When this book was very kindly sent to me for review, I knew my mom would love it. When I didn’t have a chance to review it for the blog tour myself, she generously stepped in to write a review for me.
Saving CeeCee Honeycutt is a novel about a twelve year old girl who goes to live with her great Aunt Tootie Caldwell when her mother dies. After a terrible start to her childhood, Ceecee definitely needs saving. Is her aunt up to the task?
Most of all, this book reminded me of The Secret Life of Bees, which was also a book about a troubled girl who goes to live with middle aged women in the south. The beginning of the book when CeeCee is living with her mentally ill mother and her father was very troubling to me because of how negative her home life was. Instead of CeeCee’s father trying to help the situation, he chooses to spend most of his time out of the house at work. His work included traveling, so he was not home very often. Rather than helping his daughter he leaves her to take care of herself and her mentally ill mother. As a mother myself I was so angry at her father. How could he not want to protect his daughter? I wanted to jump in the book and try to help CeeCee.
After CeeCee’s mother is killed, CeeCee goes to live with her great Aunt Tootie in Savannah. I was glad that now CeeCee might be able to have a normal life. Aunt CeeCee is a wealthy middle aged woman with a housekeeper, Oletta. CeeCee meets other women in the neighborhood, Miz Hobbs and Miz Goodpepper. This is a very different life for CeeCee instead of having to take care of herself, she has someone to take care of her. I really liked the eccentricity of the women in the book. I think it added a lot to the story.
The part in the book about discrimination I thought was very important. This was part of life at that time and I am glad it was included since it’s something we must never forget.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it. It is an emotional and touching story. My only criticism of this book was the predictability of the story; the plot could have done with some twists. Still, I think Saving CeeCee Honeycutt would appeal to women of all ages; I think we would all be able to relate to this story.
I am an Amazon Associate. This book was sent to us by the publisher for free.
I was so caught up in this story when I read it, I didn’t even notice the predictability. I love Savannah and it came alive for me as I read the book.
What a great idea for posting a guest review. Your mother did a great job, too.
I should be finishing this novel today. I think it is very sweet, but I agree about the predictability. I think most women would enjoy it. I agree with Kathy about Savannah. It was the first place I ever visited in Georgia and I loved it. It wasn’t Atlanta, but for this GWTW fan, it was close enough.
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What a great guest review! This sounds like a very interesting book. Sometimes a bit a predictability allows the author to focus on other points of the book.
.-= kay @ Infiniteshelf´s last blog ..Comic : How to make money from a reader =-.
Your mom rocks! What a great review–and what a great idea to have her write a guest review in the first place. CeeCee was not the type of book I would normally choose on my own but I did enjoy it, although it was a bit too sickly sweet for me.
.-= Stephanie´s last blog ..The Sunday Salon =-.
I have heard such good things about this book and am eager to read it. Lovely review! It sounds right up my alley!
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Thank you for the review, Meghan’s mom!
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Great guest review! And I agree that the book brings up some interesting topics for discussion — parenting and civil rights among them.
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