The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin

Did you know queen bees hum/pipe at a distinctive G-sharp? I certainly did not until I read Eileen Garvin’s debut novel, “The Music of Bees”! I learned so much about beekeeping and bees in general from this novel, but all the information was packaged in a beautiful, heartwarming story.

Alice Holtzman is a forty-four year old woman, stuck in a dead-end job, as she mourns the loss of her husband and tends to her bees in Hood River, Oregon. She has a panic attack while driving and nearly hits Jake, a paraplegic teenager with the tallest Mohawk in the history of the high school from which he graduated. Jake is not phased, and actually is fascinated, by the 120,000 honeybees Alice was transporting in her truck. When Alice drives Jake home, she discovers his father is a horrible man she remembers from school. She ends up inviting Jake to live at her home and help with her honeybee farm.

Harry is a twenty-four-year-old who has been living with his uncle. After his uncle is hospitalized and Harry loses his home, he applies to work for Alice. The three form a friendship and work together on the farm. When some of the bee hives die unexpectedly, they realize a pesticide company is to blame. They work together to educate and activate the community to save the bees and local orchards.

I loved the way the three main characters formed an unlikely family as they worked to overcome challenges from their pasts. They were all interesting characters to read individually, but together they were even better. The beekeeping and environmental aspects of the story were also really interesting. I highly recommend this lovely story!

Check out The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin at the Library (https://catalog.lclibs.org/polaris/search/title.aspx…) or in the eLibrary at https://lclibs.overdrive.com/media/5695315.