Tried and tried but just couldn’t fall in love with this.... I realize I’m probably in the majority here but couldn’t find enough redeeming qualities to this tale to complete it. May try again soon but for now, I’ll say, “No thank you - I’ll not have one now”.
Thanks for the ARC opportunity!

This book started strong and instantly had me intrigued. I immediately needed to know: Who could have wanted her dead? There are a lot of characters, which was hard to keep track of at first, and we learn more when each tells their story to Lindsey. This retelling actually slowed the book down for me. In the middle of the book, I wanted things to speed up and bring on the reveal already! This book does take some patience, but as always, Olsen does tie everything up in the end with a satisfying ending.

I liked the premise better than the execution of this one. I also would have preferred more chapters from Lindsay’s POV and do they that may have helped keep me more interested throughout if her POV had been sprinkled in more to break it up.

Overall, I enjoyed this as I have Gregg's other books and would definitely continue to read his work. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Cults are fascinating, definitely from the outside but I also imagine from the inside. The magnetism ascribed to cult-leaders, the clarity of their message, the slowly increasing demands, the tests of loyalty, and the creeping loss of identity; it's all dreadful and fascinating. So of course I was going to be intrigued by The Hive, which promised to combine this with the world of self-help and cosmetics. Sadly it didn't entirely live up to my hopes. Thanks to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The beauty industry is insidious and it has only become worse with the commercialization of feminism. Now you no longer need to wear mascara because men might think its attractive. No, now you need to wear mascara to be a fierce boss. The right shade of lipstick now highlights your individuality. Hour-long Youtube videos are dedicated to achieving a "no make-up" look so that you can look your best "effortlessly". It's almost impossible to escape and most of it is marketed with the idea that your exterior should highlight your internal perfection. The conceit at the heart of The Hive is that its own beauty guru flips this and says to start with the outside and that internal beauty will follow. The message is just odd enough that you want to listen, initially to scoff and then to wonder. While Olsen does poke at the beauty industry, the novel doesn't go as far as I would have liked to see.

Lindsay is dealing with a lot, from the loss of her police partner to the finding of a dead young woman, Sarah. So she throws herself into this new case wholeheartedly and is in deep before she realizes it. It is no longer just about finding Sarah's killer, it's about unravelling the web of mysteries around the elusive Marnie Spellman, whose beauty empire is fading but not quite gone. As Lindsay digs deeper and deeper secrets come to light, excuses get bandied about and loyalties betrayed. I was wholeheartedly intrigued by the set-up and started picking up on the breadcrumbs that Olsen was dropping throughout. While Lindsay is the novel's guiding star, we get the perspective of many, if not almost all, characters. On top of that, we get perspectives from different time periods. I have to be honest that I occasionally lost the thread as to where in the timeline I was. At almost 500 pages, The Hive is big and at times it felt a little muddled to me, as if too much was going on. While I appreciated the twists and turns, as well as the central storyline, I found myself occasionally just reading to get to the final reveal, not because I was majorly enjoying myself.

Gregg Olsen works with a wide variety of characters in The Hive, most of whom are women. Although I would say each of them is clearly marked initially they all stem from a single type: young, beautiful, driven yet naïve girls who turn into jaded, sad, secretive, still beautiful women. Because of this I found it hard to connect with any except Lindsay, who is a little more grounded. As Olsen flips back and forth between these characters, between their young and current selves, things get stuck a little. While initially the different angles give us extra information and hints, at a certain point it feels more like a perfunctory checking in. It also becomes clear many things aren't being said, not in a mysterious way but more in a 'I can't reveal this yet otherwise the plot is over' way. And yet I did enjoy reading The Hive. If we lost half of the side-characters and focused a little less on how catty women can be when it's about looks and fame, then The Hive would be a tight, fast-paced thriller with plenty of twists. As it is, it will still be an enjoyable read for most Thriller fans.

While a little muddled at time, The Hive is an enjoyable thriller skewering the beauty industry.

I really enjoyed this thriller. It was unique enough that it didn't seem repetitive or overdone. It kept me guessing and it was great.

