Honey, Baby, Sweetheart Paperback – 25 Mar 2008

There were really only two downsides to this book, and the rest of it I completely loved. I'm going to start by talking about some of the best parts of the book.I really loved The Casserole Queens. They were such an interesting, funny and quirky group of people, and I really liked the way that being around them influenced Ruby.I enjoyed the road trip aspect, as I most usually do with books that contain road trips.I really loved the sweet story of Lillian and the reunion, and the slightly batty scheme to reunite her with her long lost love. It was light hearted, and sweet and perfect for a summer read.I liked Chip Junior and how he interacted with everyone. I thought he was a really interesting character.I liked how much growth Ruby had during the course of the novel, and how different people played different roles in getting her to where she was by the ending.Now for the two things that I didn't love about this novel.The first has to do with the pacing. Reading the back of this book you're expecting it to be about this road trip which 'turns out to be much more than just a road trip...' and that got me really excited, so I was disappointed when it took more than half of the book to actually get to the road trip. I just felt there was a little too much building up, and so the first half felt a little slow.The second thing was Ruby. I found her character a little hard to read. The main reason for this is because of how she behaved around Travis. She barely knew him, and what she did know of him was mostly all bad, and yet he seems to have this huge amount of power over her. I think I would have believed it more if she'd known him longer, had developed an attachment and then started seeing him for who he really was, and found it hard to break away from him. As it stood, I kind of didn't buy that he'd have such a huge influence on her from the amount they knew each other.Overall, this is a really good book and I would defiitely recommend it. It's a fantastic read for summer, and it's sure to have you smiling and laughing.

Ruby McQueen is labelled as the 'quiet girl' - mostly invisible, never one to stand out in the crowd. But now it's summer, a chance to escape the labels and become who she wants to be so when she meets bad boy Travis she discovers a whole new side to herself. But things start to go too far when Travis gets her to help him break in and steal. Ruby's mum decides she needs to be pulled away from Travis and distracted so she brings her along to her book group- "The Casserole Queens" a group of fairly old women who come along to discuss literature, life, love and really just have fun. Ruby is surprised to find herself feeling at home with the group, and soon they embark on a road trip to California to fight for true love for one member of the group.This book is an easy read, the writing flows well and is what I would call 'light and fluffy' but I didn't particularly enjoy it.The story felt like it was two separate books sandwiched together- one of Ruby and Travis and the change in Ruby's life, the two of them being reckless and maybe falling in love. Then another about reuniting two old people and discovering what true love is all about. The two didn't really have any connection other than Ruby realising that Travis isn't right for her - now she has seen what real love is all about she doesn't need him anymore. Apart from that there was no real link.I liked Travis as a character at first, he was the hot dark dangerous guy, but then I just found him so arrogant and stuck up and controlling that I just wanted to slap him. I also didn't completely believe that Ruby would go along with him for so long. I didn't believe she would do some of the things he made her do.I did enjoy the road trip part, the old ladies were really funny and full of life. I could really picture them trying to break out one of their friends from a nursing home so she could re-capture her true love. This actually made me laugh and redeemed the book for me.So overall the book felt a bit disconnected and not completely believable. The Travis - Ruby thing could have been expanded and gone all sorts of ways but felt like it just got cut off. But to be honest i would have been happy if it hadn't been there at all. the road-trip with old ladies would have been great by itself!If you are looking for a light summer read with no real plot or thought then this would be perfect.