Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins Publishers for the ARC of this book.

*sigh* Two books in, and Olivia Waite is becoming one of my favorite authors.

This book is the kind of lovely, soft story to read while you're wrapped up in a blanket, with the fireplace burning and a mug of hot chocolate in your hand. Yes, it's mainly a romance - a delightful one, at that - but it's also a tale of friendship, perseverance, and acceptance that hits home even today, two centuries after when this book takes place. As with her first book, Waite weaves in descriptions of the science and practices of the times, leaving one itching for a Wikipedia binge session.

Agatha and Penelope are both a wonderful mix of traditionally "masculine" and traditionally "feminine" traits. They allow each other to be wholly themselves - something they've both wanted for quite a while. It's so beautiful to read a story featuring middle-aged women with touches of gray in their hair, when most other romances feature Vogue-ready characters in the prime of their life. Can these two time-hop into 2020 adopt me?

This book was rather idealistic at times and thus probably not extremely accurate considering its Regency setting, but that's what makes for A+ escapist fiction. Plus there's enough drama and tension to satisfy lovers of angst.

*throws book into my "Favorites" pile*

A really lovely romance between two smart, interesting and strong women. I also like that they are in their 40s, and seem realistic--they aren't described as buxom or leggy or any of that. Not supermodels. What really makes this book special are the descriptions of beehives, beekeeping, and bee behavior in general. The author clearly knows quite a bit about those topics, and writes about them in a way that anyone can understand. I also loved the descriptions of printing and presses. It's a book with remarkable details that really makes it more than just sex scenes.

It's Pride month and what better way to celebrate than with a lesbian romance. This book was an absolute slow-burn delight. Both heroines were middle-aged which kept it from having the slight ick-factor of many lesbian romances in the media that feature large age gaps. The book was strongly feminist which I found perfect for 2020. Some might argue that a few things might have been a little too feminist for the time period, but they didn't really bother me.

I really want to read the first book in the series. This book does not need the first book to be thoroughly enjoyed, I just want to want to read more cute lesbian romances. I love when I feel like I learn stuff when reading romance novels. In this book I learned about bees and Queen Caroline. My only slight complaint was that there were a lot of names and characters to keep track of. Of course the counter to this is that without those people the story may have felt a bit flat. Overall I really really enjoyed this book and would happily read any other book by Olivia Waite.

I loved The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics so much, and The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows is a worthy follow-up. I would even say this one is better. I love that Olivia Waite pays attention to middle-aged women in her works—so often these women are excluded from the romance genre altogether and especially from historical fiction. While the characters might be written as “spinsters” in other works, Waite puts them the center of her novel. I also love the attention paid to historical events, especially something like the Sedition Acts, which made such an impactful appearance in KJ Charles’s A Seditious Affair. Waite’s perspective helps flesh out how the time period might have affected women, too. Great slow burn read.

I was so excited to read this book! I adored The Ladies Guide to Celestial Mechanics and have been looking forward to this follow up for quite a while. I'm glad to say it didn't disappoint. I'm a sucker for reading about highly competent women and they permeate this book. I adored Agatha and Penelope. They both had deep passions that lent them complexity as individual characters and their romance was so lovely. I also loved the secondary characters - they rounded out the story and supplied some solid subplots that made the novel feel rich and real. I wasn't expecting the level of political discussion and of the time current events, but I love learning about historical moments I don't really know about! Overall, this was just such a wonderful read with a GLORIOUS bit at the end involving the bees that I don't want to spoil, but it's worth reading the whole book for that one scene.

Heat Factor: Slow, steady, burn.
Character Chemistry: So much pining! But also, believable BFFs. And they do that thing where they call each other by last name and I swoon every time.
Plot: A year in the life of Flood and Griffin.
Overall: The plot meanders but sometimes a book (even a romance) is more than a tight plot. I recommend reading this one.

How many romance novels have I read that take place in 1820? The answer is: a lot. Follow up question. How did I not know that Queen Caroline was put on trial by the House of Lords for adultery in 1820? Look, I can understand why Regency romances might not want to cover bread riots or the Peterloo Massacre - the aristocrats of the time probably did their best to live in a bubble that did not include the poor or the industrial north - but the trial of the Queen was a Big Fucking Deal.

