I truly enjoyed reading Honeysuckle Season by Mary Ellen Taylor a story that is told by alternating the time periods, from the present to flashbacks of events from 1940s. From the beginning a complex mystery is presented and many hidden family secrets are revealed. The reader is able to visit the various locations as the author provides visually described scenes with precision. This interesting story of a family, their secrets across generations is complex, intriguing, yet quite realistic; while also exposing characteristic flaws of the players. Ms. Taylor created characters a reader can connect to and a story one can become immersed in. I recommend Honeysuckle Season to other readers, especially those who enjoy women’s fiction.

I must have started this book 3 or 4 times. I'd read a few chapters and put it down. I couldn't get into it...at first. But let me tell you I am so happy I finally pushed through because in the end, it was a worthy story to read. Every family has secrets and this one keeps you guessing. Sure, you'll think you have the gist of it, pretty sure early on who is who, but I was pleasantly surprised with the ending and a secret or 3 that I had not figured out. Not a romance although there is some romance in here but it IS a story about women's relationships that transcend both class systems and time. I'm also needing to perhaps cook some of the recipes mentioned in here (must find a hummingbird cake recipe for sure -- and does anyone make honeysuckle moonshine? That would be amazing). I will look at other books from Mary Ellen Taylor for sure.

Who is Sadie Thompson to Olivia McKenzie? A tale spanning generations with decades old secrets coming to light will unravel the invisible threads binding these two strangers together. All is not as it seems, and just when you think you’ve grasped one of the threads, more pop up, keeping the reader guessing until the end.

Weaving past and present together, Taylor gives us a poignant saga of endurance, resilience and hope. She craftily sews every thread, revealing bits and pieces until they all come together in an intricate, beautiful tapestry. With a riveting storyline that seamlessly flows, fascinating and endearing characters, and an amazing depth of heart, lovers of women's fiction will love this one.

Thank you to Montlake Publishing, the author, and NetGalley for an advance galley of this book in order to share my unbiased opinion.

Mary Ellen Taylor is an exquisite story teller. Her style of writing draws the reader in from chapter one. Though a contemporary story, it toggles back and forth to another time gives context and adds layers to what is a complex story. She creates characters that are real and flawed as all humans are and dealing with real problems and issues and doesn’t gloss over them and wrap things up tidily with a pretty bow. Secrets then and now and topics that aren’t easy, but are written with honesty and truth. Again, nothing is glossed over or written in ways that make them seem lessen their gravity. I have so much to write about how wonderful this is, but don’t want to give away anything so read the editors blurb on the back for that and go get yourself a copy now. You will be glad you did for eventually it all makes sense and all dovetails nicely and leaves you hoping that this was the first in a series. I truly lost track of time when I sat down to read this book and for me that says a lot.

I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Honeysuckle season is my first book by Mary Ellen Taylor and not what I was expecting. The story is told in dual timelines : the present : Libby's story and the past (1940's), Sadie's story. The book has themes of friendship, pregnancy, miscarriages, family secrets, and dealing with life's choices.
After her father’s death, a failed marriage, and multiple miscarriages, Libby McKenzie feels truly alone. With her new career as a wedding photographer she tries to come to terms with this new life. She meets Elaine Grant, owner of Woodmont Estate when asked to photograph a wedding there and is immediately drawn to the estate and to the old greenhouse shrouded in honeysuckle vines --and family secrets. She is also drawn to Colton Reese the young widower Elaine has employed to bring Woodmont Estate back to life.

I enjoyed this book; I recommend it but some of the storylines could be a bit dark for some readers.

Moving between the 1940s and the present, this is the story of three strong women. Olivia and Sadie became more than employee and employer in the 1940s- they were friends. In the present, Libby's coping as best she can with a series of traumas and disappointments but she's fortunate when she earns the opportunity to photograph a renovation at a lovely estate, bringing her in contact with Colton, a widower. She also finds secrets hidden by her father- although she always knew she was adopted, she never knew the identity of her bio-parents or their history. Sadie didn't have it easy in the 1940s; she worked as a bootlegger and then, when she thinks things are looking up because she's working with Olivia, there's a bad thing. The two stories twine together well. No spoilers from me o how! Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Good characters and storytelling made this an engaging read.

This is the first book by this author and I am in love with her writing style. The story just seems to draw you into it and not let you go. I loved the fact that the story would go from present to past. Even though I found that I could guess easily what was about to happen I found that did not take away from the book. I found the story was very well written and the characters were all very likable. I look forward to seeing what other books this author has to offer. Thanks Net Galley. I voluntarily reviewed this book in exchange for an honest review.

