This book is incredible and especially because it’s a debut
The authors writing is just amazing and I loved everything about it
A fantastic book

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book had an amazing plot, but I felt the characters were a bit hard to connect to.

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this review copy.

Helen and the Grandbees is Alex Morrall's debut novel and it's just breathtaking, you'd never know it was a debut. It was nothing expected and everything more than that. I had so many emotional responses for those sweet babies and for sweet Helen. There are several themes at play in this book, including racial identity, mental illness, and trauma, and in my opinion it's a very realistic look at these realities. As picked this book up, I immediately felt endeared to Helen, but didnt know just how much her story would pull me in. couldn't set it down. really loved the ending and came away from reading it feeling a sense of closure for the characters. I give this one 5 full stars and lots of tears.

Thanks so much to NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book. This review has been posted to both Goodreads and Instagram under the handle @literary.erica

My favorite genre (that I’ll be honest, I completely made up) is “books that break my heart and then put it back together.” And this book fits that perfectly. I related to so much of this book, especially the struggle of not knowing where you came from, and this book just captured that feeling so perfectly. I was ugly crying during some parts. What I love about this kind of book is how it truly shows some of the most painful and hardest parts of being human….but reminds you that love and hope are stronger and outlast all that other stuff. I wish everyone could read this book!

A really sweet story. Moving, gripping storyline. A page turner. You have so much rooting for the characters in this! Powerful, and tense too. All the emotions are played out in the book. Thanks for sending.

This book is an emotional book which will captivate your heart. It touches on so many hard hitting subjects. It was very well written , I was so connected to the characters. Congratulations on a well written book.

Twenty years ago, Helen is forced to give up her newborn baby, Lily. Now living alone in her small flat, there is a knock at the door and her bee, her Lily, is standing in front of her.

Reuniting means the world to them both, but Lily has questions. Lots of them. Questions that Helen is unwilling to answer. In turn Helen watches helplessly as her headstrong daughter launches from relationship to relationship, from kind Andrew, the father of her daughter, to violent Kingsley who fathers her son.

When it’s clear her grandbees are in danger, tangled up in her daughter’s damaging relationship, Helen must find the courage to step in, confronting the fears that haunt her the most.

Told in Helen’s quirky voice Helen and the Grandbees addresses matters of identity, race and mental illness


A debut novel, this book addresses some very difficult subjects, but with the utmost compassion. As a reader, you get a glimpse into the world of those we usually forget. The people we walk past, and pretend we do not see, those that live on the edge, in the margins, those who struggle more than most.

This book is about finding yourself, about love and compassion, forgiveness, understanding. What a wonderful read!

Thank you to Legend Press & Netgalley for this ARC

I really enjoyed this book! I found it’s style unique and enjoyed the short, easy to follow chapters! Helen is a lady who is lost within her mental health and has been for years, her life revolves around her bees ( her child taken at birth and grand children) slightly harrowing at times but that didn’t put me off! An author and book i’d recommend to others

Tried a couple of times to get into this one and just couldn’t. I think I’ll try again another time.

Thank you

This book touched on all the feels and has many triggers including mental illness, incest, rape, domestic violence, and child abuse. Our protagonist, Helen Kennedy, had her infant removed from her care. Twenty years later, her daughter knocks on her door. Throughout the book, Helen grapples with her past and present. While the storyline was difficult to follow at times, overcoming the past helps Helen work through her demons to protect her grandbees while also coming to terms with her daughter's "need to know" her own heritage. Truly emotional. Thank you, Netgalley, author Alex Morrall, and Legend Press for the opportunity to read this ARC. 3.5 Stars

A little hard to follow, and I wish there was more of a solid ending. However, the book does a good job explaining the world through the mind of someone with mental illness, interspersed with bits from other character perspectives.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Helen keeps a secret from her daughter with whom she was reunited. Her daughter resents her for the secret, and new turmoil threatens their fragile relationship. Although her daughter is angry, she allows Helen access to her children as she needs help with childcare. The truth surfaces, and both mothers have to face their painful truths.

