The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin

 

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I love novels about bees. Of course, when I'm outside and a bee is around, I'm always nervous I'll be stung! However, I'm on Team Bee and will grow as many flowers as I can for them to thrive and survive. 

This book had me up and down a few times. It started slow--or maybe it was me reading other books and picking this one up every once in awhile and reading a few pages. I was having a hard time connecting, and then when I properly dove in and read a chunk, I thought "hmmm, okay this is interesting". 

Then I hit a high note on my reading, and it all clicked in and I absolutely loved it. Every bit of it. Bees for the win!

This is a novel about three people who are all a bit lost, and beekeeping brings them together to heal. Alice, Jake, and Harry would never have known each other even though they all lived in the same smallish town of Hood River, Oregon. A place of stunning beauty, where nature is overwhelmingly present. 

Jake is nineteen, and stuck at his parent's home after becoming paralyzed in a stupid accident his senior year. His father is a horrible jackass, and his mother quietly goes about her business. Jake is lost. He spends his days in his wheelchair, fixing his mohawk and pushing his wheelchair down roads to get away from the empty house. He feels his life is over. 

Alice is a recent widow who is overwhelmed by her grief. So much so that she goes out of her way to interact with as few people as possible. She lives outside of town on a small acreage and keeps bees. 

Harry, oh, poor Harry. He's wandered around the country and is now staying at his great Uncle's run down mobile home out in the woods. He has no job and walks everywhere. He struggles to make sense of where life has led him and choices he's made. 

Everything is set in motion one night as Alice is driving back from Portland after picking up her order of bees to start her season of beekeeping. She swerves to avoid hitting Jake, who is wheeling along on the side of the road. The two meet, and circumstances lead to Jake staying at Alice's house to help her with the bees. And that is where the story kicks in and Jake blossoms. 

Harry sees an ad in the local job listings for part-time work and applies. That job is at Alice's place, doing light construction and clean up. 

The relationship between the three starts off a bit slow, but eventually they are a powerhouse together--Jake finds his purpose in beekeeping, and has an almost mystical ability to understand the bees. Harry and Jake become friends and help each other be brave. Alice slowly begins to put aside her grief and regrets. A pesticide company that is known to decimate bee populations has come to town, and a fight is lit in Alice. She finds her purpose, too. 

This was a novel that surprised me and left me with so many feelings at the end! I felt like I'd been on a journey with these characters and was just thrilled at their healing and moving forward. It was a joy to finish this book. Not at all what I expected--I guess I thought it would be a lighter story and a fun read. It wasn't dark, but definitely touched on dark issues: suicidal thoughts, devastating grief, an abusive parent, overcoming physical limitations, mental health. However, these issues were presented in a thoughtful way that added to the story and understanding characters. 

The bees!! I learned a lot about bees, too. They are amazing, and yes, magical. You'll understand the music of the bees.

Rating: 5/6 for a wonderfully uplifting novel about the healing power of nature and our deep connection to all things wild and wonderful. A moving story of unlikely friendships and connections, and the unlimited potential in all of us. 

Available in hardcover ebook, and audio.

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The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin

The Late Bloomers' Club by Louise Miller

I was thrilled to receive an advanced copy of The Late Bloomers' Club in the mail last week. I absolutely loved Louise Miller's first novel, The City Baker's Guide to Country Living.  Set in the little town of Guthrie, Vermont, this novel has the same warmth and delicious baking that made CBGTCL one of my favorite reads of 2016. 

Nora Huckleberry owns and runs the town's beloved Miss Guthrie Diner; first started by her parents, and inherited by Nora after her mother dies of cancer and her father falls apart. Taking care of her younger sister Kit as a teenager, Nora has always done what she should do, rather than what she wants. The diner is popular, but always has something that needs fixing, and takes up so much of Nora's time she has little for her real passion: creating art. When a local cake baker, Peggy Johnson suddenly dies and leaves her house and land to Nora and Kit, it starts a whole new chance for the town, and Nora, to begin a new life. 