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows, unlike most Regencies, is explicitly political. We not only get extensive discussion of the Queen’s trial, but also of the public demonstrations surrounding it and the concurrent government crackdown on the press and public meetings. Our heroines are intimately caught up in the events of the day, both personally and professionally. As a result, the story felt very historically grounded and managed to cover a broad range of topics without being sanctimonious.

So that’s the framework. Within that framework, we have a wonderful, slow-burn, epistolary romance between two women in their 40s as they each begin a new phase in their respective lives.

Agatha Griffin is an engraver, a widow, and the owner of Griffin’s Printing Press. She carries so much weight on her shoulders, as she worries about her livelihood, her employees, and her son (who would rather attend political meetings than take care of things at the press). She’s one of those women who just does everything herself so she knows that it gets done; I might have strongly identified with her.

Our story begins when Agatha discovers a beehive in the storage room. Ack! Enter one Penelope Flood, quirky beekeeper. Of course, Agatha and Penelope are both immediately smitten and embarrassed about it. While they pine away, however, they also strike up a friendship, first by writing letters, and later, as they tramp around the countryside taking care of various beehives and drink beer at the local tavern and participate in demonstrations in London.

As you might imagine based on what I’ve said so far, there are a lot of sideplots. There’s the central romance arc, where the conflict is predicated on both women assuming that the other woman is only interested in men and neither woman wanting to ruin a wonderful new friendship. (Penelope is married. Her husband serves on a whaling ship and is gone for years at a time. He is also her brother’s lover. It takes a while for Agatha to learn all of the pertinent information.) While most of the secondary conflicts are related to the political situation, there isn’t one central arc. Rather, there are several smaller arcs all related to themes of censorship (or self and others), justice, and government control. Penelope and the local magistrate have a series of increasingly escalating interactions as he clamps down on vice in the village. Agatha and her son butt heads over how far to push the envelop on printing political treatises. The end result is multi-faceted and thought-provoking, but if you prefer your smut tightly plotted and streamlined, this is probably not the book for you.

PS: WHAT"S WITH THE COVER!?!? It's a gorgeous picture, but Agatha would never wear that yellow dress, and Penelope is supposed to be plump. And that power suit would not be useful for beekeeping; it looks like she's going to a board meeting.


I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.

This review is also available at The Smut Report. (Late July 2020)

Olivia Waite creates another winner in The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows, the story of an engraver who enters into a late-in-life romance with the town beekeeper.

London-based Agatha Griffin is an engraver and printer whose business is her life and whose public depends on her for accurate representations of current events.  It’s a business she inherited from her husband, Thomas, whom she still misses.  Sydney, her rabble-rousing nineteen-year-old son, is her eyes and ears on the streets of London, and the boy will someday take over the business, though she fears he will get himself in so much trouble agitating for the common people that he’ll be in jail before that happens.  But Sydney is a crusading journalist at heart, and less an engraver than a man of justice – thus Agatha takes on an apprentice, Eliza, whom Agatha secretly hopes will make a match for Sydney.

Penelope Flood, the wife of a sailor with whom she has a complex relationship, is the town’s resident beekeeper and a happy, trouser-wearing budding poet.  She is somewhat more jolly than the intense Agatha, and lives a happy independent life, but does miss the romance of being adored.

Agatha – who’s headed to a suburb outside of London to check on one of her warehouses – is startled to note it’s been invaded by bees.  She has to call Penelope in to remove the colony safely from the premises, and sparks begin to fly between them immediately.  Agatha finds herself taking more time off from her work to follow Penelope as she tends to the town’s hives, meeting the local populace and learning about bees and bee-related lore from Penelope.

Their acquaintanceship evolves into friendship, then into tentative romance.  But their lives are messy, busy and involved.  Will they find a second chance at love?

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows is even better than A Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics, my favorite book of last year.  While Lady’s Guide focused on the world of academia, here the story is about how the ordinary world of the women’s small village reacts to sudden political and social upheaval, and that makes all the difference.  Lady’s Guide felt more insular within its academic world; Waspish Widows thinks locally.

Agatha and Penelope meet against the backdrop of the Parliamentary divorce trial of George IV who is desperate to prevent his wife Caroline from becoming queen. Caroline was very much a queen in the hearts of the people, who disliked the adulterous George. The people in Agatha and Penelope’s small village of Mellinton are caught in the floodtide of seismic political change as George falls from favor and the British people revolt against his choice to divorce Caroline in favor of his mistresses. This makes a wonderful backdrop to their fight for rights both large-scale and small; it’s fun to hang around at tea and in taprooms with these folks.