Another 3 stars book! I want to enjoy this but it just felt flat for me so a 3 stars!
The suspense is really there and it's pretty decent. The same as other thriller books, there are so many twists and turns in this book.
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC

I tend to enjoy Gregg Olsen's writing, so when I received an advanced copy of The Hive I was excited to dive in.
His plot always seems new and fresh with unique twists I truly don't see coming.
The publisher's description included "glamorous messiah or charlatan?" and a child being lifted off the ground by a swarm of bees towards the sunlight "illuminating her spiritual connection with nature". For a Thriller? Okay, you have my attention.
The story started strong, but the pacing was a littler slower than I would have liked and I will say that it didn't need to be quite this long. I tried to listen to the audio version as well in order to speed up my process, but found it to be a challenging listen. Too many characters to keep track of and I don't think the narrator did a great job at helping the listener keep them all straight. Definitely the type a book better read than listened to if possible.
Overall I enjoyed the book, tho it might not be Olsen's strongest. Solid middle of the road type of book with an interesting premise and good character development.

The Hive by Gregg Olsen is a suspense novel about wellness guru Marnie Spellman. "When she was a child, a swarm of bees lifted her off the ground and toward the sunlight, illuming her spiritual connection with nature." This is the basis of the cosmetic empire that she started and that led to her cult of devotees. When a journalist who is researching Marnie ends up dead, all kinds of stories about Marnie come out of hiding. I did not enjoy this book because it was too long, involved too many characters, and it was just too over the top. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

I have mixed feelings about this novel. The plot is intriguing and suitable for the historical aspect of the novel set in the late 1990s. A women who attracts other women with her life changing attitude and bee oriented beauty products. Some leave their families to live on the farm compound. Some swear their allegiance to the cunning female guru. The contemporary aspect of the novel begins with the discovery of a murdered women. Soon other deaths are being investigated. The truth is revealed slowly through current investigations and flashback scenes..

My favorite aspect of this novel is its location, northwest Washington State. It's a location with which I am well familiar, an area native and resident. It was fun to read about small towns I've been to. Where else would one read about the scenic Chuckanut Drive, Orcas Island, or Mt. Baker?

But there were aspects of the novel I didn't like. One was its length. It is just too long. The investigation centers on uncovering the truth about the six women involved in the early business formation, the guru and five devotees. That was too many. Three devotees would have produced a more manageable plot. Yes, it all comes together near the end, but there was just too much of it.

The other aspect of the novel I did not like was jumping around to different time periods. While most of the time jumps are clearly marked at the beginning of the chapter, there were time jumps within chapters too. A current character will mention a new feature and three dots and we're back twenty years.

This is the first novel I have read by Olsen. I like his writing style and the way information was revealed as the novel progressed. There were enough twists and turns to keep me reading, even though the plot seemed to go on forever. I like what I have read well enough that I am going to go back and read his earlier novels.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

3 maybe 3.5 Stars. Very interesting idea and unique spin on cults. This book had its moments of being very entertaining and then moments where it dragged a bit or felt too contrived. Overall, I thought it was decent to good and an easy way to pass time between books.

This was a good read with a unique plot having to do with a cult. It’s an exciting thriller filled with believable characters and is a page turning blend of suspense and imagination.
Many thanks to Thomas & Mercer and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Hive introduces us to the world of Marnie Spellman, a prophetic leader who feels touched by something powerful after an encounter with bees as a child. Her book and beauty product line calls many to her cause, but only those close to the queen bee are called the hive. These five women control everything that goes on at the Spellman farm, including secrets about to resurface. When a present day detective find a link between a recent homicide and an unsolved homicide from 20 years prior, and that link happens to be Spellman farm, will Detective Lindsay be able to piece together what happened all those years ago? Or will the buzz of the hive be too overwhelming for her?

This we a well written book. Every detail thought out and placed in it's perfect spot within the story. The characters bounced me around between all of their POV's and different time frames. The mystery was decent as well as the end result. I just think I love fantasy too much to really enjoy many books that don't have that element. I adored The Shadows by Alex North as it had a spooky element to it, but this one just fell kind of flat in the reveal department for me. It did keep me guessing and I had no idea what was up from down at times because of the quickness of time jumps, but it was still enjoyable. I had not read any of Gregg Olsen's other works and this one doesn't really spark my interest in more, but for those who like a good straight forward mystery will enjoy it.

