Synopsis (from Goodreads):

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 a riveting novel of suspense, an unforgettable love story, and a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves.

Review:

This book had me on the edge of my seat!  Did Olivia's son kill his girlfriend?  A parent never wants to believe their child would harm anyone.  But Asher is his father's son, and Olivia's ex was a violent abuser.  Could Asher have inherited his father's brutal way?  There's so many layers to this novel.  

Themes:

This is a story of guilt and shame.  There's a mother's guilt that her child had to witness domestic abuse.  There is also guilt that she even considers that her son harmed his girlfriend.  But the evidence is pretty convincing.  She even feels some guilt that she has kept her son from his father.  Don't all boys need their dads?  But Olivia also feels intense shame that she ever got into an abusive relationship in the first place.  This makes it hard for her to open up to her family about what was going on.  But Olivia will need to be honest with her brother, the lawyer defending her son on the charge of murder.

Setting:

When I think of small towns, I usually only think about the upsides: people know you, and support you in times of need.  But this can also blow up in one's face.  For Olivia, her son's arrest is all anyone needs to blame her for raising a murderer.  She is shunned and loses most of her business as everyone decides Asher must be guilty.

Storytelling:

I liked the different viewpoints in each chapter.  We see the story through the eyes of Olivia, Asher, and even the deceased girlfriend, Lily.  I found Lily's chapters particularly heartbreaking.  She had been through so much and had such a bright future.  Even with the different voices, the reader doesn't know how Lily died until the very end, making for a riveting read.

Story:

The story spans over a year's time, from the arrest of Asher to the resolution of the trial. But the novel also chronicles Asher and Lily's relationship, as well as Olivia's terrible marriage.  This gives the reader lots of information, but not necessarily in any order.  It's up to the reader to piece together what happens.  

Trigger Warning for Domestic Violence

Rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Release Date:  October 4th, 2022

Author:  Jodi Picoult & Jennifer Finney Boylan

Publisher:  Ballantine

Genre:  Literary Fiction

Page Length:  464 Pages

Format:  E-Book

Source:  NetGalley

Recommendation:  This is a riveting, and sometime tough to read book.  The subject matter, with it's themes of domestic abuse, had me putting the book down for a while until I was ready to jump back in.  But the payoff is an outstanding book about the secrets we keep and the consequences of those decisions.  This book made me think.  And your heart will break for the main characters.

Please Note:  I received an advance copy of this novel from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  This did not influence the opinions in my review in any way.

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author comes a deeply moving novel about the resilience of the human spirit in a moment of crisis.

Diana O’Toole is perfectly on track. She will be married by thirty, done having kids by thirty-five, and move out to the New York City suburbs, all while climbing the professional ladder in the cutthroat art auction world. She’s not engaged just yet, but she knows her boyfriend, Finn, a surgical resident, is about to propose on their romantic getaway to the Galápagos—days before her thirtieth birthday. Right on time.

But then a virus that felt worlds away has appeared in the city, and on the eve of their departure, Finn breaks the news: It’s all hands on deck at the hospital. He has to stay behind. You should still go, he assures her, since it would be a shame for all of their nonrefundable trip to go to waste. And so, reluctantly, she goes.

Almost immediately, Diana’s dream vacation goes awry. The whole island is now under quarantine, and she is stranded until the borders reopen. Completely isolated, she must venture beyond her comfort zone. Slowly, she carves out a connection with a local family when a teenager with a secret opens up to Diana, despite her father’s suspicion of outsiders.

Diana finds herself examining her relationships, her choices, and herself—and wondering if when she goes home, she too will have evolved into someone completely different.

Review:

Jodi Picoult has written many books, but this is only the second of her novels that I have picked up.  Wish You Were Here, her latest novel, is about how the COVID Pandamic has affected everyone.  Her story centers around a couple, Diana and her boyfriend, Finn as they are about to leave on a dream vacation to the Galápagos Islands.  But, Finn is a doctor and he is told he needs to stay behind to deal with a new illness, CVOID-19.  Diana goes without him.  Neither of them realize that this will change their relationship forever.  As Finn battles to save patients in the hospital, Diana is stuck in paradise.  One would think that Diana got the better deal.  However, would you really want to be far away while your loved ones could be getting sick and dying?  

This was a really entertaining book that addresses the pandemic, head-on.  With wonderful characters and a huge plot twist, I could not stop reading this book.

What I Liked:

Addressing COVID Pandemic:

This is the first novel that really utilizes the COVID pandemic as a major part of the plot.  And, even though this began less than two years ago, it's a good reminder of how wild things were at the beginning.  Suddenly thousands of people in New York and Boston come down with COVID-19, but doctors don't know how to treat it. Hospitals are overrun, people are scrambling to find PPE, and everything is shut down.

In the novel, Diana's boyfriend, Finn, is a surgeon in New York, and needs to spend all his time at the hospital.  Diana, not realizing how this will affect the entire planet, goes on their dream vacation to the Galápagos Islands without Finn.  She is soon stranded on the Island, with no way to get a hold of Finn, and no way to get back to New York.

But, aside from all the inconveniences of the pandemic, the book really focuses on what it was like in the hospital for Doctors, Nurses, and Patients.  One of the characters in the story gets COVID and following their journey, from the brink of death to the recovery, is a stark reminder in just how terrible this illness it.

Characters:

After dealing with a childhood where her mother was unreliable, Diana wants to have a safe, predictable future.  So she passes on opportunities that are creative but not steady.  And although she loves her doctor boyfriend, he really only offer predictability, not excitement.  With her experiences during lockdown in the Galápagos Islands, Diana starts to rethink her life.  

She also must come to terms with her relationship with her often absent mother, a world famous war photographer.  Now that her mother has dementia, Diana tries to look past her childhood hurt, and see her mom as an adult, who had to make difficult choices.

I really liked that Diana used her experiences during the pandemic to take stock of her life.

Finn, Diana's boyfriend, is a doctor on the front lines of the pandemic.  The author does not make Finn out to be some kind of hero, but rather a man experiencing trauma.  No one goes into a career in medicine with the thought that they will treat hundreds of patients who won't make it.   We see Finn's frustration, exhaustion, and (not always positive) coping skills.  While his actions are understandable, he is also selfish in believing he's the only one having a tough time.

Plot Twist:

I will not give the plot twist away.  But I will say there is something that happens in the novel that was completely unexpected, and changes the narrative of the book completely.  Parts of the event were a little hard to buy into.  But, it certainly made me gasp!

Themes:

This book is really about how the Pandemic has forced each of us to assess what their priorities should be.  Are we willing to work at a job that doesn't fulfill us?  Are we willing to settle for predictable (and safe) relationships, or do we want to take more risks?  But most of all, this book make the reader think about keeping connections with our loved ones.  We just don't know what tomorrow will bring.

Rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Release Date:  November 30th, 2021

Author:  Jodi Picoult

Publisher:  Ballantine Books

Genre:  Contemporary Fiction

Page Length:  336 Pages

Source:  NetGalley

Format:  E-Book

Recommendation:  This is a highly thought-provoking, and entertaining novel.

Review: