The Music of Bees is a feel-good story of three people who are struggling with loss and defining who they are in life and whose lives are drastically changed when brought together. Author Eileen Garvin draws readers in to the life of Alice, a middle aged woman who is a part-time beekeeper, and the lives of two men, Jake and Harry, whose difficult young lives are changed for the better when they are employed by Alice to help with the beekeeping. Mixed in with the story is information about our delightful friends the bees and about dangers to nature's equilibrium by large corporations who care more about making money than about the health and safety of people and other of nature's creatures. This story also reminds us that when citizens group together for a good cause, they can make a positive difference in their community and in the world. My only criticisms of this story is the use of current slang, which people reading this story in the future will laugh at, and the use of foul language, which adds nothing to the story and would otherwise draw a larger group of readers if it had been left out. Otherwise, The Music of Bees is a delightful story that many will enjoy reading.

I loved this book! Taking place in Hood River, Oregon, which is my neck of the woods, this book follows three unlikely people who come together on a bee farm. The characters are so likable! Each of their story lines were enjoyable. Definitely read this book!

The Music of Bees is a beautiful novel. It tells the story of three characters who are each struggling with pain from their past. Alice is a 40-something widow who is a beekeeper in Hood River. Into her life come Jake, who has been paralyzed in an accident & has a miserable home life & Harry, a socially awkward young man who is a convicted felon. The three of them bond over the bees & in taking on the pesticide company that threatens them.

The story felt a little predictable, but I am a sucker for a happy ending so I was ok with that. Ms. Garvin does a lovely job interjecting information about beekeeping at the beginning of each chapter & the quotes fit in well with the story line. She paints a lovely picture of Hood River, which is one of my favorite places to visit.

There did seem to be a lot of typos but I'm assuming that is because I was reading an ARC & that these will be fixed in editing. All in all, I recommend this one to any one who likes a feel-good novel & thank you to Net Galley for allowing me to read this ARC.

The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin is a wonderfully written, beautiful story that I liked so much. This kind of book is so enjoyable and inspirational although it did make me want to cry while reading. It’s a book that puts you through the emotional ringer!

Three different people are brought together in order to work on a bee farm. What a fantastic setting, right?

Check it out:

Forty-four-year-old Alice Holtzman is stuck in a dead-end job, bereft of family, and now reeling from the unexpected death of her husband. Alice has begun having panic attacks whenever she thinks about how her life hasn’t turned out the way she dreamed. Even the beloved honeybees she raises in her spare time aren’t helping her feel better these days.

In the grip of a panic attack, she nearly collides with Jake–a troubled, paraplegic teenager with the tallest mohawk in Hood River County–while carrying 120,000 honeybees in the back of her pickup truck. Charmed by Jake’s sincere interest in her bees and seeking to rescue him from his toxic home life, Alice surprises herself by inviting Jake to her farm.

And then there’s Harry, a twenty-four-year-old with debilitating social anxiety who is desperate for work. When he applies to Alice’s ad for part-time farm help, he’s shocked to find himself hired. As an unexpected friendship blossoms among Alice, Jake, and Harry, a nefarious pesticide company moves to town, threatening the local honeybee population and illuminating deep-seated corruption in the community. The unlikely trio must unite for the sake of the bees–and in the process, they just might forge a new future for themselves.

I can’t believe this was a debut novel! Well done, Eileen!

Coming out on April 27.

Grieving widow Alice, wheelchair neo-punk Jake and lost soul Harry stumble into each other's company and make a life for themselves over beekeeping in Hood River, Oregon.

Eileen's writing is golden. The way she weaved the bees and facts into the story was perfect. I learned a pretty hefty amount of info on bees and beekeeping and I don't regret it! Never skip the acknowledgments and "about the author" section. Hidden gems, always!

I wholeheartedly fell in love with the characters. I'm talking I shed tears for their pain, I felt joy when moments of positive clarity rained down on them. Their raw emotions struck me like a bolt of lightning straight out the pages. It was a slower story and heartbreaking but the tender turn around left me blanketed in pure love. Love for this book, most of the characters, and the author. What a terrific debut novel!

I highly recommend picking this up if you love a feel-good story about second chances with a lot of depth because it's exactly what you'll get. The perfect spring/summer novel you never knew you needed!

This book was okay but not my favorite! I felt like the story took a while to get into, and I didn’t really see the bond between the characters or even understand fully their motivations. It was a cute ending but I wouldn’t recommend to others if they have long TBRs. A lot of beekeeping terminology that got tedious to read.

