Well written and a lot of fun. Very entertaining and loved the unique perspective. Would read the author in the future.

This one took me a while to get into , while I like the concept of it , the characters themselves was kind of hard to like in so many ways but over it was a good read .

Magic and strong female leads are a nice read for me. This fantasy novel has depth and good character development - parts remind me of katniss from hunger games and the strength you see in the lead character is astounding - beating all odds!

I...don't really know what to say. I have to admit I read this just because the synopsis sounded like the hero origin story in a comic book. (Spider-Man, anyone?) I also like the idea of man (and magic) vs nature. While it was easy to hate the bad guys (really they're just disgusting, horrible people), I can't say I felt particularly attached to Mielitta and her bees. I'm honestly torn on this one, so leaving it at three stars. A lot of potential to be a captivating story, just didn't work for me.

An interesting take on order & letting people be who they are. A great hidden message in there. This was an interesting one, very different. I love bees so I liked that aspect of the hive mind and how they are one. The character & world building were good & I enjoyed it. Interesting to see where it will go.

I recieved a free copy of this book via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

First of all. the cover is amazing. I foudn this book very good to begin with but was soon quite confused and feeling like I didn't understand what was going on fully. It was very all over the place. Explantions needed expanding. But other than that I quite enjoyed it, was fun and full of wonder. I did find the scene with bee sex very odd, it wasn't needed in my opinion.


The allegiences changing happeded too quickly. I was getting whiplash. I do not think I will be continueing with the series.


3 out of 5 stars

I thought the description of this book sounded amazing - it sounded just weird enough to be kooky and interesting but not so weird that I thought I'd never get in to it. The book was alright, a bit slow in places and sometimes hard to remember what was going on. But it was worth a read.

What an intriguing premise this was. A girl who ends up in the forest in order to avoid her tormentors. In turn discovers she has shifter powers after a scary encounter with a swarm of bees. The world building was really great and the author has a beautiful writing style. And the use of scents to describe characters really brought the whole story to life. Overall it was a lovely story. Would recommend.

4 stars

This book left me warm and fuzzy. The writer transports us to this fantasy world that has to break from society to embrace her true self. I love her writing style!

I love Mielitta and who wouldn't, because the girl didn't fit in but when she encountered bees, she was home and from there her story unravels. The plot was pretty new to me and it took me a while to warm up to it, however the writing is very vivid and though bees freak me out, I could picture them coming to her aid and isn't that just powerful?
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.

2.5 This was a very unique fantasy, I've not read anything quite like it before. But while it was unique in some ways, it also had a lot of the YA clichés. You had the girl who is a bit of a outcast who discovers that she is special and rebels against the system, while also having two guys in love with her. I enjoyed the feminist and environmental messages. However I couldn't quite connect with any of the characters, I think it was something to do with the way it was written, since I didn't care for the characters I found it difficult to really get invested in the story. I think my favourite characters had to be the bees :).

I received a complimentary copy of this book through Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
This very original book focuses on Mielitta, an eighteen year old girl long past the age of her maturity test, but never accepted and still considered a child. Her friends have all become adults in the ceremony and now ignore her. In a society based on conformity and perfection, she is considered a freak. "The Forest", which is anything outside the community's protective, sterile bubble, is considered evil and brings on allergy, killing many people. Mielitta overhears a password to the door that leads outside and discovers that the forest isn't evil and may actually be the savior of her people. With the power of her bee colony, she must convince the mages that outside isn't the enemy, their idea of perfection is.
This book was a little hard to get into, especially the bee politics when she becomes their queen for awhile, but overall I liked the story. The underlying story was a bit like the Handmaid's Tale with the overpowering of female mages, sexual harassment, and "forging" to the mindset of the community through brainwashing during the maturity ceremony. A very good lesson for young adults to be independent and unique and to think and make decisions for themselves.

“Why was the Forest forbidden? The very word was unmentionable. Yet everybody knew it was out there.”
-Jean Gill, Queen of the Warrior Bees

2🌟/5

I received this e-book from Netgalley.

Unfortunately, the story was not "my cup of tea" and there were times where I wanted to DNF it.

This book had many points such as suppressing women, brainwashing them and the fact that they were not considered equal to men, the importance of nature and powers connected to it, even though in my opinion it felt rushed.

I didn’t feel any attachment with the characters, perhaps the most interesting part was Mielitta using her bee powers.

I would probably try another book from Jean Gill, to see whether I might like it.

This book both surpassed my (low) expectations and disappointed me. The premise left me skeptical (magic bee girl loves the forest and fights the nature-hating mages of the citadel with her 50,000 bees? sounds likely to flop). However, a lot about the book actually worked, and if it weren’t for a certain key elements and moments, I would’ve heartily recommended it to middle and high schoolers for its eco-fantasy vibe. What (mostly) worked: Mielitta bonding with a bee hive and having her bee companions’ voices in her mind, visiting the hive as their queen, etc; the feminist vibe similar to that of The Hunger Games at times. What really didn’t work: too many references to bee sex, human sexual assault, and rape to make it appropriate for the young readers it seems intended for, to judge by the writing style; a very clumsy and unbelievable love triangle snuck in at the end; clunky and disjointed writing; a weird and harmful underlying message that if you just embrace Nature your allergies will go away (yeah right, we wish); Mielitta and a couple other women being the special exceptions among the other women who caved to the patriarchal regime (aren’t we tired of the narrative of the special hero who’s “not like other girls” yet?). This gets 2 stars from me only because of the bees; they were my favorite characters and kept me reading. I wish the rest of the book were worthy of them.

