Saturday, February 7, 2015

The Beekeeper's Son by Kelly Irvin

The Beekeeper's Son by Kelly Irvin is what I hope is the beginning of a long series called the Amish of Bee County.  In this installment the Lantz family is moving from their beloved recently sold farm in Tennessee to a place in south Texas  where it is hot and dry but they would not even have  home to call their own.  They would be living with other families until their mother could decide when to remarry.  Deborah couldn't figure out why her mother was in such a hurry since she was still grieving the loss of her father and she knew that her mother, Abigail was also.  Their Amish faith dictated that widows were encouraged to remarry as soon as possible but no one could expect her to marry without love, could they?  Abigail had courted Stephen before their father and had chosen their father over Stephen and felt great guilt over the fact that Stephen had never married and had moved from his family upon Abigail's marriage.  As soon as the family arrives, Stephen starts to take over and wants to manage the family's life as if they were already married and of course that rubs the 5 children who range in age from 19 year old Deborah down to little Hazel the wrong way.  Deborah has left her own love interest, Aaron in Tennessee and as soon as her mother marries plans to return to him.  Deborah faithfully writes to both her best friend Josie and her fiancé, Aaron.   Josie writes back but for whatever reason she waits and waits for Aaron to write her and he does not.  Deborah though she continues to hate the weather and Stephen she starts developing interest in her uncle and his family especially Fannie her cousin who is closest to her in age.  She watches her mother who seems to bristle as the takeover attitude in Stephen and is growing closer to the more carefree and caring attitude of her neighbor, Mordecai the beekeeper.  Mordecai is a widower of 12 years and was left with his own 2 children to raise.  Mordecai's wife was killed in a terrible car accident that left son, Phineas with facial scars that disfigured his face horribly.  Phineas as a young adult had learned over the years to accept that others found him terrifying and had become used to the loneliness.  Deborah finds Phineas fascinating and easily overlooks the scars but cannot fathom why he is so disagreeable to her.  Phineas is also drawn to Deborah but is scared to declare his interest in fear that she will reject him as everyone else has done.  What will happen next?  Will Abigail fall for Mordecai or will she follow expectations and marry Stephen?  Will Phineas and Deborah ever get past their insecurities and develop at least a friendship?

I loved this book and hope that this series is a good selling one so I can read more.  It is well written and the author writes in a way that easily holds the interest of the reader.  Any age girl or woman could read and enjoy this book and I hope that they do.
I received this book from Booksneeze for this review.

No comments:

Post a Comment