Book Review
Jul. 20th, 2023 09:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariThe Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows
by Olivia Waite
This historical sapphic romance largely takes place in the small coastal town of Melliton around 1820. When the widowed Agatha Griffin finds a swarm of bees building a hive in the storage shed of the Melliton branch of her printing business, she is directed to beekeeper Penelope Flood. Penelope removes the bees and sets them up in the yard next to the print shop. A warm friendship develops between the two women, with an underlying attraction that they each struggle to recognize and deal with.
I ultimately found this romance deeply satisfying. The main characters are wonderful, and I love how they both had fully realized, complicated lives and emotional landscapes. They are both in their mid-forties, and I really enjoyed reading a love story about people my own age finding love during a different stage of life than is typical in romance novels. Agatha is very wrapped up in keeping her business going in a time of censorship and repression, as well as with her son's emergence into adulthood, all of which has made her a bit buttoned up and emotionally disconnected. Penelope has lived in Melliton all her life and has developed a tendency to go along to get along. It was fun watching the way their friendship helped each of them get beyond these habits and constraints. This was the slowest slow-burn romance I have encountered in the genre so far. Luckily, once that slow burn catches fire, it just about explodes and the happy ending is both well-earned and beautiful.
by Olivia Waite
This historical sapphic romance largely takes place in the small coastal town of Melliton around 1820. When the widowed Agatha Griffin finds a swarm of bees building a hive in the storage shed of the Melliton branch of her printing business, she is directed to beekeeper Penelope Flood. Penelope removes the bees and sets them up in the yard next to the print shop. A warm friendship develops between the two women, with an underlying attraction that they each struggle to recognize and deal with.
I ultimately found this romance deeply satisfying. The main characters are wonderful, and I love how they both had fully realized, complicated lives and emotional landscapes. They are both in their mid-forties, and I really enjoyed reading a love story about people my own age finding love during a different stage of life than is typical in romance novels. Agatha is very wrapped up in keeping her business going in a time of censorship and repression, as well as with her son's emergence into adulthood, all of which has made her a bit buttoned up and emotionally disconnected. Penelope has lived in Melliton all her life and has developed a tendency to go along to get along. It was fun watching the way their friendship helped each of them get beyond these habits and constraints. This was the slowest slow-burn romance I have encountered in the genre so far. Luckily, once that slow burn catches fire, it just about explodes and the happy ending is both well-earned and beautiful.