Honeysuckle Season by Mary Ellen Taylor took me on a journey of discovery, through two stories (one past, one present). The book set in the south and contained topics about adoption, eugenics, moonshine and rape, although the difficult topics are molded within the story in such a way that they are not focused on exclusively. Libby McKenzie, the main character is on a journey of understanding of her past and helping her find her future.

Libby McKenzie has moved home. Both of her parents have died and she sleeps on the couch, so she can convince herself that she has not moved back home. As a wedding photographer, she has been asked to photograph a wedding at Woodmont estate. While there she meets Elaine Grant, the owner who has asked her to help keep a visual journal of cleaning the greenhouse and perhaps eventually opening Woodmont estate to other events. This starts a journey that Libby will take to find the truth about her birth and the early events of Woodmont estate. The two story lines eventually meet and open up a number of truths.

The novel is one of a personal journey that the reader is brought upon. The journey that opens eyes and brings the past decisions to the present. Libby will find so much, but it is all about how she embraces these changes that make her HEA. Honeysuckle Season by Mary Ellen Taylor is a great read.

Honeysuckle Season has an abundance of strong female characters. There is an intriguing dual timeline in this story, The first is set in the 1940's and the second in the present. I loved the descriptions of the Carter family estate in the small town of Bluestone Virginia, The story explores themes of friendship, grief, and living with our choices. I have enjoyed every Mary Ellen Taylor book I have read, and this is no exception.

Taylor has written a clever story that adeptly blends two families' stories. Libby is still recovering from her father's recent death, her divorce, and miscarriages. She lands a plum job at a local estate and meets Elaine and Colton. The story flashes back to Sadie, a moonshiner, and her issues in 1942. It doesn't take awhile for the stories to intertwine. Libby learns some startling facts about her heritage and also finds love again. I thought the author did a good job with intersecting the families.

Will appear in Sept on the Romance Reviews Today site: http://romrevtoday.com/

HONEYSUCKLE SEASON – Mary Ellen Taylor
Montlake Romance
IBN: 978-1-542017886
September 2020
Contemporary Fiction

Bluestone, Virginia – 1940’s & Present Day

As HONEYSUCKLE SEASON opens, it’s 1994 and Olivia Carter is at the bedside of her dying longtime friend (not named). The story then shifts to 1943 as Sadie Thompson is frantically evading the sheriff after she committed a crime. She is going to have to leave her infant behind with her mother and head to another city. Did she make it?

Present Day…

Libby McKenzie came home to Bluestone, Virginia, to care for her dying father and has been in a daze since he died six months ago. She is living in her childhood home and has started a photography business. Today, she will be going to Woodmont Estate for a shoot at a wedding. Libby hasn’t been at Woodmont since she and her late mother toured the gardens when she was thirteen years old. The place has fascinated her, and she finally meets the current owner of the property, Elaine Grant, who had consented to have the wedding there as a prelude to opening the venue to more events. Elaine Grant is Oliva Carter’s granddaughter…

At the wedding, Libby encounters the bride’s brother, Colton Reese, a single father of two young boys. Libby’s heart aches when she sees the boys because she has suffered three miscarriages while married to her now ex, Jeremy. Something zings between Libby and Colton, but she dismisses it because she feels like she has nothing to offer a man. Yet, their friendship soon turns into something more. Meanwhile, Libby is invited a couple of times to Elaine’s residence at Woodmont Estate. Why is the older woman wanting a friendship with someone she has just met?

HONEYSUCKLE SEASON flips back and forth from present day with Libby and 1942 with teenaged Sadie Thompson. We learn that Sadie’s mother is widowed and struggling to meet ends as World War II has recently started. One older brother has gone off to war and another is about to leave. They make honeysuckle moonshine that they sell to the locals, including Dr. Edward Carter, who recently returned from England with his English bride, Olivia. Sadie strikes up a friendship with Olivia, one that is frowned on by Edward. Then, tragedy strikes. How will the stories of Sadie Thompson, Olivia Carter, and Libby McKenzie be connected by the end of HONEYSUCKLE SEASON?

