Thank you NetGalley for the advance copy! This book is the sequel to Paper Aeroplanes. It continues the story of Flo and Reneé, two old school friends that rekindle their relationship.. Throughout their adventures, it covers a couple of topics…the menopause, and alcoholism, so even though it is generally a cheeky/funny book, it cleverly has a serious side too. I gave it 4 stars as I did enjoy it, although not as much as some of the authors earlier titles.

Thanks HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction and NetGalley for the invite to read this ARC. Apologies for the delay in the review.

Best friends xRenée and Flo have just moved back to their hometown - the English Channel island of Guernsey. Adulthood isn’t really agreeing with them as they are both struggling to cope with its demands, chasing their dreams and careers. Will they ever finally grow up?

Honeybee is one of those books that takes a while to settle in, but once you warm up to the characters and their stories, it all just clicks. We have the POVs switching between childhood besties Renée and Flo - it took me a bit of patience to register the two characters.

But as we get to know these two young women, the reasons they are back to the island, their pasts and the circumstances which drove them to, I gradually warmed up and started relating to them.

The setting is the best part of the book - the gorgeous island of Guernsey in England. The author does a fantastic job of taking us on a virtual tour of this idyllic place via the characters' and story.

While Renée and Flo sort out the bumps in their friendship, they also have to deal with the challenges of the grown up life. The book explores several aspects of adulthood - how one can only wing it at times and how it feels impossible to cope with. It draws parallels between how Renée with all her cool demeanour, easy going attitude, sass and cheek experiences it, and how the serious Flo handles it with her well thought out life plan, steady job whilst hiding her flaws and insecurities.

As the two friends overcome several mishaps, commit mistakes, learn to navigate the ups and downs of life, we are drawn to a honey bee’s characteristics - hard work, minding one’s own business, finding our role and purpose in life as well as sticking together through the tough times, which for Renée and Flo, it means being each other’s wing woman. I especially loved the aspect of laughing it off in the face of embarrassment!

An entertaining read overall with some wild slapstick, cringy situations, witty dialogues and wry humour!

After reading Cat Lady my expectations for this were so high but I was seriously disappointed.

When the book opened in 2001 and we were following two girls who were 22 I immediately thought we would be following them throughout their lives until present day, but nope. We spent the entire book in a 22 year old brain. What was the point of starting in 2001?

There’s no doubt everyone would be able to relate to these girls but as someone in their 30’s i just wasn’t interested by the end of the book. I would have loved to seen how their lives ended up.

I’m not sure who this book is aimed at as I don’t think 22 year olds could understand the message this book is trying to convey and anybody older would just get annoyed by the girls and their silly decisions after 300+ pages!!

Honey Bees by Dawn O’Porter is the coming of age story of two best friends who are trying to find their way in the adult world. It’s an interesting and potentially relatable story about menopause, body dysmorphia and alcoholism, amongst other serious topics.

I rated it 4 stars as I really enjoyed the story and the supportive female relationships being built.

I started reading this and remembered I’d met these characters before in a previous book, Paper Aeroplanes. I don’t think it’s necessary to have read the earlier book to enjoy this one.
Flo and Renée are now in their early 20s and life is not going to plan. Renée wants to be a writer but is back living on Guernsey with her lovely (perimenopausal) aunt, and Flo has returned to the island after something unspecified has led her to return to work in the Guernsey office of her London marketing company.
I think this book is a 3.5 for me. The exploration of what it’s like to be in your early 20s, grappling with becoming an adult is a theme which has been explored by other writers to greater effect. This feels like it’s a bit fluffier than its themes of alcoholism, grief, and the consequences of falling for your married boss might lead you to expect. In some ways that’s a shame, because it’s also very funny in places and Flo and Renée are loveable, if flawed.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

She's done it again - Dawn O'Porter is back with another instant classic. I've been a big fan of hers since the very beginning and this book has only strengthened that!

This is the first book I’ve read by Dawn and whilst it was an easy read, I’m not entirely sure I was the right target audience for this one. The two main characters featured in a previous YA novel and are now just in their twenties and both back home on the island of Guernsey. There were some very funny moments and some quite poignant moments too, but overall I found myself relating more to Auntie Jo and her menopause symptoms rather than Renee and Flo. I’m going to recommend this to my daughter as I think she’ll love it! And I’ll definitely try another one of Dawn’s books in the future.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Harper Collins for a copy in exchange for a review.

I’ve read a few of this authors other books and really enjoyed them so am a big fan of her work. Unfortunately I struggled with this one. I couldn’t relate to either of the main characters, kept mixing them up and found them both annoying, I also didn’t realise it was a follow up to two previous books which I hadn’t read as it made no mention of this. Sorry it just wasn’t for me.

I love Dawns writing. This story of Flo and Renee took me right back to my 20s as this book is based in the 2001 so the time was relatedable. We all knew a Renee, wild, unruly but has your back and I could actually relate to Flo quite a bit. Nice easy read that covers some of womens issues from a small island prespective and covers the need for a friendship whilst you navigate becoming an adult.
Thanks to netglley for allowing me to review this book.

