of an unforgettable girl who loses one mother, but finds many others in the storybook city of Savannah. As Kristin Hannah, author of Fly Away, says, Beth Hoffman’s sparkling debut is “packed full of Southern charm, strong women, wacky humor, and good old-fashioned heart.”

I wish I had reviewed this closer to the time that I read it.

I loved little CeeCee–brave and tough and asked to be too strong too early. I’ve written a whole blog post about how I loved her.

I think the rest of the book suffered from my personal Southern lit overload. I do love my Southern books and my Southern authors but between another lady and me, our book club was reading a Southern book at least every other month for a while there. The plot of this one just didn’t stand out enough in all of that.

I loved the Savannah setting and the quirky neighbors, but I’ve forgotten a lot of details. I know there was one racial scene that felt a little rushed through; It seemed like it should have been a much bigger deal. I think part of my problem was that I was expecting something a little meatier and this felt like it could have been a young adult book. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I must not have been in the mood for that at the time.

I do recommend this, just be prepared for something more young adult-ish.

Read an excerpt.

Find author Beth Hoffman on her website, her blog, Facebook, and Twitter. She is a delightful online presence!

Buy Saving CeeCee Honeycutt at

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