This book was a refreshing change from many other fantasy books. I loved reading about Mielitta's adventure. IT brought up important facts without it feeling like it was being shoved in your face. The ending was brilliant and I can't wait for more books.

I don't like giving negative reviews, but in this case, I have to. So, to be honest, I DNF the book after reading a couple of the first chapters, why? Because it felt too superficial, rushed, and dark. I didn't feel a connection with the main character and the magic in the book itself was somewhat dark. There were some bad cuss words and the implication of sexual harassment from young men. The story lacked a LOT of world building and I felt confused and lost in so many descriptions of feelings and senses I just didn't know what was happening. The characters were flat and very much alike. What I did like was the Authors idea of natural powers, such as bees! The story has so much potential the author could have fabricated a really good book.

*I received this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion. All thought are my own and I was not required to write a positive review.*

I loved the idea of this but it just didn’t seem to work out very well at all. It was confusing, it didn’t really keep me interested and I think it’s world needed more depth. I really wanted to like this but unfortunately struggled

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. My opinion was not affected by the free copy. I'm sorry, but I'm putting this on the DNF pile at 37%

I usually don't write reviews unless I've gotten at least halfway through a book, but since this was an ARC I was given, I'm making an exception. I thought the premise sounded interesting but when I got into it, I found myself really lost on what was going on. I thought this would be historical fiction but for the life of me, I couldn't tell you what part of history it's referencing. It could be just history I'm unfamiliar with.

Don't get me wrong, it's a very cool idea for a person to be able to hear and control bees with their mind. But I just couldn't connect with the main character. She was hitting a lot of cliches: orphaned, being late to show her magical talent, not having any friends, living in a society that doesn't question why certain places are forbidden. And then it got downright strange when the bees came into play. Maybe someone who's really into bees will find that part interesting, but not me. Especially since it was happening to our main character-- and not entirely by her own will or choice.

I'm sure there's an audience for this book out there. The idea of getting back to nature is a good one, and the author clearly did a lot of research about bee colonies. But I didn't connect with anything that was happening, and that scene with the main character and the drones was way too weird for me.

I wanted to like this book. A girl who can communicate with bees! The premise had me hooked. Alas, it didn't live up to the potential. Found it very disjointed throughout and it was trying to cram too many different stories into the one: a gifted child discovering their powers, nature vs man, dystopian future, misogynistic males suppressing women. There were too many oddities like the main character going from a docile house-mouse to matching political wits with experienced politicians in two pages, and some of the descriptions were a wee bit odd, "Shenagra sat like a volcano, absorbing the lava instead of spewing it" ... really? Does that even make sense? There were a lot of inconsistencies I would have expected an editor to have picked up. <spoiler>The main antagonists mention how the protagonist had a weird smell, but couldn't smell her when she was next to them eavesdropping, or how she was concerned others would see her very noticeable bee-mark but it wasn't noticeable through her clothes. </spoiler> And then a surprise love-triangle in the last few pages. A few more rounds of editing could have really elevated this into something phenomenal.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

First, I want to say thank you so much to Netgalley for taking a chance on me in giving me this book. I know it's been a long while since I've done a read for review for Netgalley so I honestly wasn't sure if I was going to get any more requests, but thank goodness I did. Thanks again, Netgalley!

Now on to the actual review.

I tried my hardest to get through this as well. Unfortunately I didn't get too far, although I did want to do my best. The premise was interesting enough, and the cover really got me. There's another book from Jean Gill that's been on my list that I've been wanting to read, although I didn't get a chance to get to it yet, so I went into this one with the hopes that this was going to be an awesome ride. Unfortunately, it fell a little flat for me and I wasn't able to feel something for Mielitta except for anger. I didn't understand why Jannlou and Bastien were such jerks to her besides the fact that she didn't have her maturity ceremony, and maybe if I had continued the story further I would have found out.

I got about 33% into the book before I decided that I wasn't as emotionally invested as I wanted to be. However, just because it wasn't my cup of tea doesn't mean I write it off completely. I did feel for Mielitta for the way she was treated, and I wanted her to kick some major ass on the Citadel, but at that point I didn't feel like trying to make it that far would be worthwhile.

I may go back into this book in another format when it gets published. Maybe hearing it as an audiobook would be beneficial for me, although I felt like I was getting lost while I read it. There were scenes that seemed to jump without any explanation, or times where the scene felt like it should have ended a few paragraphs ago but was extended without a reason.

The book had promise - and it irritated me how controlling the men of the Citadel were to women and girls enough that I wanted Mielitta to free her fellow women - but at this time, it's not one that I would continue to read.