Honeybee is apparently the third book in this series, I haven't read the first two but this works equally well as a standalone novel. This is a down to earth story, heartwarming, funny and emotional with some very interesting characters that wormed their way into my heart even though I am pretty ancient myself and obviously not the target audience.

I absolutely adore Flo and Renée.

I’m so glad their story continued. Dawn, we need more.

So much of this book resonated with me and I found it hard at times to read some chapters. But I’m glad I read this book. I am glad Dawn is an amazing writer and hopefully I’ll be glad to look at myself in the mirror in the near future.

The story follows Renee and Flo as they return following stints in Spain/ uni as unformed adults, trying to find their place in the world where being an adult means a job and paying for somewhere to live.

I really wanted to love this book. I love Dawn O’Porter and so wanted to love her book. It’s the first of hers I’ve read. For me this kind of straddles between YA and adult fiction. YA with a lot of “flaps” thrown in. I know the girls were only in their early 20s but it felt like I was reading about teenagers. A quick but relatively uneventful read. That left me feeling underwhelmed. Sorry Dawn.

I've loved Renee and Flo since reading the first two books in this trilogy, so I was thrilled to discover Dawn had written a follow up set in 2001 as the girls navigate their early twenties. Their expericences of first jobs, dating, drunken fumbles etc feel very real, and I loved learning more about Auntie Jo and meeting the girls' neighbour Lillian. It feels far fetched in places but I didn't care to be honest. Would recommend reading the first two novels first.

With thanks to HarperCollins and Netgalley

I’m a big fan of Dawn O’Porter in general, and have read all of her novels so far so was delighted to receive an ARC of Honeybee.

This is the third in a series of novels about Flo and Renee, best friends from school. I absolutely loved Paper Planes (the first in the series), but was left a little disappointed by Goose (the second). Sadly I feel Honeybee has followed in Goose’s footsteps.

I love Dawn’s writing, but the story itself fell a bit flat for me. I feel like Flo and Renee could have been left behind at the end of the first book. Some of the issues brought up are very valid and worthy of being discussed, but they aren’t given enough depth in my opinion,

Sadly not for me but I feel younger readers will probably enjoy this more.

This book addresses so many issues facing young women today. It is commendable that all these challenges were addressed but none was dealt with in depth. A more selective approach might have allowed for more in depth discussions. I totally missed the humour and just found it irritating.
Still it is good to see all these points addressed.

Another brilliant, hilarious, moving and relatable novel by Dawn O'Porter. I have read and loved all her previous books and Honeybee is just as wonderful. Filled with real, raw humanity and dealing with growing up, bereavement, relationships, work and so much more, this is a beautifully written and fabulous novel.

This is the second of Dawn O’Porters books that I’ve read and I wasn’t disappointed. It was a really fun and easy read, with lots of laughs and things to relate to as we follow the young adult lives of Flo and Renée as they come back to the island of Guernsey which they grew up on watching as they navigate friendships and new careers whilst ‘growing up’.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is really fun, it has a lot of humour but also covers some deeper topics with grief, but also has a great friendship too. I love this author’s writing, it’s hard to be mad when reading as she really writes the humour in her books very well. I was sad to learn it was the third in a series and wish I had read the others first but it’s absolutely fine to read as a standalone.

I have read most of Dawn O’Porter’s books and usually quite enjoy them. I was intrigued by the title and colourful cover and was delighted to receive a copy of both the ebook and audiobook. I alternated between both.

The story follows Renèe and Flo, characters from her YA novel, Paper Planes. I haven’t read this but I’m not sure it matters too much. After not speaking for a few years, both of them return to Guernsey and miraculously become the best of friends again. Now in their early 20s, Renèe not only moves in with Flo but also gets a job at the same company Flo works at, despite being pretty incompetent to begin with.

I only made it halfway through the book before giving up on it. Part of me wanted to keep reading in case it got any better but I decided there are too many other books I could be reading. Nothing much really happens, I found both main characters annoying, unrelatable, totally vapid, and immature. Neither of them seem to have many life skills and act like a pair of irresponsible teenagers, instead of the 20 something, supposedly professional women they’re meant to be. Renèe’s obsession with her boss was like something a teenager would do, and the frequent references to her “soaking vagina” 🤢 were more crude than funny.

I think I’m too old for this book and not the target audience. It tries hard to be a humorous story about two friends reuniting and navigating life but to me it was boring and I couldn’t connect with the story or characters.

Thanks to Harper Collins UK, Harper Collins UK Audio and NetGalley for my copies.

Honeybee is my first read by author Dawn O'Porter and I really enjoyed this novel.

We follow best friends Flo and Renee as they start on their adult-life journey and that real-life is exhausting and actually hard.

I found the dynamic between the friends really well written and interesting to read.

At times, I did find Honeybee quite lacking and my mind wandering off but still a really good novel.

I give this novel 3.5 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and author for allowing me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.