I was sent a copy of Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult; Jennifer Finney Boylan to read and review by NetGalley. I have to confess that I nearly gave up on this book several times. It was overly long and the first half of the book seemed to go nowhere and repeat itself. I also found that I became quite confused with the timelines that switched back and forth so frequently and there were certain aspects that made me question whether things had occurred before or after intrinsic points in time. I have to say that I learnt a lot about the activity of bees and the benefits of honey, which were slotted in at intervals to raise a parallel with sections of the novel. I became rather frustrated at times as this seemed to end up being formulaic and quite frankly irrelevant. I am sure that I will be in the minority with this view! Towards the end of the book there was some really good insight into some personal and socially challenging issues regarding one of the characters but I still think that it could have taken a lot less time and effort to get there. I am glad that I have read this novel and I might even try some of the honey based recipes at the end of the book, but I have to say it was quite hard going!

I went into this not knowing what to expect. I’d read Spark of Light and really enjoyed it so I picked this solely based on the author, without reading the blurb at all.

This is a great and gripping read. Lily has recently moved to the small town of Adams, New Hampshire, for a new start with her mum Ava. Olivia fled an abusive relationship to return to her family home in Adams with her son Asher.

In September, Lily and Asher meet and fall in love. By December, Lily is dead. What follows is an intense court room drama, with Lily and Asher’s history in reverse.

The plot line is gripping. I was reading as quickly as possible to find out what happens next. There is a phenomenal and jaw dropping twist (which hopefully other reviewers won’t share) that genuinely makes the book.

Lily is an awesome character, and I felt genuinely sad that she died, and Olivia I’d fierce. There are also lovely touches with lots of information you never knew you needed to know about bees (Olivia is a beekeeper), that also provide some great metaphors throughout.

A really great read.

Mad Honey Jodi Picoult Jennifer Finney Boylan

5 stars

I have read many books by Jodi Picoult but this is the first one for about 10 years. I can always remember how, in every book, she poses incredible questions about almost impossible situations that always got me thinking.

This book is slightly different but again talks about subjects in a way that really made me think and consider my own feelings.

The story revolves around two single mothers who both have one child that they protect with everything they have. Olivia has escaped from an abusive marriage and has made a new life for herself with her son, Asher, and a new profession as a beekeeper. Ava has also escaped from her husband, works as a forest ranger and is looking after her daughter Lily.

Asher and Lily start dating and fall in love. Then one day Lily is found dead at the bottom of the stairs in her house and Asher is the last person to have been to the house and his fingerprints are all over Lily’s bedroom. Lily and Asher have recently had an argument over a secret that Lily has told him, they had not been speaking for many days until finally Asher sends her a text stating that he is coming round to see her.

It is almost a cut and dried case and Asher is obviously guilty but is he really?

The rest of the book is concentrating on the resultant trial but intersperse by flashbacks to the lives of the four main characters. There are many shocks that occur but to reveal them would spoil the reading of the book. Suffice it to say that this was an engrossing read and the fact that it was written by two separate women made it even stronger although it is impossible to tell who wrote which bits. I would thoroughly recommend reading the stories of the two authors at the end of the book, it is fascinating.

I also learnt many interesting facts about beekeeping which was quite absorbing.

I loved this book and would recommend it to anyone.


Karen Deborah
Reviewer for Net Galley

I’m not going to say too much about this book as I feel it is best to go in blind like I did.
Wow this book. I literally stayed up until 4am reading this because I was so emotionally invested and had to know the truth about what happened. This book is told in a unique way from two povs. One being from Liv, the mother of 18 year old Asher who is accused of murder ring his girlfriend Lily, following the events of Lily’s death. The second pov is Lilys but it is told starting from just before her death and continues chronologically backwards.

This is ultimately a heartbreaking and difficult book as we know from the beginning that Lily dies yet I was so invested in her story and her life. I had quite a lot of empathy for all of the characters and their motivations and backstories are well explained.

In addition this book was informative and educational. It tells a story that needs to be told more often in a beautiful and poignant way. This book definitely got me thinking and further increased my awareness and empathy which is always important.

I had to DNF this one at 52% as I just wasn’t enjoying it. It was taking me a long time to get through it and I found the storyline to be very slow. I love Jodi Picoult’s older books, but I’m struggling with her new ones. I’ve now DNF’d this one and The Book of Two Ways. Unfortunately I think I’m going to stop reading Picoult’s new books, and just work my way through the older ones.

