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Steel Magnolias meets The Help in this Southern debut novel sparkling with humor, heart, and feminine wisdom
Twelve-year-old CeeCee Honeycutt is in trouble. For years, she has been the caretaker of her psychotic mother, Camille-the tiara-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 Camille is hit by a truck and killed, 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 eccentricity, a world that seems to be run entirely by 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.
Laugh-out-loud funny and deeply touching, Beth Hoffman's sparkling debut is, as Kristin Hannah says, "packed full of Southern charm, strong women, wacky humor, and good old-fashioned heart." It is a novel that explores the indomitable strengths of female friendship and gives us the story of a young girl who loses one mother and finds many others.
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"I had read this book a few years earlier but purchased the audiobook for my husband and I to listen to on a long drive to and from the beach. He usually chooses the manly spy type book but I insisted on choosing this trip. Needless to say he loved the story. When stopping for gas/restroom breaks he would have the book started before I could completely get back in and shut my door! It is a great refreshing story of how one person can change the lives of many. When CeCe left her horrible life and felt like she didn't matter to the world she had no idea the lives she would touch by being that same person. The personalities are so colorful and there is never a dull moment. The story touches on life's issues from how blatantly harsh racism was to how simple things were all at the same time. This book is a must for anyone. You will not be disappointed. "
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Leslie (5 out of 5 stars)