“Exemplifying Southern storytelling at its best…”
—Lesa Holstine, Glendale P.L., AZ
“In Hoffman’s charming debut, Cecelia Rose (CeeCee) Honeycutt tells the story of her tragic life and the strong women who stepped in to save her. At age 12, CeeCee realizes her mother, flouncing around Willoughby, OH, in prom dresses and matching shoes, is crazy and the town’s laughingstock. Her father is never home, and nothing is going to change so CeeCee buries herself in books as an escape. But her true liberation comes after her mother’s tragic death when great-aunt Tootie sweeps CeeCee off to Savannah. There, a group of powerful, independent women offer the young girl love, laughter, and a new chance at life. Readers who enjoy strong female characters will appreciate CeeCee, a survivor despite her heartbreaking childhood, and Aunt Tootie and her friends, all of them steel magnolias. VERDICT: Exemplifying Southern storytelling at its best, this coming-of-age novel is sure to be a hit with the book clubs that adopted Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees.”
★ Starred Review From LIBRARY JOURNAL
“This is one of those books that has that “it” factor…Saving CeeCee Honeycutt has all the components necessary to hit the bestseller list right out of the gate, become a book club favorite and the first novel everybody will be talking about in 2010. It’s simply the best book with which to start a new year.”
—Jamie Layton, BOOKREPORTER (read the entire review here)
“This lovely novel has earned the status of ‘LizPick’ even before it’s published.”
—Liz Murphy, the Learned Owl Book Shop, Hudson, Ohio.
“Welcome to my world, baby girl” (to paraphrase Fannie Flagg’s title) is what came to my mind on meeting the narrator of Beth Hoffman’s delightful debut, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt (Viking, Jan.). Twelve-year-old CeeCee is a survivor. Alone too much, and with too much responsibility because of her psychotic mother, CeeCee is old beyond her years. When her mother dies, her mostly absent father sends her south from Ohio to Savannah under the care of her never-before-seen Great Aunt Tootie. The reader is introduced to a wide assortment of Southern women, each of whom plays a role in CeeCee’s healing and coming to terms with her life. Each character also helps paint a detailed picture of the dichotomy between the ‘old South,’ with its decaying gentry, and the changing South, where black and white are more than servant/mistress and white gloves are being exchanged for jeans and flip-flops. This lovely novel has earned the status of ‘LizPick’ even before it’s published.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY “Galley Talk”
“Saving CeeCee Honeycutt is a gem of a story, lovingly told. The 1960s Southern setting and coming-of-age angle may remind readers of favorites like The Secret Life of Bees—not surprising, since it was bought by the same editor—but the episodic narrative style and bookish heroine will also bring to mind classics like Anne of Green Gables. In fact, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt could easily be a crossover hit with teens. Readers who savor books with memorable characters and Southern settings will consider this a novel to treasure.”
—Trisha Ping, BOOKPAGE (Read entire review here)
“For those who loved Steel Magnolias and The Help, and authors like Fannie Flagg and Rebecca Wells, this book will be a treat. Great characters with terrific voices, strong plotting and a story that just hangs together well. Saving CeeCee Honeycutt is edited by Pamela Dorman, who also edited The Secret Life of Bees. As Pamela says, she ‘has read a lot of wannabe Southern coming-of-age fiction. This is the real thing.’ And I do agree.”
—Carol Fitzgerald, co-Founder/President, THE BOOK REPORT NETWORK
“A debut of uncommon grace that beautifully illuminates the power of female friendships, it will have you laughing out loud…and leave a satisfying lump in your throat.”
BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB
“There is a long line of Southern women writers who are beloved for their fictional masterpieces – Margaret Mitchell (“Gone With The Wind”), Harper Lee (“To Kill A Mockingbird”), Fannie Flagg (“Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistlestop Café”), Rebecca Wells (“Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood”), to name a few. With her debut novel, “Saving CeeCee Honeycutt,” Beth Hoffman stands poised to join the ranks of these cherished authors with a sweet Southern story of growing up and coming home…”
—Sharon Galligar Chance, Senior Book Reviewer – WICHITA FALLS TIMES RECORD NEWS
“Set in Savannah in the 1960s, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt touches on some of the racial issues of that time, but it does so in a wonderfully deft way that leaves a lasting impression on the reader. More than anything, this book is a story of mothers and daughters…of all kinds; also one of love, faith, friendship and forgiveness – in all its forms. I highly recommend that you put it on your winter reading wish list. Once you find yourself among its pages you will be transported, along with CeeCee, to the warm breezes of Savannah, laughing and crying with them along the way. When the journey comes to the end, you will be sad to leave them behind and wish you could stay forever.”
V MAGAZINE—Brenda Seward, owner of Simple Pleasures Books & Gifts, Ashland, VA. (Read entire review here)
“A Peach of a Novel …” —LADIES HOME JOURNAL
“Saving CeeCee Honeycutt will please any reader who enjoyed Steel Magnolias or Fried Green Tomatoes.”
—Barbara McIntyre, Ohio.Com/AKRON BEACON JOURNAL (read entire review here)
“This wonderfully delightful novel absolutely grabbed me. The author, Beth Hoffman, has this smooth prose that captures the idiosyncrasies and nuances of southern life and style. The cast of characters is vivid in personality, feminine intelligence, and southern charm. Hoffman also manages to convey a hard core of strength and determination beneath her sweetly loving and exuberant female characters. This seemingly simple story of a newly motherless girl taken in by her great aunt is truly superb. It is both laugh out loud, and cry in the dark, a multi-dimensional story wrapped in the façade of a light and easy read. This is one of those books that you put down, and then pick right back up because you must find someone else to read it and enjoy it with you.”
