Welcome to the Blog Tour for The Enlightenment of Bees by Rachel Linden, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!
Title: The Enlightenment of Bees
Author: Rachel Linden
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Release Date: July 9, 2019
Genre: Women's Fiction
At twenty-six, apprentice baker Mia West has her entire life planned out: a Craftsman cottage in Seattle, a job baking at The Butter Emporium, and her first love—her boyfriend, Ethan—by her side. But when Ethan declares he “needs some space,” Mia’s carefully planned future crumbles.
Feeling adrift, Mia joins her vivacious housemate Rosie on a humanitarian trip around the world funded by a reclusive billionaire. Along with a famous grunge rock star, a Rwandan immigrant, and an unsettlingly attractive Hawaiian urban farmer named Kai, Mia and Rosie embark on the adventure of a lifetime.
From the slums of Mumbai to a Hungarian border camp during the refugee crisis, Mia’s heart is challenged and changed in astonishing ways—ways she never could have imagined. As she grapples with how to make a difference in a complicated world, Mia realizes she must choose between the life she thought she wanted and the life unfolding before her.
In a romantic adventure across the globe, The Enlightenment of Bees beautifully explores what it means to find the sweet spot in life where our greatest passions meet the world’s greatest need.
Rachel Linden is a novelist and international aid worker whose adventures in over fifty countries around the world provide excellent grist for her writing. She is the author of Ascension of Larks, Becoming the Talbot Sisters, and The Enlightenment of Bees. Currently, Rachel lives with her family in Seattle, Washington, where she enjoys creating stories about hope, courage, and connection with a hint of romance and a touch of whimsy.
Never judge a book by it's cover, but if I were to be 100% honest, it was most certainly the cover of this book that first drew me in. There is something about the imagery of bees that has always had an appeal for me. Thankfully, the story inside was every bit as beautiful as the cover as well.
The Enlightenment of Bees follows Mia West as she finds the carefully planned life she'd thought was in the her future got turned upside down. After a series of disappointments, she finds herself following her dream of helping people through a humanitarian trip around the world and trying to discover what she really wanted out of her life. It was a great story of finding ones self, with a hint of romance tossed in too.
The first thing that struck me as I began reading this book is that it is written in the present tense. This is not something I see often in a novel and I must admit it threw me for a bit in the beginning. After a few chapters, I found that I was able to get into the flow of the story and didn't find it to be distracting as I had in the beginning. If you pick up this book and find yourself feeling the same, I encourage you to keep reading. The story is so good that by the end, you won't even notice!
This book somehow managed to find the perfect balance of a rather lighthearted, summer read while also tackling some pretty substantial issues as well. It was a real eye opening look at the experiences of refuges throughout the world. With such a topic, it could be easy to end up a heavy, depressing read, but in the end I found it to be sweet and encouraging. Though it is from a Christian publisher, it is not overtly religious- brief mentions of faith, etc- so I feel like it could appeal to a wider audience in that respect. Overall, this was great read and one I would certainly recommend.
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Hi Randi!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you enjoyed The Enlightenment of Bees! It's a story close to my heart with lots of autobiographical elements. I was broken up with, chased by a shark, volunteered as an aid worker at the Rozske refugee camp, and the character of Nana Alice is based on my own 92 year old Grandma Sally's late in life romance! Thanks for reading!