Queen Bee by Dorothea Benton Frank (TLC Book Tour)

Holly McNee Jenson is a beekeeper on Sullivan’s Island in South Carolina.  She is a single thirty-year-old woman who lives with and takes care of her cranky mother, the Queen Bee.  Holly is great with kids and would love to be a teacher, but the wait list at the Sullivan’s Island elementary school is extensive and puts that dream out of her reach.  She uses her love for children to help out her neighbor Archie who lost his beloved wife less than a year before.  Tyler and Hunter love Holly and her cooking.  Holly would love to have a relationship with Archie, but unfortunately, he starts to date another woman.  Will Holly get her happy ending?

At the same time Holly is struggling to figure out her story, her mother’s golden child, Leslie has returned home after a stunning revelation has left her marriage in turmoil.  Will Leslie and Charlie be able to work things out?  Will the Queen Bee be able to figure out how to find happiness rather than negativity in life?

Queen Bee is narrated from a first-person point of view.  The chapters all started with a tidbit about bees, which I found very interesting.  Most of the chapters are from Holly’s point of view, but a few are from Leslie’s as well.  I loved that the story had a small southern town feel to it where Holly is quick to make friends and knows the locals.  I also like how Holly is trying to find her purpose in life.  I did wonder how her and her mother were making a living before she got her job at the grocery story.  The family dynamic was interesting and I really enjoyed how the three main ladies progressed in their personal growth throughout the story.  I am a fan of magical realism and I was delighted when Holly’s bees seemed to understand her stories to them and take matters into their own hands.  I was very annoyed at Archie through the novel, but the story grabbed me and held me in its grip until the end.  This novel had a great sense of humor as well.

Favorite Quotes:

“’I know.  It was terrible.  But I think we’re meant to help each other when life gets too difficult, don’t you?’

‘If we’re able to, yes.  It’s one of the beautiful things about humanity.  We actually can lift each other up.  Ease someone’s burden.  And it’s just, well, it’s just nice to help others.  There’s a special joy to be found in service.  You know, being useful.  Like your hives.”

“I knew what loneliness tasted like.  It was bitter, and you wanted to hide it because complaining about it made you look weak and pathetic.

Overall, The Queen Bee is an enjoyable summer novel.  I’m super stressed by work and life right now, and The Queen Bee is exactly what I need to find a way to unwind.  It’s a unique family drama and I greatly enjoyed it.

Book Source:  Review Copy from William Morrow Books for being a part of the TLC Book Tour.  Thank-you!  For more stops on this tour, check out this link. 

About Queen Bee

• Hardcover: 432 pages • Publisher: William Morrow (May 28, 2019)

Immerse yourself in the enchanting world of New York Timesbestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank’s Carolina Lowcountry in this evocative tale that returns at long last to her beloved Sullivan’s Island.

Beekeeper Holly McNee Kensen quietly lives in a world of her own on Sullivan’s Island, tending her hives and working at the local island library. Holly calls her mother The Queen Bee because she’s a demanding hulk of a woman. Her mother, a devoted hypochondriac, might be unaware that she’s quite ill but that doesn’t stop her from tormenting Holly. To escape the drama, Holly’s sister Leslie married and moved away, wanting little to do with island life. Holly’s escape is to submerge herself in the lives of the two young boys next door and their widowed father, Archie.

Her world is upended when the more flamboyant Leslie returns and both sisters, polar opposites, fixate on what’s happening in their neighbor’s home. Is Archie really in love with that awful ice queen of a woman? If Archie marries her, what will become of his little boys? Restless Leslie is desperate for validation after her imploded marriage, squandering her favors on any and all takers. Their mother ups her game in an uproarious and theatrical downward spiral. Scandalized Holly is talking to her honey bees a mile a minute, as though they’ll give her a solution to all the chaos. Maybe they will.

 Queen Bee is a classic Lowcountry Tale—warm, wise and hilarious, it roars with humanity and a dropperful of whodunit added for good measure by an unseen hand. In her twentieth novel, Dorothea Benton Frank brings us back to her beloved island with an unforgettable story where the Lowcountry magic of the natural world collides with the beat of the human heart.

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Photo by Debbie Zammit

About Dorothea Benton Frank

New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank was born and raised on Sullivans Island, South Carolina. She resides in the New York area with her husband. Find her on the web at www.dotfrank.com, or like her on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Waisted by Randy Susan Meyers (TLC Book Tour)

What would you do to lose weight and have the perfect body?  Daphne and April are two women in a crisis of life.   Daphne has a great husband, a job she loves, and two teenage kids.  But she can’t help but feel self-conscious about her shape, especially with her mother constantly harping on her.  April has a great husband and a beloved young daughter, but after her husband admits that he no longer finds her attractive due to her weight, she takes drastic measures to change it.

Both women enroll in “Waisted,” a documentary where women are taken to a remote mansion and they work on drastic weight loss.  What they thought would be a comforting retreat to learn about weight loss, turns into so much more as verbal abuse takes place. When women learn the true nature of the documentary, they know it is time to take action.