—Heather Christman, Warwick’s, La Jolla, CA. (Read entire review here)
“…to craft an incredibly compelling opening line, to compassionately create all kinds of characters, and to brace the reader’s heart with the lightest touch of humor during the most dramatic or tragic moments, are qualities that many will celebrate. You have gently given me—and the world—a voice of strength in a time when impermanence and fear seem to prevail. Your voice, your characters, your gift of storytelling help the reader, in my humble opinion, to remember, “I am MORE.”
—Sharon Orlando, Youth Services Librarian, Watchung P.L., Watchung, NJ
“Saving CeeCee Honeycutt is a story quilted with the patterns of vibrant characters whose lives become intricately connected to the emotional healing of 12-year-old CeeCee. Beth Hoffman’s first novel is a tribute to the strength of women who have survived tragedy and loss to become beacons for others who suffer from emotional scars.”
—Nancy Baker, The Blue Marble, Fort Thomas, KY
“I LOVED SAVING CEECEE HONEYCUTT! A true southern story with great characters that come to life and who the reader will love! You won’t want to leave them at the end of the book. One of my best customers who recommends books to all her friends and reading groups, couldn’t put it down and is already recommending it. This one will be a word of mouth hit, just like The Help.”
—Kathy Kinasewitz, Best of Books
“CeeCee Honeycutt is a sweet, perceptive girl with a troubled family, and this story of the summer that transforms her life is rich with hard truths and charm. This book unfolds like a lush southern garden, blooming with vivid characters, beauty, and surprises.”
—Kim Edwards, bestselling author of The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
“Reading SAVING CEECEE HONEYCUTT, I barely stopped laughing, even as my heart broke and broke again for CeeCee. She goes through the wringer with Southern grace, but you never forget all she’s lost, and you never lose sight of her courage and deep resources. Beth Hoffman has written her heart out in this novel that will clearly be the first of many.”
—Luanne Rice, bestselling author of The Geometry of Sisters and The Deep Blue Sea for Beginners
“A tender and touching debut. Charming, disarming, sweet as the scent of magnolias on a Southern summer night, SAVING CEECEE HONEYCUTT is a true delight.”
—Mary Kay Andrews, bestselling author of Deep Dish and The Fixer-Upper
“SAVING CEECEE HONEYCUTT is an absolutely delightful debut novel packed full of Southern charm, strong women, wacky humor, and good old-fashioned heart. From the moment you first step into young CeeCee’s unique world, you’ll never want to leave.”
—Kristin Hannah, bestselling author of True Colors and Winter Garden
“I’d save CeeCee if she asked me! I love this bright, funny, spunky girl, the zany women in her life, and the way they enclose CeeCee in a circle of warmth and friendship that heals all hurts. SAVING CEECEE HONEYCUTT is a joy to read.”
—Sandra Dallas, bestselling author of Prayers For Sale
“SAVING CEECEE HONEYCUTT is a confection so delightful readers will not be able to put it down. Beautifully written, brimming with decency and humor, and sparkling with a cast of women who are by turns wise, generous, and deliciously eccentric, this book is a joy to read. Beth Hoffman has written a debut novel to be savored.”
—Connie May Fowler, award-winning author of The Problem with Murmur Lee and Before Women had Wings
“Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman will make you laugh, cry and remind us of true kindness. A debut Southern novel full of strong women and a generous extended family reads like the first bite into a warm juicy peach on a sultry summer afternoon. A favorite passage reads ‘Beyond the barn was a small pond, the water so still the blue sky reflected on its surface like a mirror. Butterflies sailed across the open field, and the air was tinged with the sweet smell of peaches and warm earth. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, letting the scents travel through my body. I was in the middle of an accidental kind of happiness that made me grateful for having a nose.’ I hope you fall in love with young CeeCee as much as I did.”
—Annie Philbrick, Bank Square Books, Mystic, CT
“Beth Hoffman spins a sweet Southern tale of a young girl leaving her past behind and starting over with an aunt and her cook in Savannah. Cecelia Rose is a voracious reader of books and falls into step with the new women in her life. There is nothing like learning about and witnessing good & bad karma! Saving CeeCee Honeycutt is every bit of a good read as the note-worthy authors who have sent their hearty endorsements…”
—Emily Bell, Page & Palette, Fairhope, Alabama
“Saving CeeCee Honeycutt is a story for all ages. It has all the pathos of a Cinderella story along with the glorious happily-ever-after ending. Reading it made me want to find and love other children in need of happy endings”
—Betsy Rider, Otto Bookstore, Williamsport, PA
“12-year-old Cecelia is sent to her Great Aunt Tootie’s home in the deep South, where old manners and lifestyle prevail. CeeCee finds help resolving issues about her mentally ill mother and seemingly uncaring father from her eccentric aunt, a wonderfully wise black housekeeper, and their assorted friends and family. With characters who feel very real, this is a lovely story told with humor and compassion.”
—Susan Wasson, Bookworks, Albuquerque, NM
“A heartwarming novel, full of quirky characters and a sweet, gentle, read that keeps you turning the pages with a smile on your face.”
—Sheryl O’Sullivan and Nancy Dayton, Willow Books, Acton, MA