Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

Synopsis:

Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life–living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising their beautiful son, Asher–was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined that she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in and taking over her father’s beekeeping business.

Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start.

And for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia and Lily need. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily can’t help but fall for him, too. With Ash, she feels happy for the first time. Yet at times, she wonders if she can trust him completely. . . .

Then one day, Olivia receives a phone call: Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned by the police. Olivia is adamant that her son is innocent. But she would be lying if she didn’t acknowledge the flashes of his father’s temper in Ash, and as the case against him unfolds, she realizes he’s hidden more than he’s shared with her.

Mad Honey is a riveting novel of suspense, an unforgettable love story, and a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves.

My Thoughts:

TRIGGER WARNINGS: DOMESTIC ABUSE

Thank you to Ballantine Books for letting me have an advanced copy to read. My last Jodi Picoult read, Wish You Were Here, was incredible, so when I saw that this novel was being released, I knew I wanted to read it. This book was written by two authors, so not only did Jodi Picoult help to write it, but also Jennifer Finney Boylan.

The book starts out talking about Bees and the whole process of how bees live, produce honey, etc. That part was interesting as I didn’t know a lot about it. Then we get to the bones of the story; the people and the story itself. We’ve got romance, domestic violence, motherhood, beekeeping, and death.

In all honesty, the second half of the book felt like a different story than the first half It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the story, but at times I thought it was a bit too much of trying to get certain topics into the story. There was a HUGE twist in the story that I didn’t see coming at all and my mouth fell to the floor when I read it.