🐝 5 bee-utiful stars to Lost in Beehive! 🐝 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I can’t wait to tell you about this book!

Gloria Ricci, main character and teenager, finds herself in an institute being “treated” for her feelings toward her best friend, Isabel. At the open of the book, Gloria is dropped off at the Belmont Institute by her seemingly loving parents. In the 1960s, many aspects of typical sexuality were more than taboo; they were incorrectly viewed as mental illness, and as a sign of the times, the Institute specializes in abhorrent conversion therapy.

While at Belmont, Gloria meets Sheff, a fellow patient, who becomes her dearest friend. Every friendship needs a sidekick like Sheff! Gloria and Sheff eventually run away and experience some escapades.

As Gloria moves through life, she is visited by bees, and she never understands their purpose until much later - foreshadowed at the beginning of the book and fully played out at the end.

Lost in the Beehive is a poignant exploration of what it means to feel different, and how with friendship you can overcome most any hardship. Gloria and Sheff were two unforgettable characters. This book deeply touched me, and I could not put it down. Simple in its writing, complex in its emotions, Lost in the Beehive is an enchanting and monumentally moving story.

I had the pleasure of reading this book with my Traveling Sisters, Brenda and Norma. This special book was even more heartwarming to share with them. For this review and the combined Traveling Sister review, please visit Brenda and Norma’s amazing blog: www.twosisterslostinacoulee.com

Thank you to Michele Young-Stone, Simon Schuster, and Netgalley for the ARC. Lost in the Beehive will be available on April 10, 2018!

In Lost In the Beehive, author Michele Young-Stone introduces readers to teenager Gloria Ricci, a young woman doing the best she can to make her way in a confusing and often unforgiving world. The novel is set against the backdrop of the tumultuous 1960s, an era I'm not often drawn to, but Gloria's story captivated me from start to finish, and I'm now chomping at the bit to read more historical fiction set in this time period.

Bees are the one constant in Gloria's life. Every time something significant happens to her, she sees swarms of bees buzzing around her. No one else ever seems to see them, but this makes no difference to Gloria, and she views the bees as her personal guardians. I’ll say here that the strange presence of the bees is the one false note in what is otherwise a perfect story, but more on that later.

One summer, Gloria meets the enigmatic Isabel, a sophisticated visitor to Gloria's rather dull small town who is everything Gloria is not. There's something about the glamorous Isabel that awakens strange feelings in Gloria, and, before she knows it, the two are spending all their free time together. Gloria knows she's attracted to Isabel, and she gets the distinct impression her feelings are reciprocated, but, when she tries to initiate a kiss, things go horribly wrong, and Gloria is made to pay a terrible price.

Gloria's parents have been floundering for most of her life. Years before, Gloria's mother gave birth to twins who died not long after their birth, and Mrs. Ricci was plunged into a dark depression that has never completely lifted. Gloria has pretty much raised herself, as her father spends most of his time working and her mother is absent in mind if not in body. So, when they learn that their daughter has been caught kissing another girl, they're at a loss as to how to cope. They decided to send Gloria away to the Belmont Institute, a place where she can supposedly be cured of all her unnatural urges and one day lead a normal life. Gloria reluctantly agrees to spend some time at Belmont, but it's clear to the reader that she only does so as a way to get away from her unhappy home. Gloria herself finds nothing the least bit unnatural about her feelings for Isabel, but she knows arguing the point will accomplish nothing.

Once she arrives at Belmont, Gloria soon realizes she's made a horrible mistake. The Institute is a cold and dreary place where each moment of her life is governed by a strict set of rules that are supposed to make her see the error of her ways. She is strongly discouraged from speaking to any of the institute's other patients, but she finds herself inexplicably drawn to a brooding young man named Sheffield Schoeffler. She's not attracted to him sexually, but there's something about him that calls to her, making her think they might be kindred spirits of a sort.

After spending several months at Belmont, Gloria and Sheffield are finally discharged. Sheffield heads off to New York, where Gloria eventually joins him after spending a few months back home with her family. It's obvious to Gloria that Sheffield has been deeply damaged by his time at Belmont, and she's desperate for a way to save her friend from his own self-destructive tendencies, but one person can't truly save another. Eventually, Sheffield takes his own life, and Gloria is left alone to battle her feelings of guilt and abandonment.

Over the next several years, Gloria struggles to figure out who she really is and where she belongs. She marries Jacob, an abusive, controlling man who does his best to isolate her from her family and friends. She does her best to play the part of his devoted wife while still clinging to her own vision of herself and her place in the world. Eventually, she is forced to take a stand against Jacob, a stand that could cost her everyone and everything she holds dear.

Lost In the Beehive is a compulsively readable novel filled with colorful characters who practically leap off the page. The author's writing is lyrical and evocative, making me feel as though I had been transported back in time to the 1960s. Gloria is a wonderfully relatable heroine, deeply flawed but incredibly committed to bettering herself even in the face of seemingly insurmountable difficulties. In short, there's a lot to love about this novel.

