The Southern Belles of Honeysuckle Way

by Linda Bruckheimer

Rebecca Jean Wooten St. Clair and her sister, Carleen, pack up their two teenage daughters and leave California via Route 66 for Blue Lick Springs, Kentucky, where they will celebrate the seventy-fifth birthday of their mother, Lila Mae.

Waiting for them is their sibling Irene (“Baby Sister”); Olive, their feisty, ninety-five-year-old grandmother; and a hometown that’s troubled by a string of mysterious crimes, and invaded by Horace Castle, a slick-talking real estate developer.

Rebecca, Irene, and Olive join forces with their zany friends and relatives to save Blue Lick Springs while each sister grapples to rescue her own heart.

On the web: http://www.lindabruckheimer.com   

Genres: Fiction, Southern, Chick Lit, Humor

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for southern based books.

[Dee Renee Chesnut · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had potential, and it did not live up to it. It's a wonder its characters aren't clucking their tongues and saying, "It's jest a shame that had to happen." I liked the characters; it was the plot and storyline that disappointed me.

[kyersten · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was a waste. I feel like I deserve a medal for finishing it. I didn't care about a single character...and their were way too many characters. The idea for the book seemed legit but the story fell flat. I wanted a good story about Southern women and there were a few little antidotes in there, but I seriously can't remember a harder book to finish. I think it only got published because Bruckheimer knows the right people...or her husband does.

[Judi Mack · Rating 1 out of 5]

The overall narrative was too choppy with too many cuts back and forth from one character to another without fully developing their stories. The ending was also too rushed, and I left the book without feeling satisfied or sure why I should even care about these characters.

[Margaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rebecca lives on the west coast with her wealthy businessman husband. She hasn’t lived in Blue Lick Springs, KY in years but now that she is in charge of planning her mother’s 75th birthday party, she is appalled at the way things have changed. Buildings vacant, abandoned, crumbling…all that history gone! She takes it upon herself and mostly secretly from her husband to start buying up property to bring back small town life to the home of her 95 year old grandmother who is still alive and kicking.

Along the way, Rebecca meets up with CASTLECO, huge property development corporation that is rivaling her efforts through shady and underhanded means with the promise of bringing a fancy airport, high end shopping and fast food places that will put Blue Lick Springs “on the map”. Rebecca throws herself into taking on the buying of properties and restoring them, leaving her husband and teen daughter behind. (I never knew why the teen daughter was in the story…she was practically invisible both to Rebecca and in the plot itself. For all of her heroics, I just didn’t like Rebecca for her lack of responsibility and honesty with her family back home.

Then Carleen, the second oldest sister is introduced. She lives near her sister in CA and the only real identity that was revealed in her own chapters was that she had a problem with termites, a cheating husband, and a non-paying job writing a weekly column for a small local newspaper. She also has a teen daughter who was also a non-person in the story.

Finally, there is Irene, (Baby Sister) who is running away from too many ex-husbands, a life of drugs and alcohol and debt, and an overweight body. She is staying with Grandma in Blue Lick Springs. Actually, she was the only character I liked. I felt she was the only character who had any depth and who seemed to be the one with the most grounded ideas as I got to know her a bit better through her own chapters.

In all, the story rambled from termites, to a birthday party, to a long-lost brother, to shady injury claims made to insurance companies. So many people were brought in and out of the story that I lost track and any humor I might have found was lost in the folksy, back-woodsy dialect that detracted from the story..."lak" for "like", "wunnerful" for "wonderful", "murry-wanna" for "marijuana" ( I KNOW!!!), and on and on. Think Beverly Hillbillies, if you can. I can use my imagination and this dialect just insulted me and, I would think, Southerners in general.

With that said, I did finish the book but I'm not sure why. I wasn't riveted and I knew after a few chapters that it wasn't going to be what I expected but I did want to see small town girl win over high profile corporates but even the ending fell a bit flat.

