Review: Honey, Baby, Sweetheart

Title: Honey, Baby, Sweetheart
Author: Deb Caletti
ISBN/Publisher: 978-1-4169-5783-6/Simon Pulse (part of Simon & Schuster)
Age Group/Genre: Young Adult

Sixteen year old Ruby McQueen is the straight laced, good girl...until she finds herself walking onto Travis Becker's front lawn. Hot, rich boy Travis and his motorcycle change Ruby's life. She finds herself acting brave around him and yet not herself. She can't resist Travis and his fast motorcycle and his crazy adventures. Ruby starts sneaking around and breaking into peoples homes. She just can't stay away from him. But is she in love with him or the motorcycle?

At the same time, Ruby is getting frustrated with her mother. Her mom keeps falling for Ruby's dad even though he left them long ago. Her mom is a librarian and finds that her ex-husband, the musician (and the father of her children) is just impossible to stay away from. The visits make her act like that crazy woman in love, but she knows he never stays. Now, is she really in love with him or the guitar?

Ruby's mom notices the difficulties of keeping her distance from this man and also realizes Ruby is falling into the same trap. To save her daughter, they attend a book group with a bunch of fun elderly people. And one of these women is the inspiration to the novel they are reading. After discovering the novel is based on true love that never found each other, Ruby, her mother, and the rest of the book group want to reunite the love birds in the book.

Will the reading group show Ruby and her mom what true love looks like or will they return to their boys with the guitar and motorcycle?

This is such a fun book to read. Honey, Baby, Sweetheart shows the bond of a mother and daughter and the parallels of their love relationships. It is wonderful to read a book that brings the mother/daughter relationship together. It is also wonderful for a book lover to read about a fun book group made of good friends. Caletti does an awesome job writing about the strong feeling of love for someone you can never have and what it makes you do. She adds humor to the story and makes you feel like you're in the story seeing the characters reactions to each other. Come on...Ruby uses mini-pads under her armpits to absorb the sweat while she's doing a speech and there's the funny part where they need to kidnap (or senior citizen-nap) someone from the nursing home...you know you want to read it!!!

I definitely recommend this book. It is totally fun and easy!!!

Favorite parts...

Love can come when you're already who you are, when you are filled with you. Not when you look to someone else to fill the empty space. Miz June page 237

A person is never as quiet or unrestrained as they seem, or as bad or good, as vulnerable or as strong, as sweet or as feisty; we are thickly layered, page lying upon page, behind simple covers. And love---it is not the book itself, but the binding. It can rip us apart or hold us together. My mother has always said that a book is worthy of a strong embrace, but, too, you must be gentle with one. Careful in whose hands you put it. Layers, by their nature, are fragile things. Ruby page 301

My Rating:

Now go and grab your cup of tea (or whatever beverage you prefer) and HAPPY readings!!!