The Beekeeper's Son by Kelly Irvin

★★★★★
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A strange, mystical place allows Deborah and Phineas to see themselves and others with new eyes.

When Deborah Lantz arrives in Bee County, Texas, she expects to find a great oasis of citrus groves and olive trees. Instead, she finds a tiny Amish district struggling to make ends meet on a barren, drought-stricken land.

Deborah longs to go home to the lush, green countryside of Tennessee, but she wants her mother, a widow with six children, to be happy again. Even if that means accepting Stephen as her future stepfather. She can’t believe God created such an ugly place filled with strange animals, twisted, stunted trees, and not a drop of rain for months.

Then she meets the beekeeper’s son. Phineas King’s face is disfigured by scars from an accident that killed his mother and destroyed his trust in God. Through their encounters both begin to realize the beauty in all of God’s creation. Deborah walks through the strange land of figs, Mexican squash, and wild cucumbers to see Phineas, who finds solace in his work keeping the bee hives and harvesting honey for his father. Both are rarely alone, but always lonely. Deborah begins to see Bee County through Phineas’s eyes and Phineas learns to see himself through hers.

I keep finding delightful Amish fiction and Kelly Irvin’s The Beekeeper’s Son definitely fits in that category for me. Deborah and her family relocate and slowly acclimate to their lives in Texas, and the ensuing events and circumstances within their new community had me at times hopeful and happy, at others (momentarily) frustrated and disappointed. Irvin’s novel is a journey with plenty of ups and downs and I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it all the way to the end. With this uniquely placed Amish community, filled with complex characters and relationships, Irvin’s novel kept me hooked and entertained and I would certainly recommend it to fans of Amish fiction.

Thanks to BookLook Bloggers, I received a copy of The Beekeeper’s Son and the opportunity to honestly review it. I was not required to write a positive review, and all the opinions I have expressed are my own. (I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”)

About the Author

Kelly Irvin is the author of the Bliss Creek Amish series and the New Hope Amish series. She has also penned two romantic suspense novels, A Deadly Wilderness and No Child of Mine. The Kansas native is a graduate of the University of Kansas School of Journalism. She has been writing nonfiction professionally for thirty years, including ten years as a newspaper reporter, mostly in Texas-Mexico border towns. She has worked in public relations for the City of San Antonio for twenty years. Kelly has been married to photographer Tim Irvin for twenty-five years. They have two young adult children, two cats, and a tank full of fish. In her spare time, she likes to write short stories and read books by her favorite authors.