[Katie Burkey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book, because I’ve lived in Kentucky almost my entire life, but...woof. I was cringing every time Olive Wooten (plus any other resident of Blue Lick Springs) opened their uneducated, redneck mouths. One standout example, an African American man bragging about having ancestors that came over on the “Maytag”....ugh. I mean, goodness gracious, the overwhelming stupidity and ignorance became exhausting. And the fact that a small group of this hillbilly clan somehow decided to drive to Los Angeles on a whim, where two of the daughters managed to grow up and snag themselves rich, handsome husbands? I doubt it. I gave it more stars than it deserved because it painted the DAR ladies in a very favorable light, and I happen to be a Daughter of the Boone County chapter, so I loved the honorable mentions.
And the food descriptions, spot on. I did love Lil Peep’s journey from ruthless accountant to idealistic Southerner (and loved his wife, Big Dee), but I was very confused as to how he was able to just hang around Blue Lick for all that time, even when he had healed from the poodle attack. Not sure how a grown man doesn’t just stomp the life out of two rabid toy poodles, but I guess he’s a big softie underneath.
But yeah, ultimately didn’t care a wink about any of the main characters, felt zero emotion when the Cottage burned down, wasn’t rooting for them to finally get Rosemont back, did not understand this blind devotion these adult women have to their passive aggressive, manipulative, stupid mother. Too bad Lila Mae didn’t die in one of her many, many near-death accidents so the world could have been spared even more of that tainted DNA.

[A · Rating 1 out of 5]

As other reviewers have stated, this book definitely fell flat and was tough even to finish. It tries way to hard to be funny, not enough depth. Wants to set up a sweet southern family novel, but it really doesn't work. I was disappointed to say the least.

[Jane · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pitiful waste of my time. I struggled to get through this book of 3 sisters. Too many characters too much going on and going nowhere. I did not even want to give this book one star. I have no idea how it was actually published!

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Goodness gracious this was a hard book to read. Had some interesting characters, and the dialogue with its southern dialect down pat, it had promise. However, the storyline never got off and running. Do not recommend it.

[Rita]

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who felt the way I do about this book. I couldn't make head or tail out of it until the end when they went to court. That, I understood. The cover (on the book I checked out is very pretty and enticing--don't believe it. ^__^.

[Jane Fujiwara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun, light read, but a bit of a muddled mess. They could have taken out half the side plots, combined Lila Mae and Olive into one, dropped the idea of the road trip, etc. It felt like the author had two or three stories crammed into one.

[Eli De Money · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this would be a rather funny, interesting "southern" book. It was okay. Some interesting characters, but they were not really developed. I thought the book fell flat.

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't nearly as good as "Dreaming Southern"

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I almost didn't finish this one, but somehow I made it through. I'm not sure why, but I was never drawn into the story at all and I felt like something was missing throughout the entire book.

[Kim · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stopped on pg. 15

[Connie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had a hard time getting into the book. But I stuck with it.

[Bamboozlepig · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. You don't start a book in one POV (1st person) and then switch to another POV (3rd person) for the main bulk of the novel, then switch back to the original POV at the end. You also don't head-hop through multiple characters and rush through their narrative without some sort of resolution.

Too many characters and none of them likable. The plot is too convoluted and contrived. The characters sound like uneducated hicks when they speak.

So this was a nope for me.

[S · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.7
A bit of a struggle to read, until the last third or fourth. Got it mostly because I live near actual Blue Lick Kentucky (there is no Blue Lick Springs), and thought it’d be a little different than it was.
Some unfortunate stereotyping throughout, and so much..franticness? around most characters.

[Loriinengland · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The tale of a family trying to save their small town in Kentucky from being overtaken by larger corporations. But it's more about their lives and quirks. A cute read.

[Wileyoneone · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book -no longer have

[Mel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really struggled to finish this book.
A story of three sisters that put their lives in order. One sister longs for the historical antebellum home in Kentucky. She wants to save a particular house and there's a struggle to get it. There's lots of big companies buying up land and building and the book touches on the feeling of the local people about the land being built up.
If they don't want it built up, they shouldn't sell it to developers. Kind of a no brainer.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story had potential but never got anywhere. There were too many characters and so much going on with each of them. Each sister's story could have been charming and full of life on its own, but when they were all smushed together with a small town full of eccentric characters - it turned into overload.

[Bebe · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried twice to read this just couldn't get into it. the words that are used to described everything in the 1st person POV are so overly flowery unrealistic that I just kept thinking that the author was copying from the YaYas and other over the top mother-daughter southern books. no one really talks to themselves like that here.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just pulled this off the shelf because it was a "Southern" book. There are some genres I can't resist. The book really came alive about half-way through. Mostly, though, I really just want to throw my daughter in the car and drive to Kentucky.

[Jacki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Captivating characters, accurate depiction of most KY residents I knew with an intense desire to return home, captures the conflict of living with one foot in a new modern world while keeping one foot in your home state and rural life.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

if I could give a 0 I would. this was awful, the end of the book should answer questions, not leave everything hanging open. unless I missed EVERYTHING, this book was not good at all.

[Jackie Simons]

Read 3/12

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

would make a great movie

[Hannah Beth (Hannah's Book Cafe) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just really didn't like this one. It was very hard to enjoy reading it.