The Music Of Bee’s is the debut novel by Eileen Garvin and deals with three people …



Alice is a beekeeper, a widow who struggles with panic attacks and feels trapped in her desk job.



Jake is an angry ex-skateboarder who because of a prank that went bad is now confined to a wheelchair



Harry who is full of worry and indecision, he lives with this uncle in a trailer that has been condemned.



All three of them come together at a local bee farm.



Garvin does a great job writing the three characters who are all lost and broken, who all come together on the Oregon Bee Farm where they are able to forge out a friendship with each other and finally find healing. It can be a bit difficult to read when you get into the backstories of the main characters. The journey that each one takes is hard and emotionally difficult to read at times. Each character is rich in personality and struggles. However it is the bee farm that helps lighten up the story, and it is one of the reasons I was so attracted to the book. Gavin brought the farm to life with respect to the bees and the keepers and gave me a bit of in-depth education on the keeping of bees, which I really enjoyed.



The Music of Bees is a beautifully written debut, about friendship, hardships, and beating the odds.

3 lost souls all from different walks in life - lost due to different circumstances find their way to an apiary - then the apiary is potentially in trouble. All three pull together to attempt to save the farm, the bees and in turn maybe save themselves. A lovely story of loss, redemption and restoration. The information that's interlaced throughout the story about bees and apiaries is so interesting and it flows effortlessly with the story line. You don't know that you are learning all that you are learning about the buzzing little beasts. A timely springtime read!!!

Thank you to Dutton Books for the advanced copy for review.

This was definitely a different genre than I normally read, but it ended up being a great heartwarming book about friendship and standing up for what you believe in. Jake--a troubled, paraplegic teenager is almost hit by Alice. She feels so bad that she ends up offering Jake a job to help her with her bees. Harry is also hired on and suffers from social anxiety. The three of them form a great friendship and a common goal: to take care of the bees.

"The Music of the Bees" is a lovely story about healing and starting over.

Alice is a bee keeper in her farm in Oregon who is dealing with her mental health struggles after the loss of her husband. She ends up meeting Jake on the side of the road. Jake Stevenson is barely an adult but he is depressed due to a party injury that put him in a wheelchair for life. Jake decides to follow Alice and help her on her bee farm. Cue the third character Harry, who left jail and has fled to the west to be his uncle's care taker for a while before he passes, which brings him to befriend Jake and work on the farm.

At the heart of this story is the power of friendship in healing those that are broken. Also bees are super cool. It's a very slow and heavy start but it gains momentum thereafter.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this title. This story was so completely enthralling, and outside my typical genres of preference. Each narrator had such a distinct voice and story, and they were masterfully woven together.

I also have an interest in bees and beekeeping, and the technical knowledge in this book was illuminating and not so technical as to make it not interesting. This was a quick read because I struggled to put it down!

The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin is a standalone heartwarming novel focusing on a beekeeper, and two flawed young charges she helps. Alice Holtzman, our heroine in this story, is a bee keeper in her farm in Oregon, something she loves, as well as having responsible job working for the town planning. Alice is still reeling over the loss of her beloved husband, and every time something reminds her of her husband, or his family, she has anxiety attacks. On the way home from picking up bees, Alice suffers another anxiety attack, where she narrowly missed hitting a young man in a wheelchair.

Jake Stevenson is eighteen, and a paraplegic living at home with his mother and father (a nasty man). He has the biggest mohawk, which is the only thing that keeps him active, but other then doing weights for upper body, he is very unhappy. Being frustrated, he pushes his wheelchair onto the road, and is almost hit by a truck driving by. When Alice takes him to his house, she is met with the mother and father, who threatens Alice. Jake, who is intrigued by Alice and the bees, decides to get away from his father and goes with Alice (to her surprise). In a short time, Jake will become obsessed with learning all about the bees, allowing him to find a purpose in his life. Alice trains him, and automatically sees that he has a calling even more so than her, and becomes a lifesaver for her. Alice still needs more help, hires another young man part time to is very good at building things in the house and in the bee hives.

Harry Stokes is 24 years old, and continues to run from place to place, until he finds his uncle living in a trailer. When his uncle dies, Harry is desperate to make some money and a place to stay. He is afraid of bees, but is able to build things to help on the farm, and he befriends Jake.

