Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen BOOK REVIEW

• Date Published:
  2008
• Length:
  304 pages—Listening Time: 6 hours 43 minutes
• Genre:
  Fiction, Historical Fiction
• Setting:
  Early 1970s, Ringgold, Georgia
• Awards
  USA Today Bestseller, Amazon Bestseller; SIBA Book Award Nominee 2009; Target Breakout Book 2009
• Languages:
  English
• Sensitive Aspects:
  Emotional aftermath of the death of a parent, adultery and marital infidelity, an “expectant mistress” and pregnancy outside of marriage, emotional abuse, strict Baptist religious environment that may feel judgmental or oppressive, small‑town gossip and social shaming around sexuality and family scandals, and portrayal of gender‑role expectations for Southern women in the 1960s–70s that some readers may find sexist or limiting
• Movie:
  As of May 2026, there is no official movie adaptation of Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen.
• Recommended for Book Club:
  Yes

Let me tell you something about small towns: they have a way of getting under your skin, whether you grew up in one or just drove through one on a summer road trip with the windows down and a country station fading in and out. I grew up in Texas in the 1970s, deep in the heart of Baptist potluck suppers, Sunday patent-leather shoes, and the kind of slow, sticky-aired quiet that makes a teenager absolutely desperate for something—anything—to happen. So when I cracked open Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen by Susan Gregg Gilmore, I wasn't just reading a story. I was practically living one I already knew by heart.

The setting is rural Georgia, not rural Texas, but honey, a small Southern town is a small Southern town. The gossip travels at the same speed. The church ladies bring the same casseroles. The hair is equally big, the humidity equally relentless, and the expectation that you will grow up, settle down, and stay put. Equally suffocating—especially if you happen to be a girl with a restless heart and a head full of bigger dreams.

That is exactly where we find Catherine Grace Cline. She's a preacher's daughter, which, as anyone who has ever been a preacher's daughter or known one will tell you, is its own very particular kind of complicated. She's got ambition, she's got charm, she's got a serious and completely understandable Dairy Queen habit, and she has spent the better part of her young life staring down the road out of Ringgold, Georgia, wondering when it's finally going to be her turn to take it.

The novel is, at its delicious core, a coming-of-age story—the kind that reminds you what it felt like to be young and hungry for a life you couldn't quite name yet. The kind that makes you laugh out loud at the absurdity of small-town expectations and then, three pages later, gets something in your eye. It's tender, funny, and surprisingly wise, capturing the ache of growing up—the push and pull between the place that made you and the person you're desperate to become.

And here's what I really want to say to you: if you are tired — tired of heavy literary fiction that leaves you staring at the ceiling, tired of the relentless news cycle, tired of doom-scrolling your way through another perfectly good Friday — this book is your permission slip to exhale. It's a breath of sweet, Southern-scented fresh air, wrapped in charm, humor, and heart.

Put down the doom. Pick up this book. Catherine Grace is waiting for you at the Dairy Queen, and trust me—she is absolutely worth the trip.

It's the early 1970s, and the town of Ringgold, Georgia, has exactly 1,923 residents, one traffic light, one Dairy Queen—and one Catherine Grace Cline. Those are the facts. Here's the situation: Catherine Grace is the daughter of Ringgold's third-generation Baptist preacher, which means the whole town has an opinion about everything she does, says, wears, and thinks. She is quick-witted, more than a little stubborn, and completely, utterly convinced that her real life—her actual life—is waiting for her somewhere far beyond the Ringgold city limits.

'Every Saturday afternoon, she plants herself at the Dairy Queen with a Dilly Bar and a head full of plans, plotting her escape to Atlanta with the kind of focused determination that most people reserve for more practical endeavors. Atlanta, in Catherine Grace's imagination, is everything Ringgold is not — big, anonymous, full of possibility, and mercifully free of people who have known her since birth.

Growing up alongside her is her younger sister, and filling the role of guiding light in the absence of her mother is Gloria Jean, her late mother's best friend and the kind of neighbor who shows up with wisdom, warmth, and zero tolerance for self-pity. Gloria Jean becomes a quietly essential figure in Catherine Grace's coming-of-age, teaching her the things that mothers teach—about love, about forgiveness, and about how to be honest with yourself even when it's inconvenient.

When Catherine Grace finally gets her chance to leave—with the help of a family friend—she doesn't hesitate. She packs her bags, says her goodbyes, and heads to Atlanta, leaving behind her family, the small-town rhythms she's spent years resenting, and the boy she loves. But Atlanta turns out to be more complicated than the dream version she built at the Dairy Queen counter, and before she's had a real chance to settle into her new life, tragedy pulls her back to Ringgold.

What she finds when she returns—and what she begins to understand about herself, her family, and the town she was so desperate to escape—forms the quiet, surprising heart of this story. Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen is ultimately about the push and pull between who we think we need to become and who we already are, set against the backdrop of a South that is slowly, stubbornly changing along with its most restless daughter.