Mary Ellen Taylor has penned a poignant tale of three women in HONEYSUCKLE SEASON. Sadie Thompson longs for a life where she is not struggling to help put food on her family’s table. Olivia Carter is trying to adjust to life in the United States and understanding the man she married is much different from the one who wooed her. Libby misses her dad yet hasn’t seemed to let go of the past. In fact, Libby has been stalking the social media posts of her ex, and is stunned to learn when he shows up during the wedding reception that not only has he moved on with another woman, but he is about to be a father with her. Libby wanted a child so badly, but fate didn’t cooperate. After Libby finally decides to go through her father’s personal papers, she comes across a file with a letter from Olivia Carter. The contents of the letter provide for a startling moment in HONEYSUCKLE SEASON, one that could change the lives for a couple of characters. Meanwhile, the fledging romance between Libby and Colton begins to heat up…

HONEYSUCKLE SEASON is one of those books that you need to keep reading as the red herrings are revealed and you find out what you suspect is true or not. What was in the letter from Olivia Carter? How is it tied to Libby…and Sadie? I will admit that I figured out the answer to how it affected Libby, but Sadie’s was the harder one. If you’re like me, you will want to keep reading until all the answers are revealed.

HONEYSUCKLE SEASON is a heartwarming and charmingly poignant tale that you don't want to miss.

Patti Fischer

Honeysuckle Season is the first book I have read by Mary Ellen Taylor, but it will not be my last. I was drawn to the description of this book and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey that we embarked upon in Bluestone, Virginia.

The book switches between the 1940's and present day which is leading you on the path to learning of ties between the generations. You have 1940's era Sadie, who comes from a poor family, and is trying her best to make ends meet and help her family. She ends up working for Olivia Carter, who takes a liking to her and wants to help her even if it goes against her husband's wishes.

Our present day heroine is Libby McKenzie, who was an oncology nurse, but when she chose to step away from that career, she started a photography business. She is hired by Elaine, a Carter family descendant and the current owner of the estate, to photograph a wedding there and then the refurbishment of the greenhouse also on the property. Libby also comes to know Colton, the caretaker of the property and his two young boys.

Mary Ellen Taylor has done a masterful job with weaving this captivating tale. The story encompasses every emotion possible from love, to loss, to betrayal, to acceptance and finally in the end all the pieces of this well executed puzzle fall into place. It was one of those books that I thought I things figured out and then something else was revealed and it brought a whole new layer to the story. I did not want to put this down as I really wanted to know how everything ended and I was very pleased when we finally had the entire picture. I highly recommend picking up a copy of this wonderful story.

**I voluntarily read an early copy of this title courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review**

This dual time line novel is about family secrets and how they affect the following generations. It's the first book that I've read by this author but it definitely won't be the last.

Sadie - 1942. Sadie is the youngest of three children in a poor family in Virginia. The family made and sold moonshine to have money to live. Her father has died and her brothers have gone into the Army and Sadie makes the moonshine by herself. After she ran over the man who seduced her and left her with a child, she had to run and left her baby behind with her mother so she could stay out of jail. She lost her job as a driver at Woodmont Estates and knows that no one there will help her out of the mess that she's gotten into, so she runs.

Libby - 2020. Libby's husband has left after she had numerous miscarriages. She couldn't handle the grief and he couldn't help her. She's become a photographer and has gotten very popular taking wedding pictures.
Her father had been a well-loved pediatrician in the area and after he died, she was reluctant to go through his desk but she knew she had to do it. When she does, she discovers a letter that totally changes the way she feels about her adoptive parents and she finds out that she's related to the family who owns Woodmont.


The two timelines blend together perfectly and as more is revealed about the two women Woodmont becomes even more important. This is a novel about love and family, acceptance and forgiveness and two strong women who are connected to each other in surprising ways. There is love and friendship and romance with strong female characters -- what more do you need to make a novel perfect?

This book is written in three time lines and I do not care for that style. The jumping between different time lines caused me to be very confused and frustrated throughout the first fourth of the book. By the middle of the book I was able to follow the story.

Since I struggled with the plot, I did not have any feelings toward the characters. While reading, I did get an understanding of their lives, but I was reading more to finish the book. I was interested in what was happening, but I was not deeply involved with any emotion.

I think the plot was good but unfortunately not written in a style I enjoy.

I want to thank NetGalley and Montlake Romance for allowing me to read the advanced reader copy. My review is my own opinion not influenced by receiving the ARC.

I was given an ARC of this book to review. It was the first book by Mary Ellen Taylor that I have read and it will not be my last. I am in for some more good reading.

This book was a wonderful read. It took us from the present to the past of the 1940’s, during war time and where she friendships begin but never end and they come to light in the next generation to come. Libby McKenzie is the daughter of the town Pediatrician and she comes back to Bluestone, VA to settle his estate and moves back into the house she grew up in. She has had a failed marriage and three miscarriages to deal with, but the big change in her life was one she did not see in her present. She always knew that she was adopted, but little did she know what she was going to find out about her biological parents when she was offered the chance to photograph a wedding at the Woodmont Estate. How Elaine Grant, the present owner of the estate and Colton Reese, who manages the estate grounds would come to mean so much to her past and into her future. Libbey reaches back in the past to come to terms with her present and to be able to see that there is a future for her and give her the one thing she dearly wants... family.

