Honey, Baby, Sweetheart by Deb Caletti

F
CAL
Chick Lit

Sixteen-year-old Ruby McQueen is known as “that quiet girl” at school, so she is intoxicated when she meets gorgeous rich-kid Travis Becker, with whom she feels different and fearless. Travis involves her in increasingly dangerous stunts until Ruby finally breaks away, but her mother, Ann, knows the difficulty of choosing self-protection over a thrilling love: she has struggled for years to get over Ruby's absent, philandering father. To distract herself and her daughter, Ann brings Ruby to her book club with “The Casserole Queens,” a group of wisecracking seniors who involve Ann and Ruby in a plan to reunite a friend with a lost love. Caletti writes a compelling, multigenerational story about teens and parents who simultaneously weather heartbreak and find new self-worth, enriching the telling with the Northwest setting, folksy wisdom, and Ruby's strong, sure voice