I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Meredith May details her tumultuous childhood and her relationship with her grandfather and the bees he taught her to love.

The Honey Bus: A Memoir of Loss, Courage and a Girl Saved by Bees by Meredith May is love letter to bees and Grandpas. After her parents split up, Meredith and her brother travelled to California with their Mom to move in with their Grandparents. Her kind, beekeeping Grandpa took her under his wing and taught her lessons about life through his bees. Beekeeping helped Meredith persevere through a difficult childhood and grow into a strong and successful woman.

I really enjoyed this memoir. I think bees are fascinating so I loved that it included a lot of information about bees and beekeeping. It is very well written, almost in a conversational tone and Meredith’s love for bees and her Grandpa really shines through. It is amazing how much we can learn from bees and the way they manage their hives.

This really was a beautiful book. It was heartfelt, and contained a sense of hope throughout that many memoirs do not have. I was very moved reading it, and hopefully it also inspires people to save our bees!

Truly a beautiful and fascinating recollection of May's childhood.

The memoir starts with my <b>worst fear</b> happening to Meredith - bees getting caught in my hair. I was pulled in right away, and was continuously gripped by her descriptions of time spent with honeybees and her grandfather. Meredith grieves the loss of her sense of family, her childhood, and understanding of the world around her. The lessons Meredith and her brother Matthew learn in this book will be carried away with whoever reads it. I felt myself grieve and grow with her.


Thank you to HARLEQUIN Trade Publishing for providing an advance reader copy via NetGalley!

3.5 stars: At times it felt like the book wasn't sure if it wanted to be a memoir or a fact book about bees, but captivating nevertheless.
Publication date: 4/2/19
Review date: 3/31/19

I've always been fascinated by bees. That's the reason I picked up this book. I wasn't expecting a beautiful story about family relationships. Watching May turn to the bees as a way to deal with her neurotic mother and unstable family life and connecting with her crochety grandfather was heart warming.

A touching memoir with a surprising (and important) lesson about bees and just how much our world needs them. Meredith and Matthew are brought to live with their grandparents in Big Sur after their parents separate. While her mother loses herself, Meredith finds what she craves -- family -- in her grandfather and his bees.

This book was a masterpiece of courage, hope, and mentoring. Children will see themselves in all the trials and angst of the main character, and adults will see what an impact they can have just by including children in their lives and truly seeing them. The analogies of bees' society and our human communities was thought provoking and informational. I read the book in one sitting as I couldn't put it down!

In this beautifully written memoir, after their parents split, Matthew and Meredith move with their mother to their grandparents’ farm. Grandpa cultivates bees on his farm and teaches Meredith their care and culture. She soon learns the parallel between their lives and her own. Using this knowledge she is able to deal with and overcome the many trials and obstacles in her way.

Why do I keep gravitating to depressing dysfunctional childhood memoirs? Could someone please remind me to step away? This is the story of Meredith, whose parents divorced when she was a child, and her mother took her and her little brother to live in California with Granny and Grandpa. Mom was useless, Granny was strict, but Grandpa loved the kids and taught them all about his hives, and about the bees who inhabited them.

This is a wonderful book about a girl growing up in the seventies amidst family upheaval and discord. As the book begins, Meredith and her little brother Matt are living in Rhode Island with their parents. The tension between the parents is so thick you can cut it with a knife. However, it is the simmering violent anger from the mother that is particularly unsettling. Following a final explosive argument, the Mom packs up the kids and they board an airplane to California where their grandparents live in Big Sur. Mom Sally arrives at her parents' house, once again taking over her childhood bedroom. As the weeks, months and years go by, Sally retreats into her bedroom where she sleeps, smokes and lets her mom (Granny) and stepdad (Grandpa) tend to her kids- shirking all responsibility.

Granny is a schoolteacher and a little more stiff and formal when rearing her grandkids. However, Grandpa is another story. When Meredith is faced with the unhealthy and odd behavior of her unfit mother, she is literally saved by the loving, wise and gentle nature of her Grandpa. While Meredith is mentally (and occasionally physically) abused by her mother Sally, she finds comfort and ease in the presence of Grandpa. Everything makes sense around Grandpa, and Meredith can just...be.

Meredith's grandparents live in a little red house, but nearby on the property there is an old military bus. Inside, Grandpa has painstakingly rigged it as a honey bottling operation. Little by little, Grandpa tells Meredith all about the working of the bee hives he maintains here on the property and others miles away in Garrapata Canyon. The very sensible and cooperative work environment of the bees are a marvel to observe, and Meredith is totally enchanted by them. Where Meredith finds chaos with her mother, she finds peace and a system of perfect sense in the life cycle of the bees.