This was a book that moves you from the first page to the last. Mary Ellen Taylor weaves as story that tugs at your heartstrings for the two women of different social class, who despite the men who try to control them in the 1940’s, become lasting friends and a young women that has gone through a failed marriage and the heartbreak of miscarriages, and another young woman in the 1970’s,who has to do the hardest thing imaginable, to become the strong women they were all meant to be.

Thank you for the opportunity to the author and Netgally for giving me the chance to read this wonderful moving story.

While photographing a wedding Libby McKenzie meets Elaine Grant the owner of Woodmont Estate...the wedding venue. She is drawn to the neglected and overgrown greenhouse and eagerly agrees to photograph the process to restore it to its previous beauty. And so Libby begins her journey of discovery. Of two families connected over the generations through secrets and loss, but also love and ultimately hope. I loved this book!!
Thank you to the author and to Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Such an emotional journey Mary Ellen Taylor takes the reader on of discovering the past, unearthing secrets and moving forward. Libby's return home after her father's death brings her face to face with answers she was not even looking for and not really ready for. She learns quickly she needs to heal herself and her future desires by knowing and healing from her past.

I loved the way this story was woven through decades and descendents. Each thread pulled was intriguing and important to the core people of this story. Beautifully written and an amazing story.

Fans of women's fiction will enjoy this, but don't go into it for the romance. It's actually well done as a sort of mysterious family drama, with timelines in both present day and the 1940s. The story unravels as it goes along, and we learn more and more about the family secrets. Why the low rating then? I found this to be too sedate for me, with extensive descriptive paragraphs, not a ton of a dialogue, and a romance that falls flat. I completely expected the women's fiction feel, so that was no surprise, but it is technically billed as a romance and that's where this one is lacking. There's just about zero chemistry between the two, they spend little time together on the page, and a few events towards the end caused me to drop my rating.

The story primarily follows Libby in present day. She's a nurse turned photographer who has had a rocky few years. Her marriage couldn't endure multiple miscarriages, so she finds herself alone and trying to be happy again. Along the way, Libby meets Colton, a single dad who has suffered his own losses. They bond over a greenhouse and their shared experiences, but as Libby learns more about her family, things get complicated.

There's a definite serious tone to the book, with moments of lightness but plenty of heavy themes. As I said, it leans heavily towards women's fiction, with about 25% of the book devoted to the romance. The writing itself is solid and the storyline unpredictable, so it's definitely a success in that regard. I just found it a bit boring, honestly, and things got a little hard to believe towards the end. Some of the twists seemed like too much, and it took away from the story the author was building. I think many will like it - especially if looking for a family drama - but this wasn't a total winner for me.

It's 1994 and Olivia is holding the hand of a dying friend. I love the name Olivia. Then it's the 1940s the sherriff has showed up at Sadie's door and troubles afloat. Sadie recently had a baby girl. It shifts to 2020 and Libby and Sierra live in Virginia and work a wedding Both women have been through hard times and lost their spouses. There was a lot of characters but I wasn't overwhelmed. I loved the characters. Libby is mourning many losses not just her divorce. I liked reading about the past and Sadie and how she could relate to the present. I wasn't sure about Dr. Carter's work. I wasn't sure if I agreed with Libby's plans for her dad's house.

I devoured this book. Mary Ellen Taylor has a magnificent talent for weaving the secrets of the past into the present.

This was such a wonderful story of five women, their friendships, their familiar ties, their strengths, weakness, and their love. I enjoyed each and every character equally. When I was in Libby’s point of view, I was lost in her life, yet I couldn’t wait to get back to Sadie. The same for when I was reading Sadie’s chapters, and wanting to know what was going on with Olivia, and so on.

My heart broke for each of these women over the blows that life as dealt them. Sadie and Olivia have such a wonderful, unexpected friendship. While their story clutched at my heartstrings, I couldn’t help cheering on their resolve to succeed and their devotion to each other. Libby’s story is equally touching with the trials and tribulations she’s suffered. I just wanted to hug her and tell her it was going to be okay. And it was fun watching her come back “to life” as sweet sparks flew between her and Colton. While Margaret and Elaine are more secondary characters, by the end of the book, I felt like they were old friends.

Overall, this was a fabulous tale of how women can and do endure, how we are not the weaker sex, and most importantly, that love, whether it is the romantic kind or more often that of friends, can and does win in the end.

I highly recommend any book by Mary Ellen Taylor.