Honey, Baby, Sweetheart

Honey, Baby, Sweetheart by Deb Caletti follows Ruby McQueen the summer of her junior year. When Ruby spies a handsome teen on a motorcycle, she decides that this is the moment she'll shed her quiet-girl persona and become fearless. The relationship quickly becomes dangerous, and Ruby finds solace in the town library amongst the senior citizen book club, The Casserole Queens. After learning that one of the Queens is the subject of a book detailing a decades-long romance, Ruby and the Queens orchestrate a kidnapping and a road trip to reunite the couple. Simon Pulse published the young adult novel in 2004.

Ruby Mcqueen is a sixteen-year-old girl living with her mother and brother in the small mountain town of Nine Mile Falls. She used to be outgoing until she had a few embarrassing incidents. In the fifth grade, she slipped and fell, breaking her tailbone. She had to bring an inflatable doughnut to sit on at school. Just when she was feeling comfortable again, one of the sanitary pads she had inserted under her arms to catch sweat shot out mid-speech. After these incidents, she became the "quiet girl," making friends with mathletes and other girls who are clumsy.



Ruby's mother, Ann, works at the town library. Her father, Chip, isn't in the picture as he abandoned his family to pursue a career in music at an amusement park. Ann is still in love with Chip, but Chip Jr. and Ruby resent him for taking advantage of Ann and leaving her without hope of starting a new relationship. He visits the family from time to time.

At one point, Chip appears at the house so that he can host auditions there for his country music band. His visit causes Ruby's mother to have an emotional episode.

The summer that Ruby sees Travis Becker's motorcycle, everything changes. Travis is the son of the richest family in town and is a bit of a "bad boy." He participates in risky behaviors that are likely meant to capture the attention of his negligent parents. Ruby begins sneaking out to see Travis and feels fearless for the first time.



The couple's encounters become riskier and riskier, and Travis eventually talks Ruby into stealing from the nursery where she works. Ruby feels uncomfortable with the suggestion but doesn't want to lose Travis. It's raining that night, and Travis severely injures himself in a motorcycle accident. Feeling that Travis is taking a dark and dangerous path, Ruby finally decides to end the relationship.

Devastated and in need of a distraction, Ruby accepts an invitation to a book club that Ann runs for senior citizens. Ruby is hesitant at first but soon becomes close to the Casserole Queens, who are mostly widowed women (and one man). The group spends their time exchanging stories, bickering, dispensing advice, and thinking about finding new partners. The name of their club refers to women who bring casseroles to a recently widowed man in hopes of engaging his romantic interest.

While reading an autobiography, the book club discovers that one of their members, Lillian, is the love interest of the author. A stroke has left Lillian debilitated, and she is being kept in a home by her controlling daughters. The book club writes to the author, Charles, and informs him of Lillian's condition. Charles writes back, insisting that they bring Lillian to him in California so that he can see her before she passes.



The Casserole Queens, Ann, and Ruby steal Lillian away from the old folk's home and embark on a days-long road trip from Washington State to Northern California. They hope to reunite Lillian with her old soul mate. Lillian dies a few weeks later, having spent her last days with Charles.

Finding completion in oneself rather than a relationship is a prominent theme in the novel. Ann struggles with her love for Chip, who abandoned his family to pursue his selfish endeavors and only returns when he needs something. Ruby struggles with her attraction to Travis, whose relationship threatens to drag her into dangerous situations. Ruby recognizes her mother's pattern of clinging to a relationship that causes her harm. Each woman supports the other in their goal of overcoming their attraction to poor partners. Ultimately, the two learn from the Casserole Queens that there's more to life than being someone's "honey, baby, sweetheart."

The novel met with mixed reviews. Publishers Weekly wrote of the book: "There is a lot of plot, often requiring the audience's leap of faith over not especially believable moments, and Caletti's prose, laden with strikingly apt comparisons, can make this book feel dense. Even so, so much here is uncommonly vivid..." School Library Journal adds that the book "begins somewhat slowly" but "it picks up speed." The novel was a finalist for the National Book Award.