There wasn’t anything I didn’t like about stiffly-formal-until-she-melts Agatha and salt-of-the-earth Penelope.  Their relationship develops with a sweet, wonderful slowness, with a pace that defines the words ‘slow burn’.

Again – this is a story about community, and you’re going to feel at home in the town of Mellinton right away.  There is an entire subplot revolving around erotic statuary extent in a back garden belonging to Agatha’s mother-in-law which offends the sensibilities of Agatha’s neighbors, and about a musician trapped in a marriage whose doggerel verse twitterpates the local preacher when Agatha prints them – and she prints political broadsides as well, making her an even bigger center of controversy. That doggerel writer (whose identity I will not divulge) and Agatha’s mother-in-law were my favorite minor characters.

I need to spare a word for the fierce Sydney and the wonderfully strong-minded Eliza, whose romance makes a fun side-dish to the carefully crafted main one of Agatha and Penelope’s.  There’s nothing better than watching two activists fall in love over similar passions.  I also loved Agatha and Sydney’s mother/son relationship – it’s nice to have a son in an f/f romance who’s supportive of his mother’s falling in love with someone new and isn’t nasty about it.

A quick note – while this is part of a continuing series and Catherine from Ladies’ Guide pops up for a cameo, this book can be read independently.  This may disappoint some readers, but I was too delighted with the people of Mellinton to care much about the lack of heavy cross-over.

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows is touching, rousing, comforting, challenging and gladdening.  It’s a great read, an emotionally and romantically fulfilling banquet that will delight readers for years to come. I give it my highest recommendation.  Enjoy it with a cool glass of iced tea – sweetened with honey, of course.

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Another 3.5, but I feel like I need to round down for the sheer length of time it took me to finish this book. It was one of my most anticipated romances for this year and though I enjoyed the plot and the writing style, once I got into it, I found myself disappointed. Once I got to the 55% mark and the characters had barely admitted feelings for each other (even just to themselves!) I was wondering if I could classify it as a romance really? And once things got rolling there were a couple really steamy sex scenes and declarations of love, so I guess it's a romance. Just be aware it is a VERY slow-burn romance. That said, the plot was very unique and I really enjoyed that Penelope and Agatha were older protagonists (40s) and focused on careers/work. I'd still recommend this one, just go into it knowing it takes quite awhile to get anywhere near romantic territory.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher, Avon, for an eARC of this book. All opinions are my own, expected publication is July 28, 2020.

I really enjoyed this book! I like Agatha's no-nonsense demeanor and Penelope's love for bees and the environment, and the way they slowly become friends and then lovers. Another satisfying romance from Olivia Waite that has me looking forward to her next book.

The cover is terrible, though - the model in the dress looks catatonic, and the model in the suit looks like she's peering down the other's bodice and not impressed with what she sees. The whole scene feels wooden and awkward, not romantic in the least. I know you can do great f/f romance covers, Avon! (See: "A Little Light Mischief" by Cat Sebastian, which is one of the most beautiful covers I've ever seen, and Olivia's previous book, "Lady's Guide...", which was also romantic and lovely.) Covers can make or break a book, you know that, so please do better in the future!

Olivia Waite has crafted a lovely slow burn romance that should appeal to many a romance fan. She very carefully develops the main characters of Agatha Griffin who is a widow who runs a printing press while dealing with a radicalized son and a extremely competent apprentice. Penelope Flood is a woman who has been married 10 years in name only and tends to the beehives in her local vilage. She crosses paths with Agatha Griffin and they strike up a correspondence.

Soon Griffin is visiting from London on an increasingly regular basis. Griffin stops staying at her mother-in-law's house and starts staying with Flood on these visits. The sexual tension when they start "platonically" sharing a bed is off the charts. It is one of the most moving parts of the story: two women longing for each other but unsure if their attraction is recipricated.

The book has a lot of focus on bees and beekeeping and, while those sections were beautifully written, I found them struggling to hold my interest. (I am not a fan of the outdoors.)

Waite packs her book with memorable characters and social justice issues-to the point where in lesser hands the book would feel overstuffed with them.

