Isabel Johansen is finally working on something she loves:
turning the house she grew up in into a fabulous cooking
school for people who love the culinary arts as much as she
does. While there, a writer named Mac comes to work on a
story involving her grandfather, a story she hasn't even
heard. As her grandfather's story unravels, the chemistry
between Mac and Isabel heats up. They both will have to
learn to open up about their own pasts if they really want
to have a relationship.
THE BEEKEEPER'S BALL by Susan Wiggs has a sweet charm to it.
The setting of Bella Vista gives it a very homey feel that
makes you want to grab a rocking chair and start reading on
the porch. I love the small cooking element in it, as well
as the brief historical side with Isabel's grandfather's
story. His flashbacks are actually my favorite part of the
story, and I love how much emotion is put behind his words.
However, while I like all the unique, individual problems
going on with Isabel, Mac, and Isabel's grandfather, I felt
left with a lot of unanswered questions by the end. The cook
from Isabel's past seemed to be set up as a conflict in the
story, but it felt like he just popped randomly in and out
at some points. It ended up feeling the same with the
grandfather's history and Mac's past marriage. Some
excellent starter information is given on both, and some
later good detail, but neither felt resolved or closed up. I
also expected to see more actual cooking and work towards
the cooking school on Isabel's part, but it was hard to gage
how passionate she truly was about it until the interview
with Mac towards the end.
Overall, THE BEEKEEPER'S BALL may not be my favorite, but I
still enjoyed reading it. Fans of Susan Wiggs won't be
disappointed with her unique and warm writing style.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs returns to
sun-drenched Bella Vista, where the land's bounty yields a
rich harvest…and family secrets that have long been buried.
Isabel Johansen, a celebrated chef who grew up in the sleepy
Sonoma town of Archangel, is transforming her childhood home
into a destination cooking school—a unique place for other
dreamers to come and learn the culinary arts. Bella Vista's
rambling mission-style hacienda, with its working apple
orchards, bountiful gardens and beehives, is the idyllic
venue for Isabel's project…and the perfect place for her to
forget the past.
But Isabel's carefully ordered plans begin to go awry when
swaggering, war-torn journalist Cormac O'Neill arrives to
dig up old history. He's always been better at exposing the
lives of others than showing his own closely guarded heart,
but the pleasures of small-town life and the searing
sensuality of Isabel's kitchen coax him into revealing a few
truths of his own.
The dreamy sweetness of summer is the perfect time of year
for a grand family wedding and the enchanting Beekeeper's
Ball, bringing emotions to a head in a story where the past
and present collide to create an unexpected new future.
From "one of the best observers of stories of the heart"
(Salem Statesman-Journal), The Beekeeper's Ball is an
exquisite and richly imagined novel of the secrets that keep
us from finding our way, the ties binding us to family and
home, and the indelible imprint love can make on the human
heart.
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