I think I've read most of the novels that Jodi Picoult has written and enjoyed them all. This one was no exception. It's up there with the best. Jennifer Finney Boylan and Jodi Picoult are two very talented authors and their tandem writing of this emotional, thought provoking and extremely informative novel worked really well. (and not just the information about beekeeping). No spoilers from me about the plot of this mystery/courtroom drama, suffice to say that I do highly recommend you read it and enjoy it. Thank you to the authors, the publisher and to NetGalley for an advance reading copy.

Long held dark secrets, public and private lives and nature, all clash. Unexpected violence that is all too frequently hidden, involves a court room drama and who should go to prison. Mad Honey is a winner, raising many moral questions of our time that beg to be answered. Jodi Picoult and Jenny Finney Boylan collaborated on this novel and are master storytellers with over 30 books published between them. The novel is due to be published by Hodder & Staunton on 17 November 2022. It will also be available as a download. Just in time to grab it for a Christmas present.

Thanks to Netgalley for an uncorrected advance copy. The review is an honest account and completely my own.

It took me a while to become immersed in the story but I stuck with it and I am so glad I did. The story of Asher and Lily will stay with me for a long time.

Lily’s revelation was a surprise, it wasn’t what I was expecting but it was extremely well written and allowed you to feel the absolute injustice of what had gone before.

It was a heartbreaking read which challenges your perceptions.

Having never read either of the authors' work before, I was looking forward to starting Mad Honey, and it didn't disappoint. The characters were likeable and well fleshed out, and while the prose wasn't particularly experimental (though I did like the 'Five things about...' bullet points in Lily's chapters, which fleshed out her character), it was easy to read and the narration styles suited the perspectives of Lily and Olivia.

For the sake of the review, I won't spoil the plot or any of the twists and turns that the story takes, but I will mention in full that the reason this book is labelled as LGBT is because Lily, one of the narrators, is a trans woman. I picked up on it early on in the story, though it's not explicitly revealed until the trial. An aspect of this that I didn't like as a reader was that Lily's gender identity was revealed as if it were a plot twist at the end of a chapter, exploiting her transness for shock value. I flip-flopped a lot over whether I thought this book was transphobic, as while I knew one of the authors was trans, the story still revolves around the murder of a trans woman. Lily is given depth and autonomy as a character, but despite her position of a narrating character, throughout the book she is either dead or reflecting on her history with the transphobia she's faced. Many characters are transphobic in the way that cis people who've never knowingly interacted with trans people are, but I liked how this was treated in the book: one of the other trans characters in the story, Elizabeth, doesn't suffer through this as a stoic teacher, but instead doesn't put up with this or tiptoe around egg shells, but instead stands up for herself and points out ignorance when she sees it. In addition to this, the chapters of the trial, told in Oliva's point of view, cover the history of trans murder as well as the gay/trans panic defence, which I thought was an important touch. One part of the book that I liked since reading the authors' notes was the ending: at the time of reading, I found the plot twist of Maya being behind Lily's death (albeit accidentally) a little clichéd, but reading Jennifer Finney Boylan's author's note where she highlights that Lily's death was the result of her being judged as a threat because of her being a woman rather than of her being trans, made me change my mind almost instantaneously; it's something oddly validating, even when it's in regards to Lily's death.

On another note, I found that Salena's character was used as a teaching device for the authors to mention that they know about the struggle of Black people, without fleshing out her character outside of her relation to her (white) husband and her role as a caregiver for their son. There's mention of Juneteenth and a point made about how if Asher were black he likely wouldn't have a fair trial, but Salena is still the only Black character in the cast and only interacts with white characters on screen, about their problems and lives rather than her own.

All in all, I enjoyed this book, and I learned a lot more about beekeeping than I anticipated. There were aspects of the book that weren't truly addressed by the end, such as Asher's possessiveness and potential violence (even if Lily did have a disorder that led to her bruising easily, Asher still grabbed her and didn't stop when she told him that it hurt), but most threads were tied up by the end. Mad Honey is an easy book to sink into, with a slowly unravelling mystery that twists and turns, and a satisfying ending that both makes sense and isn't too predictable to be boring!

