An Amazon Charts bestseller.
Humor and heart move the fast-paced journey of an unlikely pair coming together to form a family of their own in this touching story from New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde.
Bea has barely been scraping by since her husband died. After falling for a telephone scam, she loses everything and is forced to abandon her trailer. With only two-thirds of … her trailer. With only two-thirds of a tank in her old van, she heads toward the Pacific Ocean with her cat—on a mission to reclaim what’s rightfully hers, even if it means making others pay for what she lost.
When fifteen-year-old Allie’s parents are jailed for tax fraud, she’s sent to a group home. But when her life is threatened by another resident, she knows she has to get out. She escapes only to find she has nowhere to go—until fate throws Allie in Bea’s path.
Reluctant to trust each other, much less become friends, the two warily make their way up the Pacific Coast. Yet as their hearts open to friendship and love from the strangers they meet on their journey, they find the courage to forge their own unique family—and begin to see an imperfect world with new eyes.
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When I was offered Allie and Bea to read a review I didn’t hesitate for a minute. Pay It Forward, the author’s previous book changed my life, and how I look at life, and to have the chance to be part of this virtual tour for Allie and Bea is an honor that I humbly accepted.
And the journey Allie and Bea take, both mentally and physically, astonished me with the realistic and sober look at life, and how easy it is to shatter the frames of the life we live, rarely with a little care or thought for tomorrow.
This is not one of those stories that you read through one night, write a review, and move on with your life. To fully grasp the life-changing potential of the story, I needed to let it sit for a little while, and ponder about it.
The blurb sets the scene for the story in an excellent way. Both Allie and Bea end up homeless, living together in a van, depending on each other to survive. Either of them is fully responsible for their own predicament, how their lives end being what it is today. But they don’t have the luxury of blaming others or share the responsibility with someone else. They are on their own and often at the mercy of the strangers that they meet during their journey.
The story mesmerized my mind, it was not possible to stay as an observer looking at these two women at the opposite stages of life, trying to make it for one more day. The author dissect the human nature in a brilliant way, showing how easy it is to slip from the main flow of life, and how fast your morals, your ethicsx1b, your sense of right and wrong changes, when it comes to your own survival, when you are hungry, penniless, and in a need of place to sleep. When your basic needs have not been met the compromises can come effortlessly.
The ‘truths’ we often take as a necessity, because that’s just how things are, are put into a question in the story and shown in a new light. The way most people look at homelessness, and people living off from their cars, change because, in reality, they are just like you and me. How fragile is our lifestyle? How secure are we in our financial situation? How many hits can my own economy take before I’m living on the streets? It doesn’t necessarilyx1b take a storm to blow away the house of cards we have built, the privileges we take as self-evident rights.
Every person Allie and Bea meet end up making an impact on them, whether a good or bad. Sometimes it is an act of kindness that makes a change to their desired destination, sometimes just a word that makes them reflect on their own actions. I was left wondering how little it can take from me, in my interactions with others, to actually make a life-changing difference to someone else. Be careful what you say or do, you never know what kind of ripple effect it has on your environment and the world at large.
Both Allie and Bea change and grow as human beings and women through their time together. They share their lives, their life stories, their hopes, and their disappointments. Allie and Bea decide to look at their trip as an adventure, something positive and exciting to look forward to, instead of an escape from the realities they left behind, to that place where home used to be.
Until it comes the time to face it all again.
Allie and Bea is a beautiful story of survival, friendship, and kindred hearts. It is an honest and raw look at the human mind, the fragility of the western lifestyle and the standards we have created over the years and decades. It is an adventure of a mind and an experience that can make you take a new, fresh look at your life if your heart is open to it and to the change it can generate. It is a story that upon finishing it I immediately texted my sister and said ‘you need to check this book out’ because I wanted to share the transformative effect it had on me.
It is an epic story that I want to keep reading again, just to remind myself not to take anything for granted and to be kind to strangers. I want to keep the spirit of Allie and Bea’s story alive in my heart, just like Pay It Forward still has an effect on my daily actions and decisions.
~ Five Spoons
Bea is an elderly woman living month-to-month on her Social Security check and barely able to make ends meet. When she is scammed out of the last of her money, she devises a plan: she’ll pack up her van and live as best she can on the road. But she’s decided that the world owes her now, and as far as she’s concerned, anything goes.
Allie’s parents are arrested and she is left to fend for herself in a group home. Allie isn’t street-wise, so living within the system is difficult for her to deal with. She has a great sense of right and wrong, and has trouble when others cross that line. When her life is put in danger, she runs, and circumstances bring her right in Bea’s path.
Allie and Bea is a heartwarming story of two strangers being thrust together and trying to make the best of it. Author Catherine Ryan Hyde is an expert at creating real-life characters and putting them into extraordinary circumstances and then seeing how they cope. Bea is tired of being pushed around by society after working for years and being left with nothing. Allie has never thought twice about her upper-class upbringing until it all comes crashing down around her. Together, the two learn what is most important in life as they build a bond of friendship between them.
This story is a definite must-read.