I’ll admit, I thought at the start that this was a cliché book about fat people, but it turned into so much more.  There were a lot of scenes at the start of Daphne and April sneaking treats and that was what made them overweight or fat.   But as a woman who has struggled with weight my entire life, I know it’s harder than that.  I basically have to look at sweets and I gain a few pounds.  Luckily as the book went on, it really dove into this issue and how much emphasis is put on women’s weight by society. 

A high school friend of mine passed away yesterday from Anorexia.  She has struggled with it since we were in high school.  She was a beautiful girl, but she struggled with this huge issue.  It is a hard issue for women.  I found it strangely ironic that I was just pondering it when she passed away. 

I’ve also been struggling with my own family’s obsession with weight and constant commenting about it.   I could really connect with Daphne in this story, but for me it’s my Dad, Grandma, and that side of the family that is always talking about it.

I love how after being a part of Waisted, the novel delves into domestic issues and how Daphne and April are able to come back to their regular lives.  Will they be able to keep the weight off?  How will they deal with their body issues?  What will their families think?    I’ve read a novel by Meyers before and she is excellent writing about family drama and marital relationships.  This was the best part of the novel.  It had an excellent final narrative to the story.

Favorite Quotes: 

“The world treated fat people like out-of-control horrors, when, in fact, those who inherited tendencies toward being heave exerted ten times as much control as the genetically thin even if all they wanted was to stay plum instead of fat.”

“’But you can always choose what kind of person you’ll be.  Concentrate on that.’

‘Being good?’

“Not just being good, but being smart and strong and finding your special talents.”

Overall, Waisted takes a good look at weight, society’s expectations, and how women are able to deal with it.  It was a great story and one that I think every woman should read.

Book Source:  Review Copy for being a part of the TLC Book Tour.  Thank-you!  For more stops on this tour, check out this link.

About Waisted

• Hardcover: 288 pages • Publisher: Atria Books (May 21, 2019) In this provocative, wildly entertaining, and compelling novel, seven women enrolled in an extreme weight loss documentary discover self-love and sisterhood as they enact a daring revenge against the exploitative filmmakers.

Alice and Daphne, both successful and accomplished working mothers, harbor the same secret: obsession with their weight overshadows concerns about their children, husbands, work—and everything else of importance in their lives. Scales terrify them.

Daphne, plump in a family of model-thin women, learned only slimness earns admiration at her mother’s knee. Alice, break-up skinny when she met her husband, risks losing her marriage if she keeps gaining weight.

The two women meet at Waisted. Located in a remote Vermont mansion, the program promises fast, dramatic weight loss, and Alice, Daphne, and five other women are desperate enough to leave behind their families for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The catch? They must agree to always be on camera; afterward, the world will see Waisted: The Documentary.

The women soon discover that the filmmakers have trapped them in a cruel experiment. With each pound lost, they edge deeper into obsession and instability...until they decide to take matters into their own hands.

Purchase Links

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million

About Randy Susan Meyers

Randy Susan Meyers is the bestselling author of Waisted, Accidents of Marriage, The Comfort of Lies, The Murderer’s Daughters, and The Widow of Wall Street. Her books have twice been finalists for the Mass Book Award and named “Must Read Books” by the Massachusetts Center for the Book. She lives with her husband in Boston, where she teaches writing at the Grub Street Writers’ Center. Find out more about Randy at her website, and connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev

Trisha Raje is a young gifted brain surgeon.  She has grown up in California as part of a very close family… and her father just happens to be royalty back in India.  The Raje family is tight knit, even more so now that Trisha’s younger brother Yash is running for governor.  The family has never forgiven Trisha for an event that occurred in the past that is the one thing that could derail Yash’s career.  Will Trisha be able to win her family back and will she be able to find a life outside of work?

DJ Caine is a chef who has moved to California to take care of his sister who is sick with cancer.  He is trying to get a break and has started to cater to the Raje family.  He is offended by the brusque Trisha at an event, and is even more surprised to find that she is his sister’s doctor.  Will he be able to put aside his prejudices and do what is best for his sister?

This novel has a title that sold me on it being a Pride Prejudice related novel, but it only has a hint of the Pride and Prejudice story.  It is not a modern retelling in the strict sense.   It is a gender swap with DJ Caine in the Elizabeth Bennet role and Trisha Raje as the proud Mr. Darcy.  Mr. Wickham makes an appearance in the form of Julia Wickham.  Julia is Trisha’s old friend that has a sordid past with Yash.

It’s this sordid past that I found troubling in the novel.  The treatment of rape did not sit well with me at all.  The family blaming Trisha for it as it was her friend that she had brought into the family also distressed me.  Trisha didn’t know her friend was sadistic and I don’t think her family should blame her for that.    I was glad that Trisha was able to find her way back to her family in this novel, but I felt she never should have been pushed away.

Other characters from Pride and Prejudice did not appear in the novel and it missed the charm and humor of the original.  I did enjoy the Raje family and the story, but it missed the mark for me.

Favorite Quotes:

“One Step at a time.  That’s how you changed the world.”

Overall, Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors was an interesting novel, but I wasn’t feeling the Pride and Prejudice chemistry in this novel.

Book Source:  Review Copy from William Morrow Books.  Thank-you!