Boop and Eve's Road Trip by Mary Helen Sheriff is a recommended Southern family saga following a road trip of a grandmother and granddaughter.

Eve Prince hates college, is fed up with her mother Justine's expectations, and is concerned about her best friend who seems to be MIA. She wants to borrow her grandmother's car to search for her friend, but when her grandmother Boop hears this, she suggests a road trip for both of them, with a stop in to see Boop's sister. The two can see Victoria, Boop's exacting sister, and then head to the beach house where Eve is sure her best friend is staying. There are other generational secrets and unfulfilled desires going on behind the scene and a road trip may be just the thing to get Eve talking and to allow Boop to maybe share a secret she has held for almost sixty years.

On the surface this is a story of a road trip after a granddaughter's disastrous first year at college and to help a grandmother reach her sister's house. It is also a novel about how depression can overtake your life and acceptance of children with special needs. It covers controlling parents expecting too much from their children and those who try to control other people's lives. Most of all it is about family and how even the most messed up relationships can be mended if you truly pay attention to what is said.

I liked this novel- I really did, but while this novel drips Southern charm and on a deeper level even the most cynical reader will wish the best for Boop and Eve, as well as the rest of the extended family and friends, there are some hurdles the rest of us need to overcome to reach this epiphany. First is the name "Boop" for a grandmother. Enough said. Next is the sprinkling of "ain't" and other grammatical problems throughout Boop's dialogue. Finally, the tallest hurdle of all is the plethora of Boop's folksy Southern sayings liberally sprinkled throughout the entire text, things like "life's full of rotten eggs. Hope's what keeps the chicken's laying" and plenty of "butter my butt and call it a biscuit" sorts of things. I struggled mightily overlooking and accepting them. This may be a flaw on my part and I will accept that, but if you believe these issues may bother you, keep that in mind.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of She Writes Press .
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2020/10/boop-and-eves-road-trip.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3585625445 ( )

I had high hopes for this book but there were just too many “Gosh, dang, thang, this here, that there, butter my butt and call me a biscuit” cliches. Then there was all the negative energy, feelings and emotions with no one cutting anyone a break.

Boop is convinced of her failure as a parent, Justine’s goal in life is to reinforce Boop’s feeling of failure while always taking the time to be the most controlling Momster, and her daughter Eve is an absolute misery with all her self-doubts. Yeeks and yuck, three generations of so much negativity in too many pages. I read on and on and on thinking there would be a reprieve and I would discover that warm glow of Grandmother, daughter and granddaughter coming together, arms around one another. By the time it almost happened I just didn’t care.

I am definitely in the minority and readily admit that this was just not the book for me. Thank you NetGalley and She Writes Press for a copy. ( )