As lovely as the romance is, I will remember this book as is a sermon on marriage. Waite highlights many different kinds of marriages: both those seen as legitimate and illegitimate in the eyes of the law. There are legitimate marriages that are healthy and loving and beautiful and there are relationships that are toxic or cold or just plain 'false'.

As a member of a community where the right to marry is only a decade old, I appreciated this subtle sermon on marriage and legitimacy and love. This is why #ownvoices books are so important. It is wonderful to see the acknowledgement of all sorts of romantic relationships that are not legal marriages. They include straight marriages and gay marriages. These are marriages in all but name and their beauty shines through the book.

When the queer community first took up the idea of legitimizing our relationships as its primary goal, I thought that was a mistake. I thought we should be protecting our vulnerable young people instead-many of whom are homeless or in abusive home situations. Ms. Waite makes a compelling counter-argument that the right to love, and have that love legally acknowledged, is such a fundamental right that it is foundational to the queer rights movement.

I loved the romance of this book and the quietness of Ms. Waite's writing style. I loved watching Flood stand up to the bigoted vicar. At the most foundational level though, I loved this book for the quiet, beautiful sermon it delievers on the importance of acknowledging love between consenting adults. Griffin's mother-in-law nicely sums up the book, for me by saying that you can love more than one person in a lifetime. In a genre that often focuses on a One True Love scenario, this was as beautiful statement.

I highly recommend this book to romance readers and queer readers of all genres. It is truly a moving, loving achievement by Ms. Waite.

I really enjoyed 'Waspish Widows'! It took a more graphic turn than in Waite's first book, but the language was (as far as I am aware) accurate for the time period. The historical backdrop of this sequel made the story all the more interesting, and it actually seemed to be one of the plots, of which there were a few (about five, maybe six). While I didn't necessarily appreciate how much the text relied on the social climate rather than focusing more on the relationship between the two women, it nevertheless added a note of realism to the tale.

Spoilers ahead.

Perhaps my favorite part of this book was the ages of the main characters: both are middle aged women, which is somewhat unusual for erotica, though by no means rare. That the women have past relationships under their belt and awareness of their own feelings and desires (for the most part) made for a satisfying read. There was no moment when one of the two lovers suddenly decide they can't stay in the relationship, only for them to dramatically reunite upon discovering their mistake--instead both women, upon confessing their feelings, devote themselves to the other, but realistically. Neither immediately gives up their own lives, but instead they forge a way to live and love together.

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows is a delightful romance. It's full of heart and the connection to be Penelope and Agatha will make you swoon.

This title alone should be enough to make you want to read this historical romance. I wasn't sure what to expect after reading the first book in this series. I don't think I rated it as high as many people but after reading this one, I am thinking I need to reevaluate so I will likely go back and read the other one soon. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed this one. As soon as I started reading this one, I was taken with the story. I could not put it down. It was all one would want to read in a romance. Sometimes I have a harder time reading historical romances because the language is different, but this one was easy for me to read. Again, this one grabbed me and kept my attention the entire time. No boredom with this one. This romance is for sure slow, but even when the two Mains get together it is juicy and spicy. I have to admit, I really hope Waite has a few more in this series. Well done! 4.5 stars, but rounding to 5.

Just as adorable, lush, and incisive as the first book in the Feminine Pursuits series.

I really admire the way Waite draws parallels between circumstances facing the characters to issues faced by women and other marginalized identities today. In Celestial Mechanics it was doxxing, dogpiling, and false accusations; in Waspish Widows it was the way changing political tides can bring out the absolute worst in people.

In some ways I liked the romance more in this book, even though it wasn't as steamy. I really like bees on a theoretical level and love the myths and lore surrounding them, so Penelope teaching Agatha about them as part of their initial friendship was especially endearing to me. I also liked that there even was such a strong initial friendship between two 40something women. This felt like more of a slow burn romance and in a lot of ways I appreciated that.

Waite's writing 99% of the time is just SO smart and SO pretty, there's a solidity and groundedness to the novels because the descriptions of objects are so evocative.

While the pacing in the romance felt smoother (and thus less angsty), I did feel like the overall pacing was a bit slow, but that's a complaint I often have when reading romance, so ymmv on this point.

Having enjoyed Olivia Waite’s previous novel in this series, I have to say I loved this one even more. A classic “slow-burn” style romance with many enticing elements. While it connects lightly to the previous book, this serves well as a stand-alone and I would actually recommend this one as an introduction to the author.

