Honey Bee Mine is a delight! I like stories with nature themes and this one has bees! There’s a beekeeper in a small town and a reformed bad boy returning with his son. It’s got so much heart and I loved it!

Penny loves her bees but she has a problem. She owes the bank a large sum of money for a loan and if her Honey Festival doesn’t make a profit, she could lose Becker Farms. She has been working with beehives there since she was young. Her grandfather, father and her ex, Henry, all left and now it is her mother, grandmother and Penny that are still there, keeping the farm going.

Zander, Penny’s neighbor, has come back to Sullivan’s Glen to be with his eleven-year-old son, Winter. His ex, Mallory (Mal) and her partner, Quinn, came back to help Mal’s mom while she’s recovering from hip surgery. They live in Boston but they all decided to come back home to Sullivan’s Glen for the summer. Zander plans to fix up his grandfather’s home and spend time with Winter.

Zander and Quinn (his ex’s partner) are friends that commiserate over being rejected by their families. Quinn’s family rejected her because she is trans. Zander’s mom struggled with her mental health and didn’t know what to do with him so she left him with his grandfather during the summers. His grandfather was cold and grumpy and Zander felt abandoned and defiant.

Zander is entranced by Penny and thinks she’s beautiful. He asks for her help to remove a hive of bees he finds when he’s fixing up his home. He thinks she looks like a shiny angel and offers to help her with the Honey Festival. He wants to get to know her but shares that he’s planning to return to Boston in two months (he’s a chef that helps start-up restaurants) so it would only be temporary. It’s hard for her to trust and accept help. She’s afraid he won’t follow through, like other men before him, but she really needs help and when he shows up to work at some of her farmer’s markets, she begins to let him in. Penny and Zander were the best! They end up falling for each other while they are planning the festival and it’s sweet and spicy.

I loved the author’s last book, Birding with Benefits, where we learned about bird watching. In Honey Bee Mine we learn about bees as Winter (Zander’s son) becomes interested in them and Penny shows him her hives. The description of Becker Farms, in upper state New York, made it sound so beautiful. There are quirky secondary characters in the community that add to the fun and there’s a twist at the end of the story I didn’t see coming!

This is a feel-good story and one of my favorite books I’ve read this year! I highly recommend it.