The Wedding Bees
By Sarah-Kate Lynch
Publisher: William Morrow
Release Date: January 28, 2014
I was coming off a cold, hard winter when I picked up THE WEDDING BEES, a story in which the author has written summer to flavor everything from clothing to activities to food.
Yes, please.
First “perfect read” requirement met. Especially right now.
But timing isn’t enough, I’m afraid. Timing would mean nothing if the author didn’t have the chops to write her summer setting in such a way as to warm my bones, where reading a chapter has made me feel as though I’ve just absorbed a potent shot of Vitamin D through her words, where even her characters--some terribly sad and damaged--seem sunny at the core. THE WEDDING BEES has them all: original, funny, sad, vulnerable characters. And I cared for the extended cast nearly as much as I cared for the hero/heroine. Which brings me to the heroine.
First “perfect read” requirement met. Especially right now.
But timing isn’t enough, I’m afraid. Timing would mean nothing if the author didn’t have the chops to write her summer setting in such a way as to warm my bones, where reading a chapter has made me feel as though I’ve just absorbed a potent shot of Vitamin D through her words, where even her characters--some terribly sad and damaged--seem sunny at the core. THE WEDDING BEES has them all: original, funny, sad, vulnerable characters. And I cared for the extended cast nearly as much as I cared for the hero/heroine. Which brings me to the heroine.
Sugar Wallace, a former debutante with a past she’s trying to escape, lets her honeybee queen decide each year where she will live next. After all, the bees have never steered her wrong. The reason she escaped her past in the first place was because the bees gave her a sign. So when her queen bee stops on New York City on an old map, Sugar moves there.
She finds herself in an East Village walk-up full of strange neighbors who need a little of her honey, care and Southern-bred manners. So after setting up her bee hives on the balcony of her tiny rooftop apartment, Sugar throws herself into helping each one of her them, making each a part of her eccentric little family.
But then there’s Theo Fitzgerald, the Scottish lawyer who falls for Sugar the moment he meets her. And even though the smallest contact of his hand on hers feels like “a blowtorch on crème brûlée,” it’s too quick. He’s too much, too charming; the happiness he promises her, too threatening. Sugar is not interested. She can’t be. She’ll help other people find love but for herself, honey is the sweetest thing she’ll allow in her life. Though her bees may have other ideas. After all, they’ve never steered her wrong.
THE WEDDING BEES isn’t your typical romance with pounding sexual chemistry or white knuckled suspense. It’s quiet. Different. And yet I found myself making excuses to friends and family so I could read. Lynch breathed fresh, sunny air into my otherwise stale winter. Perhaps her new take on this contemporary American romance may have something to do with being a New Zealander--she gives New York City a homey, small-town feel which may, in part, have to do with being a visitor, with shrinking down a place to make it more accessible. Or it may be she’s just a lovely writer who sees the world as her own little beautiful neighborhood. Either way, the book is utterly charming.
She finds herself in an East Village walk-up full of strange neighbors who need a little of her honey, care and Southern-bred manners. So after setting up her bee hives on the balcony of her tiny rooftop apartment, Sugar throws herself into helping each one of her them, making each a part of her eccentric little family.
But then there’s Theo Fitzgerald, the Scottish lawyer who falls for Sugar the moment he meets her. And even though the smallest contact of his hand on hers feels like “a blowtorch on crème brûlée,” it’s too quick. He’s too much, too charming; the happiness he promises her, too threatening. Sugar is not interested. She can’t be. She’ll help other people find love but for herself, honey is the sweetest thing she’ll allow in her life. Though her bees may have other ideas. After all, they’ve never steered her wrong.
THE WEDDING BEES isn’t your typical romance with pounding sexual chemistry or white knuckled suspense. It’s quiet. Different. And yet I found myself making excuses to friends and family so I could read. Lynch breathed fresh, sunny air into my otherwise stale winter. Perhaps her new take on this contemporary American romance may have something to do with being a New Zealander--she gives New York City a homey, small-town feel which may, in part, have to do with being a visitor, with shrinking down a place to make it more accessible. Or it may be she’s just a lovely writer who sees the world as her own little beautiful neighborhood. Either way, the book is utterly charming.
After a trip to research THE WEDDING BEES, Sarah-Kate Lynch wrote: “I thought about what really mattered to me in my life at that particular point and I came up with six things: love, friendship, manners, New York City, the South and honey.”
Include good writing and it all adds up to make THE WEDDING BEES my perfect end-of-winter read.
~J Perry Stone
J Perry Stone is an aspiring Historical Romance writer who is a giant proponent of books and of love... romance being the place where the two live happily ever after. She lives in Charlotte, NC with her husband and two children.
~J Perry Stone
J Perry Stone is an aspiring Historical Romance writer who is a giant proponent of books and of love... romance being the place where the two live happily ever after. She lives in Charlotte, NC with her husband and two children.