Over time Meredith (and later, her little brother Matt) became adept helpers to Grandpa with his beehives, as he manned a lucrative business providing honey to regular customers. There were a few truly horrific passages of abusive behavior on the rare occasions mom Sally attempted to take the kids on outings, and they were only for selfish motives. There were also frustrating reactions from Sally's mother who seemed to only placate her daughter in an attempt to make her calm. In the end, it was the grounded and quiet wisdom of Meredith's Grandpa who counseled her just to appease her mother until she was old enough to make her own life.

I learned so much about bees reading this book, and I am truly amazed at their clever and logical working environment. I was so intrigued by what I'd learned that it inspired me to watch YouTube videos about bees! Yes, in the end Meredith was truly saved by her Grandpa, the honey bus and bees. This is a true story, a heartfelt memoir which made it ever more special to read.

I read a LOT of memoir and this is one of the best I’ve picked up in a long while. Meredith and her brother Matthew are picked up and taken cross country to visit their grandparents. Meredith’s mother completely retreats (mentally, emotionally, and physically). When summer is over and the kids begin school in California, Meredith realizes that they are here to stay. Bolstered and loved by her grandfather who teaches her about beekeeping, gives her love, support and confidence to make her way.

I couldn’t resist — this book is bee-utiful. I started the story in a rather confused state. I wasn’t sure if it was fiction or nonfiction, and I didn’t know if the audience was adult or middle school. Little by little the tone and topics became clearer, and I found myself mesmerized by this memoir of a sad little girl and the twists her life took when her parents divorced. When the marriage ended, Meredith's mentally disturbed mother took her two children back to Big Sur, California where her parents owned a tiny house, including many bee hives. At first the scenes in which the mother emotionally abused the children were hard to take and seemed like a tired plot element reminiscent of The Glass Castle or Educated, but as Meredith found solace in the wisdom of her grandfather and a safe haven in the social patterns of bees, I too began to relax and grow with this needy little girl.
Confession. I have always been fascinated by bees and have read widely about them, but never have I felt the awe that developed as I read about the role each individual played in the life of the hive. Never have I felt the personality of each bee, so much more than a mindless cog in the life of the hive. And I confess, I wept at the end of this story as the author lovingly shares with us what she has learned from the bees that could be applied to her own life.
This was a story of heartbreak and triumph, and I thank Meredith May for sharing it with us.

There is much to like about this memoir. The grandfather is such a wise and nurturing figure to two struggling children of recently divorced parents that his presence almost makes up for their dysfunctional mother and grandmother. The information shared about keeping bees and bee needs and habits is both interesting and important to those concerned about the wholesale deaths of our bee colonies. One of the aspects that I had trouble with was the portrayal of the author as a 6 year old able to work sunrise to sunset processing honey. It seems implausible for a child of that age to have an attention span of that length.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin for the ARC to read and review.

Meredith knew her parents fought a lot, but her world was turned upside down when her mother left her father and moved them to live with her grandparents in California. Her mother could not cope with the ending of her marriage and isolated herself from everyone. Meredith tried to just stay out of everyone’s way until her grandfather invited her to help with his beekeeping. She now had a way to escape her hectic reality and learn life lessons from these small creatures along the way.

The Honey Bus is a poignant memoir that reads like a novel. This book takes readers through the early years of a confused child and gives them a chance to watch her grow into a strong young lady. The memoir parts are great, but so are the lessons about bees and beekeeping. I recommend The Honey Bus to those who enjoyed The Glass Castle and The Secret Lives of Bees. It is a wonderful story about making a home where love is and the truths that can be learned about the life of bees.

Five-year-old Meredith and three-year old Matthew are moved from the east coast and removed from the father whom they love by their unstable and unbalanced mother who takes the three of them to Big Sur on the West Coast and to her parents’ home for a “vacation.” It becomes apparent that the vacation is permanent as it stretches into years. Sally, their mother climbs into bed and stays there, reading movie magazines and watching television, leaving her children to their grandparents.

It’s through the wisdom and love from Grandpa Frank that Meredith learns about family through beekeeping. Grandpa has bee hives in many locations throughout the area and the Honey Bus is a converted military bus turned into a workroom where he processes hundreds of jars of honey for sale. Meredith becomes his shadow and learns about the social structures in a hive, how the bees follow the queen because they can’t live without her. She realizes that “even bees needed their mother.”

