Honey, Baby, Sweetheart by Deb Caletti

Being known as the "Quiet Girl" or the girl who reads has been Ruby McQueen's life. It didn't happen normally - there were certain...embarrassing events that happened to make Ruby quiet and observant, rather than the popular, loud girl.

But at the beginning of summer, something changed. Ruby met Travis Becker, bad-boy, motorcycling, adrenaline junkie.

And Travis wanted to hangout with Ruby because she acted like a different person around Travis. She was adventurous, smart alecky, and rebellious. Travis was infatuated with her and put her in situations that Ruby was not used to.

However, when Travis puts Ruby in a situation where she is betraying a friend, Ruby stops to consider what she is doing.

She tells her mom what's been going on, and her mother takes her to the book club at the library she works at.

With the random group of old ladies and men reading a romantic suspense/love story, Ruby tries to find her way back to the real Ruby, not the Ruby that Travis brings out.

Add some adventure, stealing, get away car action and this novel will take you on the ride with Ruby that seems so extreme, you'll wonder if you made up the story by the time you've finished!

My Thoughts/Reflections
This was an interesting novel. It wasn't what I was expecting. Quiet girl, librarian mother, bad-boy love interest.

But the bad-boy is really bad, not the "bad on the outside, but good on the inside" like other novels I've read.

Ruby is trying to find her place in life, and she thought a little adventure during the summer was what she needed. That was before she met Travis though.

One thing that I'm not good at as a reader is reading narrative. I love dialogue, and seeing huge paragraphs with no talking makes my eyes glaze over.

Which is what happened in this book. Ruby reflected a lot. And she went on tangents about random things before getting back to the topic at hand.

Needless to say, it took me awhile to get through this book that I thought I would fly through.

I'm not saying it was bad. Or that I didn't like the author. I actually loved Deb Caletti's novel, The Fortunes of Indigo Skye. I just had a hard time sticking with this book during long periods of time.

This would be a great book for teen girls who are lost in life or who have a crush on a boy they should not be liking. It also has some adventure, risk-taking events that will make the reader laugh and enjoy.

This isn't my first recommendation for other readers, but it is a nice story that will keep some readers entertained for a summer reading.