Book Beginnings On Fridays (Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman)

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.

 

 

My book beginning: Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

Momma left her red satin shoes in the middle of the road. That's what three eyewitnesses told the police. The first time I remember my mother wearing red shoes was on a snowy morning in December 1962, the year I was seven years old. I walked into the kitchen and found her sitting at the table. No lights were on, but in the thin haze of dawn that pushed through the frostbitten window, I could see red high-heeled shoes peeking out from beneath the hem of her robe. There was no breakfast waiting, and no freshly ironed school dress hanging on the basement door knob. Momma just sat and stared out the window with empty eyes, her hands limp in her lap, her coffee cold and untouched.


I read Beth Hoffman's second novel  Looking for Me earlier this year, absolutely loved it and bought this one straight away, Hoffman is a very good storyteller.

The book blurb:

When Camille Sugarbaker Honeycutt, the pretty but crazy 1951 Vidalia Onion Queen, dies suddenly, her twelve year old daughter CeeCee is whisked off by her Great Aunt Tootie to the fable city of Savannah in the most magnificent car CeeCee has ever seen.

Soon among the sweet scent of magnolias and the loving warmth of her aunt and her colourful friends, it looks as though CeeCee has arrived in paradise. But when a darker side of the Southern dream threatens this delicate, newfound happiness, Aunt Tootie and her friends must rally to CeeCee's aid.