3.5 stars.

This book started well and up until page 200 or so, I thought it would be one of my favourite books ever. That's saying something as I read a lot of books. I loved the part of the story about CeeCee's aunt Lucille and her best friend, and the purple sofa; and I loved what Miz Goodpepper said about her bird cage. I also liked Mrs Odell's description of the Life Book. Those were very memorable and almost magical scenes and I would have liked to have seen more of that type of originality in the book.

As the story went on, I began to lose interest and found that I could quite easily have stopped reading it, it failed to keep my attention, which was a pity considering how great the first half was. It became more run of the mill, and that spark of imaginative thinking that had fuelled the first part of the book seemed to have fizzled out.

I really wanted to finish this book because it's had so many 5 star reviews, I was sure I was missing something.

The story 'Saving CeeCee Honeycutt' is about a twelve year old girl and told in first person narrative from her viewpoint. As far as I can remember it was never explained whether CeeCee was relating this story as a grown up or as a child, and it was hard to tell from the actual narrative itself. As a reader, I would have liked to have known that, it would have added a bit of depth and believability to the story.
We meet CeeCee shortly before her mother dies in a road accident. She is living in Ohio with her parents, although her father is hardly ever around. Her mother was suffering from some type of mental disorder, which again was never fully explained. When her mother dies, CeeCee ends up having to go and live with her great-aunt in Savannah. All of the action in the book takes place in CeeCee's summer break from school. The writing style is fluid and there are some nice descriptive paragraphs. One issue I had was that some of the characters were stereotypes: Oletta, the housemaid, in particular. Also, there was just too much death in the book. People were dying left, right and centre.

Some of the scenes seemed contrived, or didn't ring true, like the fight during the party towards the end of the book. I didn't think those two women would have made up so easily. It was all a bit too 'rose-coloured spectacles' in places for me. Maybe I'm just too old to be reading this sort of book? Maybe if I was 10-20 years younger and not so cynical I would have adored it.

There were some touching scenes and a few memorable quotes, especially in the first part of the book, which shows that this author is talented. I think she just need to find her own voice because, in parts, this book is too reminiscent of books that have gone before.

For a debut novel, this is very good. I think that the ideal market for the book would be the pre-teen or teenage/young adult readers.