#BookReview ‘The Beekeeper’s Daughter’ by @SantaMontefiore #summer #contemporary

7 Replies

I haven’t read a book by Santa Montefiore before, and if I’d seen the cover of The Beekeeper’s Daughter in a bookshop I doubt I would have picked it up. Flowers, soft focus woman in a flowing dress, all a bit twee for me. But I didn’t see the cover, I downloaded the book on impulse. Which goes to show how a cover can deter as well as attract, because I enjoyed the book. In a ‘I need an unchallenging read for a hot summer day when my brain isn’t fully-functioning’ kind of way.
Santa MontefioreThe bees are drawn beautifully, the description of bees, the beekeeping, their role in Grace’s life. I could not say the same for the World War Two strand, in which war was a distant event: the women take over work at the Hall, and they have plenty of vegetables to eat. Likewise the Seventies, lightly drawn with sweeping pencil strokes. That’s why for me, the book is a lightweight read although it examines heavyweight topics and the characterization is strong. So I guess this will be labelled as Romance Genre.
Will I read another Montefiore novel? Maybe, it would be immensely comforting if I was ill or was facing an endless plane flight. If you hate romance, this is not for you. There’s lots of youthful longing, love won and lost, sad adultery and mature longing of long-lost loves. I can see why her novels sell by the bucket-load.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AT AMAZON

If you like this, try:-
‘Butterfly Barn’ by Karen Power
‘The Audacious Mendacity of Lily Green’ by Shelley Weiner
‘One Step Too Far’ by Tina Seskis

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE BEEKEEPER’S DAUGHTER by @SantaMontefiore via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-19W

7 thoughts on “#BookReview ‘The Beekeeper’s Daughter’ by @SantaMontefiore #summer #contemporary”

  1. Pingback: #BookReview ‘Ferney’ by James Long #romance #timetravel | SANDRA DANBY'S BOOK REVIEWS

  3. roughseasinthemed's avatarroughseasinthemed

    I’ll read romance but it’s not my fave. I tend to lump it in with fantasy 😉

    But the Bluebirds one I read about WAAFs, while obviously had loads of romance, did have a lot in there about raw WAAF recruits, attitudes to WAAFs, how some of them developed in their jobs, took on more responsibility, and of course, how many pilots they met who died. Unlike yours, the war was very much in this romance novel, which was why I thought it was a better read than most. Similarly the one I read about ghost towns in Arizona was interesting. Classic boy meets girl and they don’t hit it off but fall in love end up in bed story, but the historical info about the towns lifted it out of the totally banal and appalling level to an interesting read. The ones to truly avoid are the American teenager goes to university (school?) ones.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

Leave a comment here