"Don't go wastin' all those bright tomorrows you ain't even seen by hangin' onto what happened yesterday. Let go, child. Just breathe and let go."

It's easy to tell that there is something different about CeeCee's mother. No one else has a mom spends all her money on secondhand prom dresses . . . and then wanders all over town wearing them. CeeCee's father can't handle her mother's behavior, so he has largely disappeared from their lives. Fortunately for CeeCee, the next door neighbor, Mrs. O'dell, has always been there to take care of her. However, no one can protect CeeCee's mother from herself and, when an unfortunate accident occurs, her father decides that CeeCee will go live with her Great Aunt Tootie.

CeeCee does not know Aunt Tootie and is hesitant about leaving everything she has always known, but she discovers that leaving behind what she loves does not mean losing herself. Moving into Aunt Tootie's home and life connects CeeCee with an amazing group of women who guide, protect, and love her unconditionally, allowing her to reconcile with her mother's bizarre life and become her own person at the same time.

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman first attracted me because of the cover. It's beautiful. Seriously. Even more lovely is the language Hoffman uses to describe CeeCee's life, the customs she encounters in the South, and the people she meets along the way. I kept reading passages over and over and marking places that I wanted to remember for later. I'm also a sucker for intergenerational relationships and CeeCee is fortunate enough to find people who transform her life throughout her story.

It was officially announced last week that Saving CeeCee Honeycutt is the first book Sam's Club is promoting for its new book club. This is a great first choice--it will be interesting to see where Sam's Club goes from here in terms of book choices and how their recommendation effects book sales.

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt was published January 12, 2010. The ARC I read was sent to me by Beth Hoffman.