However, the thing with the bees struck a sour note. I normally love fantasy and magical realism, but I had a hard time with it here. You see, Gloria is the only one who ever sees the bees, and I couldn't help but find their presence unnecessary. It gave parts of the story a sort of surreal feeling that detracted a bit from its overall power.

There are a few depictions of various types of abuse that might prove difficult for some readers. They're not as graphic as some other things I've read, but they are a rather integral part of Gloria's story and the author doesn't hold back when describing them.

Lost in the Beehive is a story that is unlike anything else I've read in recent months. Its darkness is wonderfully balanced out by our heroine's bright spirit and quirky sense of humor. It's a story that will remain with me for a long time to come, and I strongly urge you all to pick it up at your earliest convenience.

Buy it at: Amazon/Barnes & Noble/iBooks/Kobo

If I could give this book more than five stars, I would. I adored this book! The characters were so well developed I felt I had lived with them. I missed them when the book came to the end. T
The story of Gloria, raised by her well meaning parents in the 60's, is a gay youth sent to a "pray the gay away" institution. It weaves many characters, emotions and story lines together in a well written, coherent style. Gloria develops many relationships over the course of the book, but none resonate as much as Sheff. Simply charming, and tragic.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book prior to publication for an honest review. I commend the author for such a well written book. I will re-read this one to immerse myself in these wonderful characters.

3.5/5
Gloria's grit, the support of her family, and finding love, allows her to finally live her truth.

Thanks to NetGalley for an eARC.

Well, this was a very nice book. There’s just something so sincere and well meaning about it that nice comes to mind as the most appropriate adjective. The subject itself, of course, isn’t all that nice, it’s all to do with how the society treats anyone who is different, in this case specifically the gays. Sure, in the present time there’s been some significant progress, rights, etc., but back in what the conservative minds refer to with misdirected nostalgia as the good old days the general mentality was pretty appalling. So goes the story of Gloria, a girl who likes girls and ends up in a mental institution specializing in conversion therapy for all her perceived sins. Girl meets boy, both gay, boy inspires girl to live her dreams, but sudden tragedy sees girl reverse into a sort of quiet existence. After several years of that she attempts the normal life succumbing to superficial charms to a real white trash southerner with all the accompanying proud ignorance, misplaced pride and misguided machismo lurking just underneath. Turns out normalcy isn’t so easy when your soul isn’t in it. Then come the tough choices. And there you have it, a fairly straight forward (no pun intended) morality tale about following your own drum and all that, sympathetic (if you take the time to excuse the naiveté by era and upbringing) protagonist, an engaging story. Something about the structure or, really, the writing was very simplistic (stylistic choices seems like), almost YA like, but it worked. My interest was engaged throughout, what more can you ask for. Thanks Netgalley.

I enjoyed all of the story, except the parts about the bees. And considering that is the title of the book... I just finished reading another book that had to do with beehives. And in that read it seemed to be a part of that characters imagination as well. It didn't really take much away from the book. It tugged at my heart strings, and filled me with anger. Not really at the top of my recommendation list, but worth a read if you find the time.

I randomly picked a book from my Kindle when I was having a 'can't decide' night with reading and I was so glad I chose this. I had no idea what to expect and it didn't take me long to really become thoroughly absorbed. The writing is just lovely, well written and very eloquent. I would love to see this on the big screen. A gorgeous book. Worth purchasing. Thank you Simon & Schuster for the preview.

Lost in The Beehive by Michele Young-Stone sounded promising. The idea behind the book, the Goodreads Blurb, the cover and the author description made me hope for a book that truly showed us how lives shape other lives, how one incident to another we become who we think we are, when often we already are who we need to be but in life that realization dawns slowly. In short, I had expected the "poignant novel about the moments that teach us, the places that shape us, and the people who change us". -Goodreads
All I got instead was a mish-mash of characters, an unlikely protagonist and a hurried, almost incomplete journey through the life of Gloria Ricci.
The book set in the 1960s era is about Gloria Ricci, a young girl who has been followed by bees her entire life. This young girl finds the bees accompanying her at every turning stage of her life. The bees seem to be hinting or warning her for the future to come, but Gloria isn't certain of the reason for their existence till a major turning point in her life.
While the story is well written and well paced, the plot itself is weak. The characters are half baked and the key turning points are unimpressive.
The gravity of loss and of survival and the despair and joy that follow, aren't explored thoroughly. As one reads this book, the writer keeps the reader engaged but as one ends the book, one feels nothing. It feels like something is missing. It feels like a Christmas without the tree and the gifts.

Author - Michele Young-Stone
Publisher - Simon Schuster
Year - 2018
Rating - 2.5/3
Source - NetGallery

This story just didn't capture my attention. I didn't finish it.

This is a heart wrenching story of a teen girl growing up in the extremely anti-gay 1960s-70s society. It is a gritty, hard tale of the societal opinion that being gay was a choice that could be changed and of the damage incurred by the innocents trapped by their emotions and lack of support. It is not an easy read but a very worthwhile venture into a world where prejudice and fear ruled the day and conformity at all costs was the punishment.