Alex Morrall has gifted readers with a wonderful story about love, relationships and forgiveness. Not only forgiveness for others, but forgiveness for the person who lives within you. Helen has always struggled to find a place where she fits in and can live in her own form of peace. Her world turns upside down when she meets the daughter - her "bee" - taken from her so many years ago. The story of where Helen came from and where she is now is a tender, yet rough tale of loneliness and learned loved for others. When her daughter deserts her, Helen's grandbees become her life and provide her with an opportunity to realize her own worth. Grab a box of tissues, though, because this isn't an easy story. However, it is a story that needs to be told, a story that emphasizes that the heart is more important than anything on the outside.

Social services took away Lily – Helen’s child/her “bee” – because she was unable to properly care for her: “The System took her to ‘Better parents, older parents, ones with a similar ethnic background’.” Twenty years later, Lily (now known as Ingrid) arrives at Helen’s door. Slowly, the two build a relationship, though strains develop when Lily wants information about her father and grandparents, information Helen refuses to share. Helen loves her grandchildren Aisha and Ryan, her grandbees, and when Lily’s choices put them in danger, Helen has to confront her past to protect them.

Helen is a unique narrator. Trauma in her past has left her mentally fragile; she has spent time not in the hospital but “in the other building. The one next door. The mental ward.” Slowly it emerges that she requires sleeping pills, anti-anxiety drugs, and antidepressants. Because of events in her childhood and adolescence, she suffers from post-traumatic stress. To cope, she has tried to bury her past but when Lily keeps prodding for information, Helen becomes severely anxious. To complicate her situation, Helen knows that she may lose Lily once again if she doesn’t give her what she wants.

Because Helen is the narrator, what happened to her in the past is not directly mentioned. It is not difficult, however, to determine what occurred. Sufficient information is revealed by her fragmented memories, nightmares, and triggers. Only to Lily does the truth not seem to be obvious, but then she doesn’t ever directly ask why Helen doesn’t want to talk about her family. It is to Aisha that Helen says, “’Maybe I don’t tell you because I love you?’”

Whereas Helen is endearing, I found Lily difficult to like. Constantly discontented, she moves from one relationship to another. She divorces her first husband because she becomes bored with him! I became increasingly frustrated with her choices, especially when they obviously impact her son and daughter. She is so selfish and self-centred that she cannot see the effect her constant questions have on her mother. She puts her need to know ahead of any concerns about why her mother might not want to discuss Lily’s heritage. Helen perhaps has more understanding of Lily’s behaviour: “maybe my secrets are what gives Lily-Bee the discontent, because she is looking for something I cannot tell her. She is looking for something that I cannot solve for her, so she looks in other places to find the things I cannot give her. She turns to the arms of different men so that she knows where she is going, even if she doesn’t know where she comes from.”

The novel touches on a number of difficult subjects, but all are treated sensitively. For me, it is the portrayal of mental illness that stands out. Helen has all the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and because she hasn’t received help and support, she sees her life as “a broken-up jigsaw, no roots, no branches, no sky, no ground, no horizon, but the blankness never went away.” She tries to cope as best she can, trying to live a better life. She believes Lily was taken away because Helen wasn’t able to keep her home clean so now she obsesses about cleanliness. Her capacity for love is such that it leaves Lilly confused and admitting, “I really don’t know what to do with all that love.”

The theme is that love can overcome fear. Helen must face her worst fears in order to protect her grandchildren from danger. In the process, she also helps herself; she thinks “the pieces of my life [are] almost forming a complete whole. I have started to see the picture that is my broken jigsaw, and there are only a few more pieces to add here and there.”

This novel has a dynamic protagonist whom the reader will come to admire; it thoughtfully examines mental illness; it has an uplifting message; and it is written in a captivating style. There is much to recommend and little to criticize.

I have to admit that I picked this book purely on the basis that the main character is called Helen, self indulgent to say the least.

I enjoyed this book the complexities of family life, mental health and past trauma playing out within the lives of Helen and her grandchildren she adorably calls grandbees.