Elliot, a representative from HG Corporation, had been in talks with Peggy before her death on purchasing her land for a new big box store. Nora and Kit could sell the land, pay all their bills, and have some extra cash. It would help Kit with her struggling film career, and help Nora get ahead of diner bills. But Peggy's home includes an old growth orchard and some surprises in the woods. As Nora discovers what Peggy kept hidden from the town, she falls in love with the comfort, quiet, and sense of home Peggy's place provides. And darn it all, Elliot is a cutie, too. Nora has to not only think about what would benefit her, but what a big box store would mean to the town of Guthrie and all the small shop owners who make their living from tourists. It would change the makeup of Guthrie permanently, and while there are benefits, are they worth it?

There's so much more to this novel; I don't want to give any of it away. Cakes are a big part of it all, and like a great cake, you should savor every bite. Peggy's life may have seemed quiet, but she had a lot going on behind the scenes, and those secrets effect Nora and Kit's choices. 

This was such a lovely book to read, especially after The Hunger. The town of Guthrie must surely exist somewhere, and all the wonderful folks who make Guthrie a special place are out there, too. Characters from The City Baker's Guide to Country Living populate this novel, and it felt like a continuing story, with hardly any time gone by. 

A big thank you to Pamela Dorman/Viking for an advanced review copy. Just what this gal needed in the dog days of summer. 

Rating:  5/6 for a delightful return to the small Vermont town of Guthrie. It's never too late to realize your dreams.  And the cakes! Oh, the cakes. Yum. 

Available in hardcover and ebook. 

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The Late Bloomers' Club by Louise Miller

At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier

The Goodenough family moves to Ohio in 1838 after leaving Connecticut and all of their relatives behind.  James and Sadie are one dysfunctional couple, and their dislike for each other makes you wonder how they got married in the first place.  James is determined to establish an apple orchard, and works day and night to keep his orchard of "spitters" and "eaters" from being destroyed by the Black Swamp.  James cares more for his precious apples than he does for his children and his wife.  Sadie is a drunk who has come to loathe the apple trees; she only cares about the spitters, and how much apple jack they can produce.  It is a vicious cycle of resentment, hard work, and struggle that has turned James and Sadie against each other.  

John Chapman aka Johnny Appleseed is not the jolly young man we remember from childhood; he is a bit of a wild man, spending the year traveling via canoe around what at that time is wild territory, selling seedlings to pioneers and loudly preaching the word of God.  Sadie looks forward to his visits because he brings apple jack; James buys seedlings from him, but doesn't appreciate John's dislike of grafting trees in the pursuit of growing the perfect apple.  The stench of the swamp, the dreaded swamp fever that has claimed five of their ten children, the constant tension in the air...all make for an explosion just waiting to happen.  

The story jumps into a series of letters from Robert, the youngest Goodenough, who leaves Ohio and travels West doing odd jobs.  He writes letters back home for years, but never gets a response.  The letters are a transition that at first feels a bit jerky, but soon makes a lot of sense, as the story moves forward 15 years.  After reading the whole novel, I liked this method of transition, because it kept me wondering about why Robert left Ohio at such a young age (12!) and what happened to the family.  Robert, most like his father in his love for apple trees and a talent for grafting, runs into William Lobb, an Englishman who is collecting seeds and seedlings from redwoods and giant sequoias to send to England.  Finding in Robert a perfect partner, William sends Robert traveling through California in the waning days of the gold rush, furthering Robert's love of trees and the wonder of the majestic redwoods.  Yet Robert's past is catching up to him...

I don't want to give anything else away, but the story does include another batch of letters, this time from a family member to Robert.  He never gets the letters, but we travel back to 1838 Ohio, and witness what has become of the Goodenough family, and what happened after Robert left.  I felt a big "ah!" reading this part of the novel, and it all came together.  I have to say I finished the last page, and was surprised to feel a bit sad to end the story.  The Goodenough saga was one of extreme dysfunction, abuse, betrayal, and bitterness.  James and Sadie are awful to each other; it makes me wonder where the vicious cycle of anger and resentment began: was it because Sadie drank too much, or did she begin drinking because she felt ignored by James, who loved his trees more than anything else? Did James become more obsessed with his trees in order to escape Sadie, thus driving her to drink? Would their lives have been different if they had never left Connecticut?  