Without giving too much away this featured:
-Older protagonists (yes please!)
-Erotic statues
-An eye into historical queer life
-A mystery!
-Clever recounting and use of real historical events
-Beekeeping
-Social commentary on suffrage, divorce, feminism and women’s role in society/marrriage
-Solid happily ever afters for all involved

This one is a must-read for summer!

This is a sweet historical romance (it does have some spicy bits). Not only does the story feature two women falling in love, but neither of them are particularly noble-- one even engages in *trade*.

Although this is book 2 in the series, characters from the first book get barely a passing mention, so this book can be read alone. Recommended for historical fiction fans who are tired of dukes.

I am extremely annoyed by the cover!-- both of the main characters have a lot more gray hair, as the book points out, and neither of them would wear a dress like that. In trying to appeal to the bodice-ripper crowd, the cover does a disservice to the story. Otherwise recommended.

Lesbian historical romance with older protagonists. Second in the Feminine Pursuits series. This can be read stand alone. (I, personally, liked this book better than Celestial Mechanics. The women in this book seem to be on a more even footing - age, finances, experience.)

Agatha Griffin has been running a very successful London printing business on her own since her husband's death a few years prior. On a trip to rural Mellinton to visit a secondary print works, Griffin is forced to seek out Penelope Flood, a local beekeeper, to deal with a swarm that has colonized her warehouse. Griffin and Flood hit it off but as their friendship grows, neither woman is willing to admit that they feel more than platonic friendship, especially as Flood is technically married - Mr. Flood is a sailor and in love with Penelope's brother.

The two continue to grow closer until one fateful night when cards are laid on the table and their affair begins. While very much enjoying their new relationship but loathing their time apart, Agatha in particular is reluctant to commit to anything more permanent. But more time, walks around Mellinton to check on the town hives, and Penelope's open and kind manner may make it impossible for Agatha to stay away.

**I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

Agatha Griffin is a 45-year-old widow who took over her late husband’s printing shop with her son and her apprentice. When she goes to the other print shop in Meliton she finds one corner overrun by bees. Her mother-in-law introduces her to 43-year-old Penelope Flood who is well known for her skills with bees. Over the course of getting Agatha’s hive settled and bonding over the other hives in town, a romance gradually develops between the two women.

I really enjoyed the discussions around divorce and women’s freedoms (or lack thereof) during the time. Queen Catherine is accused of adultery while the whole of England knows King George has also been adulterous, but because he’s a man it is her indiscretions which the law takes issue with. With that going on, riots and protests and seditious writings all crop up and add to the drama of the time.

Another thing I enjoyed with this book was the various queer experiences. Penelope is married, but both she and her husband are queer, and in fact he is in a relationship with her brother. John and Henry are often out of the country on whaling trips, and Penelope is able to conduct her affairs as she pleases. There’s also other queer couples and discussions of how they have to hide and how sometimes their relationships are essentially well-known secrets.

The romance between Penelope and Agatha has a slow burn quality to it as starts as a slow friendship over beekeeping, but as they spend more and more time in each other’s company and they open up more in their letters they each fall in love with the other. There’s also a hesitancy to their early relationship because the time doesn’t allow for explicit openness regarding queerness and because Penelope is currently married. I loved the friendship the two women have especially and the way their friendship deepens as they become closer and become romantically involved.

Overall this is a great addition to historical romances and I’m excited to see what the next volume of this series will hold. Definitely recommend if you want a historical that shows queerness existing for hundreds of years as well as discussions on the power women did and didn’t have in that time period.

Agatha is the widowed owner of a London printing business, trying to keep her teenage son out of trouble and both of them out of the notice of the law. When a swarm of bees invades their nearby warehouse, she meets local beekeeper Penelope and finds herself with a new beehive to tend. The two women strike up a friendship, and Agatha finds herself spending more time at Penelope's home and walking the beekeeping rounds with her and talking about everything. Could this be more than friendship?

This was definitely a slow burn. Penelope and Agatha were both so tentative about a possible relationship, I wasn't sure it was ever going to happen. The surrounding characters were entertaining, although I felt like the plot involving morality in the village and in England at large was a little overlong. But Waite clearly did a lot of research for this book, and I got a good sense of the politics and societal attitudes of the early 1820s.

How dare this book not be published yet. I can’t wait to share it with everyone! Loved this even more than her first, and that was one of my favorites of all time.