Honey, Baby, Sweetheart by Deb Caletti

Front and Back Flap: Ruby McQueen is a sixteen-year-old high school student with the name, she thinks, of a rodeo cowgirl porn star, or, maybe worse, a Texas beauty queen runner-up. Her mother, Ann, one of the town librarians, was reading too much Southern literature before Ruby was born, and Chip, Ruby's father, who was already dreaming of Nashville stardom, thought it would make a great stage name someday. Soon after Chip Jr. was born, Chip left to try his luck in the music business and ended up at the Gold Nugget Amusement Park one state over. He returns occasionally for visits that turn Ann's heart upside down, and Ruby's stomach inside out. It is summer in the northwest town of Nine Mile Falls, a place where brown bears sometimes show up in the shopping mall and people in hang gliders soar down the mountains anbd sometimes get stuck dangling from the trees. Ruby, ordinarily dubbed The Quiet Girl, finds herself hanging out with gorgeous, rich, thrill-seeking Travis Becker. With Travis, Ruby can be someone she's never been before: Fearless. Powerful. But Ruby is in over her head, and finds she is risking more and more when she's with him. In an effort to keep Ruby occupied and mend her own broken heart, Ann drags Ruby to the weekly book club she runs for seniors. At first Ruby can't imagine a more boring way to spend an afternoon, but she is soon charmed by the Casserole Queens (named, quite ironically, after women who bring casseroles to new widowers' home in hopes of snagging a husband). When the group discovers one of their own members is the subject of the tragic love story they are reading, Ann and Ruby ditch their respective obsessions to spearhead a reunion between the long-ago lovers. But this mission turns out to be more than just a road trip. Somewhere along the way Ruby and her mother learn the true meaning of love and freedom from it, individual purpose, and the real ties that bind. Wow, that was an extremely long summary huh? I think the longest I've seen yet! Well, this book was good but I wasn't too impressed with it. I dunno I kinda just felt like I've read the same thing before somewhere else. But there were def some good quotes in there about life and love and things like that. And I love to hear stories of true love because I know it's out there. My great-grandparents were married for 68 years, and my great-grandpa just died this past August. It was devastating. But it shows that you can stay with the same person your whole life like you should when you get married. And Ruby and her mom Ann in this book are def people who didn't do that and get caught up I guess into the idea of someone. So the book did connect things to real life and all but it just kinda seemed like not like I was glued to the book. But yeah.