20190427_180200.jpgWelcome to my stop on the Queen Bee blog tour sponsored by TLC Book Tours! Thanks to TLC for the invitation! I’ve been looking forward to Queen Bee for some time as a fan of DBF. Woo hoo!

My Thoughts on Queen Bee:

I always kick off the summer months with a Dorothea Benton Frank novel, and I have since she first came on the scene as an author, and I was living in South Carolina. She has her own special, fun style, and I couldn’t wait to read her latest effort. 

As always, set in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, we have a couple kinds of queen bees in this novel! The first is the matriarch of the family, Katherine, known as QB; she is mom to Holly and Leslie. She is a diva, but she also grows during this novel and becomes a champion of a main character. 

Holly is a beekeeper (more bees!), and now that’s she’s over thirty and unmarried, she’s feeling extreme pressure to find “the one.”

Leslie has recently left her husband and has quite the story to tell. 

Sullivan’s Island is described in lush and accurate detail. The characters are charming, quirky, and heartwarming. The storytelling is the kind you relax into. I love how the bees enriched the story. Everyone grows and changes, and there’s an honesty in that growth. 

I don’t want to risk spoilers, but DBF is back with another classic novel, a story of family, heartbreak,  as well as healing and hope. I loved every ounce of it and hope this bodes well for the rest of my summer reading because of it! We southerners are superstitious, after all! 😉 

I received a complimentary copy. All opinions are my own. 

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.

Have you read Queen Bee, or is it on your TBR? Happy Reading! ~ Jennifer THR