If you've been following along here for any length of time, you already know I don't even review a book unless I genuinely think you and your reading support group will enjoy it. Well, I genuinely think this one belongs on your nightstand immediately. Here is why:

You love a coming-of-age story that doesn't feel like it was written for teenagers

Catherine Grace's story is nostalgic and funny and achingly real — the kind of coming-of-age narrative that works better when you read it with decades of living behind you, because you understand exactly what she's running toward and exactly what she doesn't yet know she'll miss.

You grew up in a Southern Baptist church—and you survived to laugh about it

If you know what a sword drill is, if you can still recite the books of the Bible in order at startling speed, if you grew up belting out Just As I Am and Blessed Assurance from a hymnal with a cracked spine—this book is going to reach right into your chest and squeeze. Gilmore captures that specific world with affection and just enough humor to make it feel like a fond reunion rather than a grievance. You'll recognize every single person in that congregation.

You don't have to have grown up in Georgia to feel right at home

I grew up in Texas, not Georgia, but a small Southern town is a small Southern town. The heat, the gossip, the casseroles, the very loud opinions of people who have known you since before you had teeth — all of it translated perfectly. If you grew up anywhere that had more churches than stoplights, you'll feel it too.

You're in the mood for something that makes you laugh AND gets something in your eye

This book is funny. Genuinely, laugh-out-loud funny. And then it will quietly ambush you with a moment so tender you'll have to set it down and collect yourself. It earns every single one of those emotions honestly.

You love a strong sense of place

Ringgold, Georgia, is so vividly drawn you could practically give yourself a tour. Gilmore writes small-town Southern life with the kind of intimate, textured detail that only comes from someone who actually lived it—and it shows on every page.

You appreciate a heroine with a little fire in her

Catherine Grace is not waiting to be rescued. She's impatient and funny and occasionally wrong about things in the most relatable way possible. She's the kind of character you want to have coffee with—and then probably argue with a little, just for fun.

You need a break from heavy, and you need it now

If your recent reading list has been a string of dark, weighty, emotionally demanding books—or if the news has simply worn you down to a nub—this is exactly the palate cleanser you've been looking for. It's warm without being saccharine and light without being shallow, and it will leave you feeling genuinely good about the world. We all need that sometimes.

You've enjoyed a Dilly Bar at the Dairy Queen

'Nuf said.

Get Susan Gregg Gilmore Books

Susan Gregg Gilmore writes warm, witty, deeply Southern stories about women finding their footing in worlds that underestimate them — the kind of novels that feel like sweet tea on a front porch and hit you right in the heart when you least expect it.

Bookshop.org was created as a socially conscious alternative to Amazon, with the goal of helping local, independent bookstores thrive. This is why Readers With Wrinkles supports their efforts. Please join us in this effort by purchasing your next read here.

Purchase Susan Gregg Gilmorebooks on Bookshop.org

Here are eight books you will love if Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen hit the sweet spot:

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman
Twelve-year-old CeeCee escapes a painfully difficult home life when she's sent to live with her great-aunt in Savannah, Georgia, where a community of eccentric, warm-hearted Southern women slowly teach her what it means to be loved and to belong. It's tender, funny, and deeply satisfying—practically a spiritual cousin to Catherine Grace's story.

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
A beloved Southern classic about mothers, daughters, lifelong female friendships, and the complicated ways the past shapes the present, told with humor, heart, and more than a little drama. If you love stories where Southern women are the whole show, this one delivers.

Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
Set in a small Georgia town at the turn of the 20th century, this coming-of-age novel follows fourteen-year-old Will Tweedy navigating family scandal, first love, and the relentless opinions of small-town neighbors. It's funny, warm, and captures small Southern community life with pitch-perfect detail.

Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts
When seventeen-year-old Novalee Nation is abandoned at an Oklahoma Walmart, she builds an unlikely life among the kind-hearted strangers who take her in. It's quirky, unexpectedly moving, and full of the kind of community and resilience that makes Southern fiction so irresistible.

The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen
Set in a small North Carolina town where old secrets and new friendships collide, this novel blends Southern charm, a touch of magic, and the quiet courage it takes to finally face what's been buried. Perfect for readers who love atmosphere, warmth, and women figuring out who they really are.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
The story of Kya Clark, a girl abandoned in the North Carolina marshes who raises herself on the edges of a small Southern community that never quite accepts her, is a tale of survival and resilience. It's a coming-of-age story, a mystery, and a love letter to the natural world all at once—and it will absolutely get something in your eye.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Set in early 1960s Mississippi, this novel follows three women — two Black maids and one young white woman with a typewriter and a lot of nerve — as they risk everything to tell stories that were never supposed to be told. It's funny, fierce, and rooted in the same Southern world Catherine Grace is navigating just a decade later.

It All Comes Back to You by Beth Duke
A dual-narrative Southern story about mothers and daughters, secrets and healing, told across generations with warmth and wry humor. If you love Readers With Wrinkles-style fiction—character-driven, emotionally rich, and deeply human—this one belongs on your list.