Title: Mad Honey
Author: Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan
Release Date: October 4, 2022
Length: 464 pages
Genre: Mystery / Thriller
Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult & Jennifer Finney Boylan
Last week I had a serious problem choosing what to read. It happens to you too, doesn’t it?
For what seems like an eternity I’ve been skimming through titles and nothing caught my eye. I also started a few books but left them for another time.
And quite by chance, I saw this book, signed by a famous name whose stories often haunted me in the past. Needless to say, I found the book I was looking for.
****My Review****
Olivia’s perfect life is shattered when she is confronted with the painful truth about her husband’s hidden and dark nature. She will replace her fantastic life in Boston with her sleepy New Hampshire. She will seek solace in her native house and her future in her father’s beekeeping business. A new beginning for her and her son and Asher is just what they need…
New Hampshire becomes a haven for high school student Lily Campanello and her mother. New place, a new beginning, new acquaintances. That’s exactly what they need at that moment.
Both families are trying to create a home, the two young people are inevitably attracted and gentle love is starting to blossom. It seems to be going great…
But one terrible day, one phone conversation changes everything…
Lily is dead, there is only one suspect- the boyfriend of course. And the avalanche of suspicions and mystery cannot be stopped.
Some traces reveal painful truths that are difficult to understand and even more difficult to accept. As Olivia begins to dig beneath the surface, she learns things that horrify her. What will be found out when the knot of truth is finally unraveled?
The authors have created such a dizzying ride that will take you through the present and past of these two women. Slowly revealing to you pieces of the puzzle that you will persistently try to put together mentally.
We follow most of the story through Olivia’s perspective. But there is also a small insight into Lily’s thoughts. Through both of the POVs the readers can discover their dreams and hopes, but also their fears and traumas.
Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult & Jennifer Finney Boylan contains all those elements that delight us in the older works of Jodi Picoult. Twists that will shake you to the core, thought-provoking issues, and situations that will put your human and moral principles to a serious test are just some of the elements you will encounter throughout the story.
But what honestly immediately grabbed my attention was the very cleverly woven and unconventional plot and memorable characters. Not only is Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult & Jennifer Finney Boylan excellently woven to the smallest detail, but the characters are also masterfully built.
People who have any knowledge about beekeeping will surely be blown away by the rich descriptions of beekeeping as well as the parallels that the authors skillfully draw with the characters and events themselves.
In fact, all the books I have read by this author have been well-researched.
But it’s the first time I’m reading a joint effort by these two authors, and even though they wrote the parts separately, I felt they were perfectly integrated and balanced. Their writing styles must be very similar, although I haven’t read anything by Jennifer Finney Boylan until now.
Traumatic scenes and descriptions, controversial topics, trial scenes, moral dilemmas, unexpected twists… Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult & Jennifer Finney Boylan has everything you need to keep you glued to the pages until the very end.
My only complaint is that the whole mystery didn’t resolve in the way I expected. Maybe this opinion is completely subjective, but somehow I didn’t end up with a bitter taste in my mouth.
Are you interested in an unforgettable story that will rock your world and make you question your principles? Then Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult & Jennifer Finney Boylan should be next on your TBR list. Not only will you learn a lot of information about beekeeping, but you will also enjoy a gripping mystery that will keep you awake.