Book Review: Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

I read this book for the College Prepster’s brand spanking new book club (http://www.thecollegeprepster.com/2011/05/college-prepster-book-club-review-next.html).

 Given that she and her book club were the stimuli I finally needed to get started on this blog, it seems only right and proper that my first review be of this book.

I think the best word to describe the book would be: sweet. It is an incredibly sweet story, with incredibly sweet characters and an incredibly sweet ending. Deep, meaningful and evocative it is not but it is precious and charming. It is, in essence, a feel-good book, perfect for the beach or a plane journey. It won’t take your full attention and it won’t change your views about the meaning of life and the universe but it will make you smile.

It did, however, take a little while for me to get into the story. I felt that in the first few chapters Hoffman didn’t quite have the right tone for CeeCee’s voice and I spent some time puzzling over quite how old CeeCee-the-narrator was supposed to be when recounting her story. At times she seemed to sound just like the little girl that she was supposed to be but on other occasions the narrator would use turns of phrase and vocabulary that simply came across as too adult. It was a little off-putting and unsettling and is something that just a little further editing might have remedied quite quickly. Nevertheless, after the first few chapters, CeeCee’s narration settled down became more believable and I began to fall in love with the character.

One of the things that I appreciated most about the book was that it was a good story written in a mature way but that didn't include gratuitous sex scenes! My little sister is 13 but reads at a much more advanced level. She devours books and it is always a struggle to find grown up novels that she can really get her teeth into and enjoy but that don't have at least one extremely graphic (usually totally unnecessary) sex scene. It's not that she doesn't know about "all that stuff" but she certainly doesn't need to be reading vivid descriptions. There's a real dearth of age appropriate, yet mature and serious, novels for kids her age and so I'm always thrilled to find a great book that I (aged 21) can enjoy and that she can too.

All in all this was a most enjoyable book and one that I would recommend for anyone who wants a simple, straightforward and endearing summer read.