Mad Honey is a compelling, nuanced look at family relationships, tragedy, and culpability. The novel tells the experiences of Olivia, a 40-something single mom of 18-year old Asher; and Lilly, a talented high school senior who has recently moved to a small town in New Hampshire and is dating Asher. Slowly, relationships and events are pieced together so we understand what has happened to both Lilly and Olivia's past life. It reminded me of Defending Jacob as I was reading it. We're not sure what the truth is and parents tend to air on the side of seeing their child as better than they may actually be. It suffers a little bit as some of Picoult's other books have by being bogged down with technical details. Olivia is a beekeeper, so we learn a lot about beekeeping and how honey and bees have been used or perceived throughout history.

I really enjoyed how Picoult and Finney Boylan create a nuanced picture of each character. When someone has done something bad, it can be hard to see them as anything but bad. But how does that change if it's your own child or even if there is the preponderance of evidence that they may have done something bad? We also see how a court case can hurt the lives of their family members. I listened to the audiobook, which was well narrated by Key Taw and Carrie Coon.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC. All thoughts are my own.

This thought-provoking story explores sensitive issues as beekeeper Olivia is forced to confront the fact that her beloved son might have inherited his father's violent temper when his dead girlfriend, Lucy, is found in his arms, having apparently fallen down stairs. A courtroom drama follows, in which explosive secrets are revealed and family and friendship loyalties tested. Can anyone be a winner here?
This was one of those stories you just couldn't put down. The plot is rivetting and the pace immaculate as the narrative toggles back and forward in time to explore Olivia and Lily's experiences of what it is like to be a vulnerable woman in a man's world.
The writing is atmospheric, and I loved all the beekeeping description - the bees are in many ways a metaphor for what is happening in the story, but the writers keep it subtle.
All the characters are empathetic - well, apart from Olivia's ex husband - some leopards don't change their spots.
Without giving away any spoilers, I'll just say this story also helped educate me about some important issues of today.
A really well-written story - you can't see the join between the writers, who are both on top form.

I’d like to thank Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Mad Honey’ by Jodi Picoult & Jennifer Finney Boylan in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Olivia’s son Asher is six years old when she escapes from a difficult marriage and moves back to her family home in Adams, New Hampshire. Now eighteen, Asher is dating Lily when he phones Olivia saying that Lily is dead and he’s at the police station being questioned. Asher is charged with Lily’s murder and Olivia’s brother Jordan who’s a retired defence attorney takes on the difficult case of proving to the jury that Asher is innocent.

‘Mad Honey’ is a thought-provoking novel narrated by Olivia, her son Asher who’s a popular young man and star of the hockey team and Lily, an intelligent young woman born in a man’s body. I’ve read many novels by Jodi Picoult and have been privileged to be in the audience when she’s discussed one of them, but this is the first I’ve read when she’s collaborated with Jennifer Finney Boylan. It’s obvious that between them a great deal of work has gone into researching the various topics that have been handled with sensitivity and thoughtfulness. At times I’ve found it confusing as the narrator changes mid-chapter and it isn’t clear who’s speaking, but despite this it’s an enthralling and extremely well-written story that ends with a gripping courtroom drama and eye-opening epilogue as we finally discover what happened to Lily. I can wholeheartedly recommend this amazing novel that has also educated me on bees and honey!

This is a book that rolls on slowly. Its main characters are Asher aged 18 and his mum Olivia. Asher is accused of killing his girlfriend Lily whom he loved. This book wasn't what I expected as it moves early to Asher's trial and it becomes a courtroom drama as the main storyline.

The book covers a few storylines including Olivia's previous marriage, Lily's life and Asher's relationship with Lily. It discusses some important topics and I've seen reviews complaining about how this was done but I felt it was done sensitively.

There was something about the English language that made it difficult to read as it didn't flow. It also had quick changes with who was speaking and no indication it had changed speaker, so I frequently lost track and had to re-read the dialogue. The book felt long at times retelling past events and I frequently glossed over the bee details.

It was an interesting book with an important story to tell but needs a good edit. I have been thinking about it for a few days since finishing, which is a good sign.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for a free copy in exchange for this honest review.

Trigger warnings - please check before reading this book.

You can call me biased but Jodi Picoult has been my favourite author since school. I immediately fell in love with her writing and a take-away was always how well researched her writing was and the support of the team that would be involved to verify the facts. It is not a small feat to tackle controversial topics such as, euthanasia, school shootings, abortion clinics and yet I have always felt Jodi presents all sides of the story, making the writing as informed as possible even though it is fiction.