What follows is a story of three broken people, with anxiety and grieving issues, who in time bond together to help each other heal. Their friendship pits them to fight a bad pesticide company that is destroying the bee community in town; and together they will bring the whole town to fight. I did like all of our three main characters, as well the wonderful secondary characters we meet along the way. I also enjoyed learning all about how the bees live, grow and survive. I will say that early on, it was a bit slow, introducing our heroes, but the last half of the book was sensational.

The Music of Bees was very well written by Eileen Garvin. This was a heartwarming, poignant, emotional story of friendship and healing. I suggest you read this beautiful wonderful story.

It's been a long time since I've cared about characters as much as I did Alice, Jake, and Harry, the three main characters of Eileen Garvin's The Music of Bees. As the novel opens, each of them is psychologically stuck, victims of painful and even horrific experiences. But chance encounters, openness to new ideas, and understanding lead to healing for all three. Five stars for this beacon of hope!

Garvin’s debut novel is one of the best reads of the last year for me. Folksy but not silly whimsy, it is entertaining, touching, and funny. Set is Hood River, Oregon with a list of characters; the three main ones being a middle aged beekeeper hobbyist that is recently widowed, a young man who is a self described loser recently in a stupid party accident that leaves him paraplegic (and has black spiked hair sculpted to nearly, but not quite, 16 1/2 inches!), and a young man recently paroled after a prison stint - basically for being a lifelong patsy. Beyond their personal stories, the narrative of the bees 🐝 becomes a character in itself. Touches on social issues, but more so on environmental issues. What a great read!

I can already tell that this is going to be a best-seller! I loved every moment of this story - it was original, insightful, funny at times, heartbreaking at other times, and the perfect balance of plot and character. I hope this is a BOTM pick!

"A heartwarming debut novel for readers of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, following three lonely strangers in a rural Oregon town, each working through grief and life's curveballs, who are brought together by happenstance on a local honeybee farm where they find surprising friendship, healing - and maybe even a second chance - just when they least expect it.

Forty-four-year-old Alice Holtzman is stuck in a dead-end job, bereft of family, and now reeling from the unexpected death of her husband. Alice has begun having panic attacks whenever she thinks about how her life hasn't turned out the way she dreamed. Even the beloved honeybees she raises in her spare time aren't helping her feel better these days.

In the grip of a panic attack, she nearly collides with Jake - a troubled, paraplegic teenager with the tallest mohawk in Hood River County - while carrying 120,000 honeybees in the back of her pickup truck. Charmed by Jake's sincere interest in her bees and seeking to rescue him from his toxic home life, Alice surprises herself by inviting Jake to her farm.

And then there's Harry, a twenty-four-year-old with debilitating social anxiety who is desperate for work. When he applies to Alice's ad for part-time farm help, he's shocked to find himself hired. As an unexpected friendship blossoms among Alice, Jake, and Harry, a nefarious pesticide company moves to town, threatening the local honeybee population and illuminating deep-seated corruption in the community. The unlikely trio must unite for the sake of the bees - and in the process, they just might forge a new future for themselves.

Beautifully moving, warm, and uplifting, The Music of Bees is about the power of friendship, compassion in the face of loss, and finding the courage to start over (at any age) when things don't turn out the way you expect."

Read it for the bees!

This was a really lovely found-family kind of story, where people with their own challenges and unique histories come together to support one another and grow as a result. I'll definitely be recommending it to customers at the bookstore where I work.

This was a very slow start for me, and never quite fully engaged my mind. Initially all the characters are so broken it's a downer to read. It didn't help that I've experience in vocational rehabilitation, working with disabled individuals who have been injured and it was uncomfortably close to some of the clients I've had at the beginning of their rehabilitation.
The information on bees was good, and I learned a few things. Having been a backyard beekeeper in the past, it was interesting to read and get some new information and have other bits and pieces of information confirmed. There was a lot, though, and some people might find it trending a bit too much toward text book types of paragraphs.
Once the story got rolling it was a combination of predictable and heartstring pulling. Combine that with a strong message throughout to take care of nature, and you have the basic story. Three broken people come together and bond as they try to save their corner of the environment. Their success and futures aren't closed in at the end of the book, which is good as it gives the reader the opportunity to take the end of the book and make it theirs.
I suspect the readers who will enjoy this group will have similar interest, either in bees and the environment or just in the environment; plus an interest in a book that offers a peek into someone overcoming the odds. I also suspect many people who pick it up will wind up skimming the book rather than reading it in dept.

This book was okay. But it was not for me. I didn't like the first character introduced. I was expecting the book to start with Alice, but it didn't. I just could get interested in the story.