She followed her grandpa everywhere, climbing into his pickup in the mornings, going to work with him to the bee yards of Big Sur, where she learned that “a beehive revolved around one principle—the family.” She knew it wasn’t normal for a mother to permanently withdraw but it was through Grandpa and bees that she understood what Grandpa had been trying to explain inside the bus—“that beautiful things don’t come to those who simply wish for them. You have to work hard and take risks to be rewarded.” She also learned that rather than withdrawing from living like her mother had done, “honeybees made themselves essential through their generosity.”

This memoir is Meredith’s journey, through hard work and with the support of the family that her grandparents and her friend Sophia provided, from a little girl to a college student. Grandpa explains to her that while he is her step grandpa, that only means she has two. One of my favorite moments in the book is when he draws Meredith and Matthew into a hug, and explains that since he and Ruth hadn’t married until he was 40, he just assumed he would never have children. “Then, lucky for me, you two showed up.” It was a tissue moment. We learn near the end the why of Sally’s behavior and why Ruth lets her get away with it, but if I told you...well, who needs a spoiler alert?! I absolutely loved this book, and I do remember when the San Francisco Chronicle put bee hives on their roof.

I very much enjoyed the facts about bees and how Meredith's grandfather helped her take life lessons from how the bees managed the hives, occasionally there was a bit too much detail on how to make honey that wasn't really pertinent to the story. Overall a well written memoir about how one young lady learned to overcome difficulties with the help of her grandfather and his bees.

Wonderfully written memoir of how a grandparent helped his granddaughter survive and surpass a neglectful, emotionally distant, and cold mother.

Who knew bees could be so fascinating? The Honey Bus is a memoir about a young girl trying to understand a complex, chaotic world. She finds answers and meaning studying her grandfather's bees.

Beekeeping - what an interesting topic for a book. As a farmer, I understand the importance of bees in agriculture, but I learned so much from reading this book. The incredible social structure of a bee colony is enlightening in so many ways and perhaps should be a model for human society.
Meredith's family fell apart apart following the divorce of her parents. Moving from the East Coast to California's Big Sur was a jolt for Meredith. Granny's and Grandpa's lives expanded to include Meredith's and Matthew's mentally ill mother, and her two children. Meredith, as well as her younger brother, five and three at the time of the divorce, were saved by her eccentric grandfather, who was a beekeeper. He saw and understood their needs and did something about it. Granny became focused on her "wounded" daughter, to the exclusion of all else.
Because of her relationship with her Grandpa, Meredith was better able to relate to the world around her. Meredith recalled the first time a bee walked up her arm, how delicate yet sturdy it was, and how studied the bee's response was to her and its surroundings. She understood she did not have to be the most popular, the best-dressed. Once she realized college could be a reality, she became as focused on that goal as had Grandpa's bees been focused on their job of making honey.
This is such a heart-warming story. Hoping that many people read it and become more familiar with bees and the place they have in the world. Each of us can take a lesson from this book and continue to practice her Grandpa's teachings.

Meredith May's memoir of growing up in Big Sur is the story of heart-break and resilience. She and her younger brother are relocated to California from the east coast at a very young age. The home they lived in , to her five year old mind, was happy and full of love until suddenly it wasn't and she no longer can spend time with her beloved father.

Meredith's mother falls into a deep depression and cannot care for herself, let alone her children, so relies on her mother and step-father to provide for their needs. Granny is distant; more worried about her own daughter than the loving care of two small children, but she provides their material needs. Grampa has a fascinating hobby - he is a beekeeper. As Meredith grows up she learns about bees and hives, and how they thrive in a supportive family environment where everyone works together.

This story is captivating, and is based on Meredith May's own story of growing up with an unstable, non-nurturing mother, a distant grandmother, and a loving, caring bee-keeping grandfather. The in-depth knowledge of bees and their colonies worked so well alongside the story of a tough childhood soothed by bees, honey and the California coastal region of Big Sur.

This is one of the best memoirs I've read. Meredith tells her story from the point of view of the healthy adult she has become. Thanks to the love of her grandfather, she was able to learn what family is supposed to be.
And the story is full of fascinating facts about bees! They have a lot to teach us about how to work in society.
I highly recommend this uplifting story.

I was provided an ARC by #NetGalley