Queen Bee audiobook

Favorite Quotes:My mother sighed so hard then that the National Weather Service issued small craft warnings.Cleopatra could not have put any more intention and effort into the seduction of Mark Antony. The only things I didn’t have were a CD of Barry White’s and a scented candle.There are no more big choices at our age. You’ve made them. Now you have to wait for a promotion to do just what you’re doing, except more of it, for some stupid incremental raise. It’s a big fat snore.Leslie stayed home the night before Archie and Sharon were to be married, probably to give her liver a rest. I was pretty sure the Gentlemen of the Tap were holding a candlelight vigil at Dunleavy’s Pub, praying for her swift return.The gates of hell opened wide when she croaked… I smell sulfur. In the Lowcountry, we believed bad things happened in threes. Becoming the third wife of a man twice widowed was a terrifying prospect.My Review:I smirked and wore a near constant grin as I gleefully perused this delightfully engaging book. It was a treasure chest overflowing with wry wit and slyly deployed levity. I adore Dorothea Benton Frank’s amusing and captivating Lowcountry stories, this is the sixth one I’ve read and I have cherished each and every one of them. Her writing style is comfortable and engaging, yet deceptively insightful and cleverly observant. But it is her unforgettable, uniquely drawn, and deliciously peculiar characters that seal the deal for me. I will eagerly await her next offering.

Is it really summer without a new Dorothea Benton Frank novel to read? I love returning to the Lowcountry and the quirky families that live there every summer with Frank's novels and Queen Bee is no exception. Queen Bee brings us an actual Queen Bee (in the form of a grouchy old mother) as well as the Queen Bee of the Honeybee variety - and 3,000 others in the hive! Sisters Holly (she of the beekeeper fame) and Leslie are both struggling to find themselves, Holly with her widower neighbor and his young sons and Leslie, coming to terms with the fact that her husband Charlie wants to perform as a Drag Queen in Vegas. At the heart of the story, like many of Frank's other novels, is family and identity. With our cast of quirky characters that somehow shouldn't fit so seamlessly in one story, yet do, you will feel at home and find yourself with a smile on your face and not quite ready to say goodbye to this crew. Thank you to William Morrow for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

A fun lowcountry tale that’s delightful to read. Not only was it a good story taking place on Sullivan’s Island, I loved the information on bees. From sweet Holly and her love for her neighbor's children, to her crazy sister and cranky mother, I loved how their story flowed and kept me intrigued.If you need a quick and easy summer read, this is it. 🐝

Wow! What a blend of characters and tales.I had a tiny bit of difficulty getting into this book, but once in it, I could not put it down. The author managed to blend three separate stories and lives into one complete book without me being annoyed or feeling as if the book was more of a series of novellas. This is something other authors have a lot of trouble with.We have Holly who considers herself as a spinster at the age of thirty who is in love with her across the street neighbor. He is just soooo wrong for her, but as their story-line unfolds you will enjoy, be unhappy, be angry and then be relieved with how this all plays out.We have Leslie whose life is becoming more and more bizarre and has just left her husband, but I can't tell you why because this was not discussed in the synopsis and I don't want to spoil it for you. Let's just say it all works out. And that this was one of the most unusual and intriguing parts of this book and teaches us great lessons in learning to live with those we may find a tad 'different'.Then we have the Queen Bee also known as QB (which I kept mistaking for Quarter Back!) -this is Holly and Leslie's mom. She starts out as the typical Southern Diva, but her character grows tremendously and she becomes one of the funniest and wise characters in this book. Then there are the bee's - the honey bee's to be specific -I learned a lot about them and I found the relationship between them and Holly (the beekeeper of these hives) to be a remarkable one.I loved this book and even though I have read this via an ARC, I will be buying my own copy AND I will also be reading more by this author.HEA's abound and that makes me a happy camper -not much angst, (a little bit at the start) not enough to make me want to stop reading; self-reflection...well Holly does a lot of that but she finally grows to accept herself for who and what she is.Great summer read. Happy reading!*ARC supplied by the publisher.

Queen Bee was a sweet story. I enjoyed the characters; their dreams and flaws made them relatable; however, some of the characters, Char and Suzanne, were hilarious and added unexpected humor to what I thought would be a standard beach read.

A fun story full of family, family drama, love, and humor. Benton pulled me into to the story and I felt like I really got to know her quirky, flawed, lovable, and well imagined characters.I listened to this book on audio and enjoyed the narrator's voice.

A charming book I truly enjoyed. The characters are well developed and likable, the plot is engaging and entertaining.I found this book both entertaining and enjoyable.I look forward to reading other books by this author.Recommended!Many thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I just love this author! Dorothea Benton Frank. Her characters are quirky, so are the plot lines. They are just fun! You get funky characters and plot lines interacting with the magic of the low-country south. In this iteration is a lovely lonely beekeeper, (also cake decorator, teacher, nanny, caretaker, and cook, what have you....) and she talks to the bees about her day to day mini dramas. You learn a lot about bee dynamics and how the honey bees work, but this is also mirrored and reflected in her family constellation, and romantic paramours. In the first real life hive, Queen Bee refers to her mother, who is a character and not necessarily a nice or an easy one. The dethroning of the queen is never easy however, and the hive makes very clear their intentions in all the situations emerging around them. There are two daughters, Holly and Leslie, a cross dressing husband, three love interests and multiple paramours, a wicked stepmother, a new fabulous friend/partner in crime. Actually, two of them, and right - about 300,000 bees. I just loved it, and stayed up late and devoured it in an evening. It was super fun. And perfect for the animals tag.