What a charming and unexpected book! I feel like I read so many cookie-cutter books and this one was a breath of fresh air. The characters and situations were so unique and compelling. This is my second book by this author and will not be my last!
Catherine Ryan Hyde does it again!! I fall in love with all her characters. I love that they are so Real. They are so humanly flawed that I always relate to them. When I finish one of her books, I miss the characters.
Allie and Bea is one of the best.
really enjoyed this cross generational book
I loved this book!
I’m reading it now. I’m liking it.
Allie and Bea, an endearing novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde, held my rapt attention from beginning to end.
Bea, a crusty widow in her seventies, was already hard-up for money when a scammer cleans out her bank account. With no one to turn to, she takes a few belongings, her ancient cat Phyllis, and packs them into her late husband’s old bakery delivery van. She is officially homeless, with only a small monthly Social Security check that will automatically be deposited into her bank account. She sets out, not really having a plan nor destination.
Allie, fifteen, has what many people would consider a perfect childhood. Her family lives in a lovely Pacific Palisades home. Her life is ideal until her parents suddenly, in the middle of the night and before Allie’s eyes, are arrested for tax fraud, handcuffed and taken away. A case worker takes Allie to a group home, since she has no relatives that can take care of her. Unfortunately, Allie’s roommate at the group home is a mean, violent girl, whom other girls avoid. Fearing for her life, Allie escapes only to find her next situation even worse. She barely manages to run away from this latest threat.
Bea and Allie meet on the road. They join forces, tell people they’re “Grandmother and Granddaughter on vacation,” but their relationship isn’t at all harmonious. Bea is set in her ways, has never had children, and finds Allie annoying. Allie’s life is complicated. She’s been a vegan since she was nine years old—she simply can not eat what Bea calls food. But co-existence is the necessity now and the two begrudgingly make the most of their precarious situation. They manage by cunning, a few “shady deals,” and relying on the generosity of strangers.
With effort, Bea and Allie find ways to get along as they drive up the West Coast, both fascinated by the mighty Pacific Ocean. They find a degree of companionship as they strive to merely exist. But of course, this tenuous relationship can’t last and when their world crashes, they learn what they have meant to each other.
I loved Allie and Bea. Catherine Ryan Hyde shows depth in her characters, vividness in the scenery as they travel north, and knowledge about how law authorities work for teens whose parents can no longer care for them. I would recommend this book for any reader interested in human dynamics, and especially for teens who might wonder what it’s like “being on your own.”
Good book. I enjoyed it.
Would not expect anything less from Catherine Ryan Hyde. Every book she writes, draws you in.
Heartwarming story that helps you believe in the kindness of others.
The moment I began reading, I was hooked. I couldn’t put it down.
This book helped me understand the problems of a child left on their own with the Child Protective Services, group homes, Juvenile Detention, and on the streets. It also brought home the dangers experienced by an elderly person who is scammed by predators, and left without resources.
The developing friendship between the two main characters was interesting, the young teaching the old about new technology, and the voice of experience tempered by the outgoing nature of the young, with both being homeless and broke. Their journey up the west coast, while seemingly unnecessary, gave insight into some of the scenes along the ocean.
I just finished this book and I found it to be a relaxing read no profanity, no sex, just a nice clean, interesting, enjoyable read. The characters are believable and the story line will hold your interest all the way thru. I am very glad that I chose to read this book and look forward to more from this author.
Not my normal read, but I really enjoyed it. The two main characters were great. Each helped the other character grow throughout the story. A great adventure story for these two women!
I liked the beginning of the book. It started out really well. I could see my Mum in Bea in some ways. Then Allie entered the story and I felt the story took more of a teen twist. I would recommend this for the troubled teen. It was an easy read and I think teenage girls would relate to Allie.
Loved this book from the moment I started reading it!
I enjoyed the story and the premise that we live our lives more fully by reaching out to others. Allie’s character was initially appropriately (as a privileged child) annoying and Bea was aggravatingly clueless. Both grew on me as they changed, in Allie’s case, to a person who began to see the world with more nuance and Bea began to open up and pay attention to life. I thought the ending was too general, too abrupt and neat. As a former CPS worker, I had a great deal of trouble with some of the specifics: children were never placed in “juvie” if a placement couldn’t be found (they are not, after all, criminals) and they were never taken before a judge for simply running away (if so, we would have been in front of a judge frequently with every teen in care). Admittedly, it is far from a perfect system, the workers are overwhelmed with cases and the children do certainly become its victims but they are not criminalized
This was a good read.
Allie goes into foster care when her parents get arrested. Bea becomes homeless when she is scammed by a telemarketer. Allie runs away from the foster home, gets involved with white slavery and escapes to be saved by Bea. But, Bea is old school and Allie is rich kid spoiled.
They come to love and understand each other, or do they, as they travel together.
I really enjoyed reading the book. It was an eyeopener as far as what can easily happen in the world today. It dealt with how our elderly are taken advantage of and how our children often pay the price of things done by their parents. It was interesting to watch how the characters changed with the circumstances they were put in through twists of fate. I really liked the way the book ended.