I know Jodi has written with her daughter before and this is the second book she has co-written. It makes sense and the need for representation is real. I appreciate sometimes research can be everything but when it is crucial to the storyline to keep a novel authentic, you need a person with the experience to tell it exactly how it is. From the credits, I really appreciated Jennifer's attempt to educate those have either been ignorant or afraid to ask the right questions and instead make the wrong assumptions, I include myself in this, The hand writing analogy will always stay with me and I am so glad I read this book. Inclusivity is the greatest gift with education and we need to be more aware of the way in which we treat other people given the world around us is so diverse. I have never read an LGBTQ book which covers the various ways people identify with gender. This was really enlightening and I learnt alot about the world we live in because of this story.

About Mad Honey - Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising a beautiful son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in, and taking over her father's beekeeping business.

Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start.

And for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia and Lily need. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily can’t help but fall for him, too. With Ash, she feels happy for the first time. Yet at times, she wonders if she can she trust him completely . . .

Then one day, Olivia receives a phone call: Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned by the police. Olivia is adamant that her son is innocent. But she would be lying if she didn’t acknowledge the flashes of his father’s temper in him, and as the case against him unfolds, she realizes he’s hidden more than he’s shared with her.

Mad Honey is another riveting novel by Jodi. A courtroom drama and another attempt at having difficult conversations. The authors deserve all the accolades for this one - the issue of battered women was often difficult to read and I think the suspense aspect was lost towards the end with the final reveal behind Lily's death but given the significance of the themes the book tackles, I am definitely over-seeing that because this is a must-read for everyone. I know why I missed Jodi's writing so much and I will definitely look out for more from Jennifer Boylan.

Thank you @NetGalley @Hodder & Stoughton for the advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

My first Jodi Picoult book but definitely not my last.
A truly brilliant read that’s a contender for the “if you read just one book this year” title.
Moving, appalling, thought provoking, the sort of book that stays with you ages after you’ve read it.
Family, loyalties, bonds, tradegy, hope and a whole lot of really interesting stuff about bees.
A totally engrossing read

I love Jodi Picoult and have not read Jennifer finney boylan before but will look out for her now. Mad honey has all the aspects I love for a Jodi Picoult book…emotional dilemmas, topics that challenge and make you really think, and brilliant characters and plots.

Mad honey is great for so many reasons. I learnt so much about bees for a start! It also covers a current topic that needs to be talked about. Transgender is so emotive for many and I think this is largely because it raises so many questions for so many people. How we get passed that is to think and talk about it. This book allows you to see the issues from multiple points of view: the girl trapped in a boy’s body, the parents trying to support their child, the boyfriend coming to terms with his girlfriend’s transition, peers trying to make sense of something that feels alien to them.

This book makes everything real and personal. Through a variety of characters we see that not every trans person is the same, there are a variety of choices and none of these are easy. What really come across is the need to love, to be tolerant and to empathise.

This book doesn’t only touch on transgender but also domestic abuse and violence against women. It is full of difficult topics and subjects and is all the better for it.

A brilliant read that is essential for anyone wanting to consider transgender (or anyone wanting to know lots about bees!).

A triumph!

Asher is eighteen and in love with Lily a fellow school student. They haven't been going out that long when he finds Lily dead in her house. Unfortunately for him, they had fallen out and very soon he finds himself accused of her murder. The story consists mainly of the trial of Asher, interspersed with scenes of their relationship in flashback.

What I liked about this book: I loved the character of Lily. She's a warm young woman who is very talented. Not only does she know lots but she is a gifted cellist. I also liked the character of Olivia, Asher's mum, who stands by him throughout the trial in spite of having doubts; Her back story is also very well done.

What I'm ambivalent about: There's a lot of information about bees in the book. Lots of it is interesting but it does get in the way of the story and I felt it slowed it down a lot.

What I didn't like: The flashbacks weren't in chronological order but veered back and forth. This made it confusing to follow at times. I also didn't like the ending. It was rather abrupt, wasn't foreshadowed and wasn't credible.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Sorry but I just couldn't get into this... I know the author is very well regarded but I found it a struggle to get immersed in the story or the characters and had to give up. Sorry.

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult & Jennifer Finney Boylan

4 STARS

A twist and a turn is what makes this book so enjoyable. Picoult specialises in the 'human/moral dilemma' category and she doesn't disappoint here. Another excellent addition to her body of work.

Lily and Asher fall in love. They both come from broken homes but with different histories and secrets. Will their love bring them happiness or will life turn in a more difficult way?

Brilliant novel with a twist I was not specking. At times funny and often very sad. Yet there is always hope. Great characters and a good read so enjoy.