This was a group read with my Booklovers Group. And it made reading this book even more special. I adored the bees, their keeper and her quirky family. As always the Southern setting played such a main part and was one of my favorite things about this book. The little boys next door broke my heart and I just loved them. I have such tender feelings for this book, coming as it did on the news of the authors death. So I read slow and savored every word. What a gift I recommend this book to lovers of family drama, fabulous main characters and lovely Southern settings. I enjoyed my time in its pages

After a few detours in her recent books, Dorothea Benton Frank returns to Sullivans Island off the coast of Charleston in her newest book, Queen Bee.Thirty-year-old Holly Jensen lives with her critical and demanding mother, whom she and her sister Leslie have dubbed Queen Bee, or QB for short (and behind her back). Holly volunteers at the local library while she anxiously awaits for a teaching position to open up at the local elementary school.Holly is a beekeeper, with a huge hive of bees in the backyard. She uses the honey from the hives as gifts for family and friends. She also has a (not-so) secret crush on Archie, the recent widower who lives next door with his two young sons, Tyler and Hunter. The boys love Holly, and she loves them, often keeping them after school, helping them with homework, and baking them cookies.The wheels start to come off the bus when sister Leslie shows up with a tale of marital woe. At the same time, Archie quickly marries Sharon, a local dentist and evil stepmother who gives Cinderella's stepmother a real run for her money.Queen Bee has Frank's trademark humor, with a few scenarios that are downright giddy. We have female impersonators, a trip to Las Vegas, Cher's long-lost "sister" Char, and bees who appear to listen to the woes of Holly and take revenge on her enemy. (I just saw Cher in concert, so I really got a kick out the Char storyline.)In addition to the humor, there is romance and and pathos. As the mother of two sons (now grown), I really felt for Tyler and Hunter as they mourned the loss of their mother and tried to understand their evil stepmother.There is also a lot of character growth in this novel, with the Jensen women taking stock of their lives and finding new paths forward.If you're looking for a good summer read, pour yourself a large iced tea, grab a copy of Queen Bee, head out to the most comfortable chair on your porch, and prepare to lose yourself in sunny Sullivans Island for a few hours.

What a breath of fresh air this book was! Wonderful characters! Loved it!

I knew I wanted to read this when Dorothea Benton Frank's name was attached. I cannot tell you how much I love her stories and settings. Holly is thirty years old and still living at home with her mother, called the Queen Bee by everyone around because of her personality-she's loud, a bit rude, she's become less active recently and therefore gained some weight, and she's a hypochondriac. Holly's sister Leslie got married and left home years ago, leaving Holly to take care of her mother by herself. This is when her mother spiraled downward in terms of her health and her personality. As a result, Holly has become a little more of an introvert and homebody over time, but she's honestly happy that way thankyouverymuch. She has dreams of becoming a teacher at Sullivan's Island school, but there's a waiting list for the position, so for now-aside from beekeeping-she works in the bakery at the local Publix grocery store, which she really enjoys. OH! She also has a pretty big crush on the neighbor next door, recently-widowed Archie. Holly has been close and neighborly with Archie's two young boys since they were born, and she has really taken them under her wing since they lost their mother to a tragic car accident last year. She loves cooking for them, taking them to the nearby park, and helping them with their homework after school. Holly has a wonderful personality. I just love her so much. It's true that she spends probably too much time on her mother and not enough on herself, but I adore the way she dotes on the young boys next door. In the beginning of the story, I thought there would be a romance between Holly and Archie, but it was very early in the book that I realized that would not be the case at all. In fact, that particular romantic relationship took a backseat to the well-being of young Tyler and Hunter, and Holly's role in making sure that they would be taken care of in the future. I wasn't really expecting this but there were parts of this storyline really made me laugh out loud. Another huge part of the plot is that Leslie comes back home after something major threatens her marriage. And with both of her girls now back under her roof, Momma undergoes a personality change for the better. I LOVE seeing a family dynamic change for the better, and I love the way Ms. Frank writes family issues in her books. Throughout this family's path, there are a few characters along the way that kept me smiling and it was these characters that ushered particularly Leslie and Momma through some character development and growth. I wasn't always sure where this part of the story was going either, but I love where it ended up. What I loved most is Ms. Frank's infusion of humor throughout. She always does this so well!One thing that I didn't expect that absolutely DELIGHTED me: I knew that Holly is a beekeeper but I didn't expect that the bees would play such a huge role in the story! Holly talks to her bees daily and she really has a loving relationship with them; she sort-of treats them like they're her pets. They are truly a character in this book! My daughter is a huge fan of bees in general and an advocate for honeybees and their role in the ecosystem and how important they are to humanity (she researches them and is considering continuing her research in college) and kept asking me about the bees in this book as I progressed further into the story. Every single thing about the bees in this story turned out to be a super-fun experience for me!This book is filled with love and acceptance and humanity and even a little bit of hive mentality. The entire thing was full of surprises and I loved it, but to be fair, I expected to because I am a huge fan of Ms. Frank.I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Thank you, William Morrow Books!Find this review and more like it on my blog, Into the Hall of Books!

Would have been a 5 if it just stuck with Holly’s story line