Mad Honey
By Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan
Blurb
When is the right time to be who you always were?
From the bestselling authors Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan comes a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves.
The most compelling, challenging and contemporary novel you will read this year - and which will start conversations we need to have around authenticity, identity and gender.
Olivia fled her abusive marriage to return to her hometown and take over the family beekeeping business when her son Asher was six. Now, impossibly, her baby is six feet tall and in his last year of high school, a kind, good-looking, popular ice hockey star with a tiny sprite of a new girlfriend.
Lily also knows what it feels like to start over - when she and her mother relocated to New Hampshire it was all about a fresh start. She and Asher couldn't help falling for each other, and Lily feels happy for the first time. But can she trust him completely?
Then Olivia gets a phone call - Lily is dead, and Asher is arrested on a charge of murder. As the case against him unfolds, she realises he has hidden more than he's shared with her. And Olivia knows firsthand that the secrets we keep reflect the past we want to leave behind - and that we rarely know the people we love well as we think we do.
Our Review
"As it turned out, I was not a zealot...only a martyr. When I gave birth, and the doctor announced the baby's sex, I did not believe it at first. I had done such a stellar job of convincing myself of what I wanted that I completely forgot what I needed. But when I held Asher, slippery as a minnow, I was relieved. Better to have a boy, who would never be someone's victim."
Imagine having a dream about co-writing a book with an author, tweeting about it, and then that tweet leading to an outstanding book. This is exactly how Mad Honey came about and I am blown away, the story unfolded and the world outside the pages fell away.
The writing was seamless and compelling and the plot provided me with a much needed education on a certain topic that I won't reveal because this book is too good to spoil.
Mad Honey is first and foremost about how well we can really know someone we love.
When Asher was six Olivia left her abusive husband and returned to her hometown. Now he is a hockey playing teen with a beautiful girlfriend who has just been found dead. Asher is arrested for murder and as the trial unfolds Olivia learns she didn't know everything that went on in her son's life.
Olivia is an apiarist and this novel contains a crazy amount of knowledge about bees and the process of keeping them. It was absolutely fascinating and so throughly researched. I enjoyed learning about the bees as much as the rest of the story. Fascinating.
The topic of domestic abuse is sensitively handled in the book and I felt that learning about Olivia's relationship with her ex husband helped inform the reader as to her state of mind as the case unfolded.
Die hard fans of Jodi Picoult will be thrilled to see the return of Jordan in both a professional and personal capacity. He is Asher's uncle and agrees to take on the case.
I loved loved loved this book and I can see it being an istant hit. It has been several days since I finished it and the book hangover was severe!
"We don't know anyone as well as we think we do. Especially the people we love."
Our Final Rating...
Read & Shared 47 Times.
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