I've left out some big bits of the story, but that is for you to discover.  I found the apple tree cultivation to be very interesting, and the descriptions of the redwoods to be awe-inspiring.  Tracy Chevalier perfectly conveys the awesome beauty of nature; it has the power to inspire, and the power to destroy.  It can enrich our lives, or it can drive us mad.  The Goodenough family experiences both sides of Nature.  

Rating:  7/10 for a look at the struggles of farmers in early Ohio, establishing an orchard in an hostile environment, and a small slice of botany history.  Some people may find the sudden change in the story line jarring, but I felt it worked for the story and kept me waiting for the inevitable return to the past and the Goodenough family troubles.  

Available in hardcover, e-book, and audio.  

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At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier

The Last Camellia by Sarah Jio

There are a few authors that I will automatically read whenever they have a new book published.  Sarah Jio is one of those authors.  I've read all of her books, and love her mix of history and mystery.  

The Last Camellia is Sarah's latest, and it involves a rare camellia, the Middlebury Pink.  It was long thought extinct, but one does exist; on the Livingston estate in England.  Here's where the past and the present come together and the story of Flora and Addison blend.

Flora's story begins in 1940.  She's a young American with an interest in botany; she works in her parent's bakery in New York City.  She is contacted by a ring of botany thieves to travel to England and find the mysterious Middlebury Pink on the Livingston estate.  Plans are to remove it and sell it to a Nazi officer for his girlfriend.  Flora hates to do it, but the lure of money to help her parents in their struggle to survive leads her to accept the job.  She finds herself on a ship to England, and the nasty Mr. Price is also on the ship, making sure she doesn't slip up and change her mind.

Once in England, Flora finds out she's been hired as the new nanny to the four Livingston children.  Their mother, Lady Anna, has died and the kids are uncontrollable.  Lady Anna was an American who love camellia trees and started an orchard of the trees on the estate.  Somewhere in that orchard is the Middlebury Pink that Flora has to find.  But how will she do it?  And as she gets to know and love the children, will she be able to betray the family and steal?

Addison Sinclair is our present day gardener.  She lives in New York City with her husband Rex and is a budding garden designer.  She has a secret past that is rearing it's ugly head:  a horrible man is released from prison and is calling her, threatening to tell her husband everything if she doesn't give him money.  Afraid for her life, she convinces Rex to travel to England for the summer to live at--you guessed it--Livingston estate.  Rex's parents have just purchased the estate, are traveling abroad, and are happy to have Addison and Rex stay all summer.  

Addison is there only a short time before she begins to feel there is a mystery surrounding the estate.  The housekeeper, Mrs. Dilloway, has been in charge of the house for 70 years; she knows every secret and won't tell much.  As Addison explores, she soon finds Lady Anna's secret:  a large conservatory built in the middle of the house, where she grew orchids, flowering vines, and lemon trees.  And she discovers a book Lady Anna put together about the camellia orchard, along with newspaper clippings about the disappearances of local women during the late 1930's.  Did Lady Anna discover something that lead to her death?

The story moves back and forth between Flora in 1940 and Addison in contemporary times.  Both are beginning to piece together the puzzle of Lady Anna's death, while still trying to find a solution to the sticky situations they find themselves in with no seemingly easy way out.  Will Flora confess to why she was sent to Livingston?  Can Addison escape Sean, the horrible criminal from her past?  The stories of the two women do tie together neatly, with an ending that will make you anxious for Flora and hopeful for Addison.  


If you're looking for a quick summer read full of floral information, a little bit of history, and a little bit of mystery, this is one to put in your tote for the vacation.  I always recommend Sarah Jio to people who want a good, solid story that keeps moving along and keeps the reader engaged and caring about the characters.  

Rating:  7/10 for characters, setting, and the information about camellias.  A solid read!  

Available in paperback, e-book, and audio.

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The Last Camellia by Sarah Jio