Tuesday, June 3, 2014

TOUR STOP: Bee Summers

ISBN: 9780988062757
Pages: 191
Source: TLC Book Tours
Appearance:
21409536


Summary:
The spring Melissa (Lissy) Singer is eleven years old her mother walks out of the house and never returns. That summer Lissy's father, a migratory beekeeper, takes her along with him on his travels. The trip and the people she meets change her life. Over the years that follow, Melissa tries to unlock the mystery of her mother’s disappearance and struggles to come to terms with her loss.

Hello everybody! Welcome to my tour stop for the Bee Summers by Melanie Dugan book tour! Don't forget to check out the rest of the tour stop here.

Bee Summers is a beautiful coming of age novel that follows Melissa Singer as she journeys through her mother leaving her and how she discovers the truth. Her father is a migratory beekeeper and the summer her mother leaves, he takes her with him to deliver the bees. The travels help her discover secrets about herself and helps to grow up. The story is overall super heart wrenching and beautiful and I'm just going to say this right now: Go Read It.

My favorite part about this entire book was the bee adventures. Lissy got a chance to bond with her father in ways that she didn't before when her mother was around. Their bond was so dear and precious, it makes me tear up inside just thinking about it. Her father didn't want Lissy to believe that it was her fault that her mother left and decides to take her on this journey with him across the country. Unbeknowst to him, that decision shaped her into being the headstrong woman she is. The adventures were also super entertaining to read about, the elusive author, the warm and loving farmer's wife, the tall dark apple man, all these characters helped Lissy grow is so many ways, you just got to love them.

Bee Summers focuses so much of Lissy growing up. When she hits adulthood, years just start flying by. All of a sudden, she's married to man named Matt and has two adorable little boys and things are just happening. I wished that we could've learned more about Matt and Lissy's relationship, from what I can remember, they met each other, fell in love, got married, and had kids, but we don't get much information about the process. We were just told what happened and forced to accept it. As a mother, Lissy swears to never be the mother her mother was, but she can't help but feel all the pressure and it's affecting her relationship with her husband. On the bright side, Lissy journeys out to discover the truth behind her mother's disappearance and when she finds the truth, it helps her to accept the fact that it really was not her fault. The realization helps her to get a grip on her life and patch things up with her husband before things fell apart.

Sadly, some things didn't get patched up in time. As Lissy grew up, her relationship with her father grew more strained as the kids at school whispered things behind her back and as her father moved on with his life while she was still stuck in the past. Some things happened and Lissy never really got the chance to heal the bond that was broken between her and her father. That's all I'm going to say because that's already a mega huge spoiler. I would have loved for a conclusion, but maybe that was the author's plan all along. Either way, it definitely added a bittersweet tinge to the story.

This story, I repeat again, is a beautiful, heart-wrenching coming of age story about a girl who learns to accept the past and how to grow from her mistakes. All with the help of a community of people connected by their orchards and their need for bees to bring about life. It emphasizes love and family and is just such a beautiful book. Definitely recommend! :)
4 out of 5 stars

 Foreverly Obsessed,

3 comments:

  1. I'm glad to see that the content of this book are as beautiful as the cover!

    Thanks for being a part of the tour. I'm featuring your review on TLC's Facebook page today.

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  2. Hallo, Hallo! :)

    I am on the blog tour for "Bee Summers" myself, and I only just wrapped up reading it tonight ahead of posting my review! I was so emotionally connected to the story, that by the time I reached the section where her father had passed, it was like a well of gutting emotions flooded into me and exploded. For some reason, I felt that the moments we spent with her in her childhood held merit, and the years of her adulthood were a bit less important except to focus on the shift in her heart after her father's death. She grew up to be a woman who wanted to create as much distance from her past as she possibly could but those of us who know better than she in those instances realise that you have to address your past before you can embrace your future. You cannot just dust everything under the rug and expect it not to have consequences. I think she was internally conflicted about everything due to her father's inability to explain properly what was happening when she was child. It left her with ambiguous loss and I think that was her true struggle as an adult; to find resolve and closure.

    Truly, I loved the novel and I am simply thankful we each had a chance to read it and see where the reading of Lissy's story took us.

    Jorie's Review of Bee Summers

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    Replies
    1. 100% agree, you explain it even better than me. :) It was a lot of fun participating in this tour and watching Lissy grow up. :D

      Thanks so much for commenting :)

      ~Riv

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