Three stars as it was good, just not great(for me). I recommend this for anyone 16+ as the themes aren't anything that a younger crowd couldn't handle. See what all the buzz is about for yourself and pick up a copy today!

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love a good cult story. And this started out brilliantly. Lots of mystery and intrigue. But then the mystery started to unravel and the ending came and I was just left feeling so disappointed. The whole story of Marnie and her face cream and how she made it, just didnt seem believable. And did I mention the ending? The horribly disappointing ending?

Made it halfway through, but found it a bit too draggy. It just kept going on and on and on about the damn bees and the self-centred woman behind it.

Many thanks to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the ARC. This just wasn't for me.

I was really into the mystery of a murdered girl and a possible connection to a previous murder so I was into this book for the first 15-20 or so chapters; however, it just got too weird for me. The Hive (as explained in the book) was not what I expected at all. I feel bad because I love Gregg Olsen, but not this book.

Marnie is a woman who is quite the manipulator who reminds me of a feminist who is able to get women to leave all behind them because "they are more than just a wife or mother" and so on. But they really do fall under he control.

Lindsay is the detective who is trying to solve the murders and I thought she was a well-developed character and was a good investigator. Her partner committed suicide at the start of the story, which was quite a loss for her.

The story is told in two timelines, 1999 and 2019, and it's told from different POV's, so at times it can be a wee bit confusing. Overall, this just wasn't one of my Olsen books of favorites.

I'd like to thank NetGalley & Thomas and Mercer for an e-ARC of this book. My opinions are honest and given in exchange for the e-ARC.

Wow,what a compelling read! Marnie Spelling has been the head of a natural cosmetics empire for over twenty years. She is also a revered guru to thousands of women trying to improve their lives. Is she an ordinary purveyor of youth in a bottle or something more sinister? Detective,Lindsey, is on her case to investigate the murders of two women connected to her life, twenty years apart. Can Lindsey investigate this puzzle without her partner,Alan who has recently committed suicide. How many of Marnie,’s close associates must she follow as she opens the “hive,” of the queen bee of the company. There are many twists and turns and a final reveal that is explosive.

Olsen's latest effort didn't really grab me as some of his previous work has. The Hive is a solid effort but with no real pizzaz and really, what is a standard plot with a slightly bizarre focus. It really just didn't send me reeling to the honey jar in the hope of squeezing a few more eons from my ageing bones. Time for a change of theme Gregg.

A web of deceit and maybe insanity? This book was one that I slowed down and savored. This author is magic with characters and dialogues, he pulls you into the plot and gives you just enough to want more, really badly! An addictive read that wraps up only to have a twist or two that you won’t be ready for! Love Love this author!! #NetGalley#GreggOlsen#TheHive

Gregg Olsen can write a book about pretty much anything and I'll read it. This had twists and turns I didn't see coming, but also lots of character development. To me, that's the best kind of book.

I'm bummed about this book. The premise is interesting. A female-led "cult", makeup empire roping in women, small town, MURDAAAAR, secrets... I was onboard to LOVE The Hive.

But it's slow.

So. Slow.

Like honey is sticking all the pages shut.

I can see where the author was going with the idea of working from the outside in, but in this case, there was no real tension, true intrigue, or slow burn to make it an enjoyable experience. The narration style, third-person omniscient, felt a little jarring. I kept getting the sense that I should be watching this instead on film as characters moved in and out of the frame, leaving others to question what just took place.

I ended up taking a break from reading this just after 50%, thinking something will make me want to pick it back up again. But nothing has, so this will be a DNF. Which is pretty rare especially so late into the book, but I was sad that this great-sounding book felt like a chore.

Multiple layers of secrets hold this mystery tight until the very end. (I resisted a bee pun - you are very welcome!) Many times I could not see how Detective Lindsay Jackman was going to get to a resolution of what happened to Sarah Baker. Every revelation seemed to bring more questions than answers. And while you would think that a story like this, based on a cult of personality, would include deeply developed characters, I felt this area was overlooked. Instead it was a mash-up of events with little time between to concentrate on the people involved. Even the main characters, the detective and Marnie, the leader of the cult/hive/movement/company, were really only developed as much as needed to move the story along. But when the ride is as thrilling as this one, maybe you don't need to know all the people involved?