The book touches on race and identity and poses the question can you know who you are if you don’t know where you came from?

At times I grew a little impatient as it was evident that trauma had occurred and that frayed relationships could start to be healed if Helen would only talk about the past. And you are left with unresolved questions at the end of the books. But upon reflection life isn’t easy and fixed in 300 pages or less so perhaps that was the purpose.

First I would like to thank the publishing house, the author, and NetGalley for allowing me an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.
3.5 stars
This was a slow burn for me. Not enough that I wanted to put it down, but slower than I usually read. That being said, I'm not upset I read it. It deals with some important issues (incest, rape, domestic violence, and mental illness) and the characters were realistic. At first I didn't realize the mental illness that Helen copes with so reading about her past with her Beep Beep Bop made me slightly crazy. But it all made sense. I also want to add that the ending was wrapped up a little too neatly but we all need happy endings some times don't we?

There are books that impress me so much that it is hard to give a proper review. Everything I could say falls short.

- The characters all felt so real, and grew so much - literally, with the (grand-)bees, but also figuratively. They stand up for themselves, or learn to do so, make choices for the wrong reasons, make bad choices that turn out okay (or not) and good choices that do not turn out as well as they hoped.
- The plot is so well done that it often kept me on the edge of my seat. Every time things seemed to calm down, there was something new to get things going. As for how great the characters are, I had to remind myself that this indeed was a fictional story while writing this. Because I'd wish a better and more stable life for anyone, and it kind of felt wrong to be happy about all of these things happening to them, if you know what I mean.

I say it on many occasions, but again in this review. If you find yourself in a situation that does not feel right, or you can't do it alone, don't be afraid to ask help. It is not your fault that you need help, all you can do is accept that you need others to glue things together.

For those who enjoyed Eleanor Oliphant, this touching story told from the perspective of an unorthodox female trying to navigate family and friendship is must read. I fell in love with Helen and her struggle to make sense of an unfair and confusing life. Both tender and uplifting, this was a lovely read.

Helen is a mother who had her baby taken away from her twenty years ago. She is trying so hard to live a better life to show she is a worthy person. This book has such vivid descriptions that you can see what is happening as you read. She has become afraid of everything due to mental illness, but has to find a way to help her grandchildren.
I was given a copy of this ebook with no obligation to write a review.

Reviewed on Amazon

Helen and the Grandbees is Alex Morall’s debut novel and is a warm, uplifting and simultaneously moving and heart-wrenching read, which is perfect to curl up with on a chilly Autumn evening. Among the subjects it addresses are familial relationships, abuse, trauma/PTSD, duty of care, sacrifice, love, self-destruction and mental health issues. Helen has had a tough life. Leaving home merely a teenager due to the mental anguish associated with abuse, the constant anxiety of being around an abuser and walking on eggshells likely contributed to her mental decline. Things didn't get any better after leaving, though, as along came a whole new set of issues adding to the strain on her mental health. She inadvertently and unexpectedly falls pregnant and nine short months later gives birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl she calls Lily. But despite trying her utmost to care for her newborn, when she begins to lose her grip on reality, she is forced to relinquish her parental rights and sadly Lily is put up for adoption.

Two decades later, Ingrid (formerly Lily) is reunited with her birth mother and is building a family of her own: her and seemingly dutiful husband, Andrew, are awaiting the birth of their firstborn; everything seems every inch as perfect as it should be. That is, until Helen discovers Ingrid is planning a divorce and not for the usual reasons. This sets off Helen's alarms bells but she doesn't wish to say or do anything to throw their fragile, young-lived relationship off track and risk losing contact with her grandchild, Aisha. Can Helen provide the missing piece Ingrid craves or is trauma from her past too great to overcome? This is an moving, emotionally-resonant tale based in the deprived areas of Deptford, and is, at its heart, about the strength of family love overcoming the most intimidating of barriers. Lyrically written, this is such a captivating novel and an unforgettable debut. Morall is definitely a writer to watch. Highly recommended to those who enjoy uplifting women’s fiction. Many thanks to Legend for an ARC.