Take the Honey and Bee Right Back🐝 🍯

I really enjoyed this first book in the Bee Keeping Mystery and I hope there are more to come❣️ Bailey and her daughter, Daisy return to their hometown after Granny Bee injures herself. Unfortunately, a murder in their small town sees Bailey putting on her “investigator” hat, much to the Sheriff’s chagrin, to ensure she solves the murder and to ensure that Granny Bee is removed from the suspect list😳

I received an advanced copy via Netgalley and voluntarily leave my honest review😍

A great first in series introduction to mystery writer Bailey, her daughter Daisy and the Hive, her beekeeper grandmother and her ‘book club’. The cast is likeable, the setting charming and there’s secrets galore still lingering after the shocking conclusion of book one making me want to dive into a sequel!

Take The Honey And Run is the first book in the A Bee Keeping Mystery series by Jemmie Marts.

Bailey Briggs and her twelve-year-old daughter, Daisy, have returned to Humble Hills, Colorado. Bailey is returning to help her grandmother, Blossom(Granny Bee), who has broken her foot, around her honeybee farm. As they pull up in the driveway, Bailey sees Granny Bee having a heated argument with the founder and mayor of Humble Hills, Werner Humble. Bailey will soon stop by Humble’s house to smooth over things and discover what caused the argument with Granny Bee. Bailey can see Humble on the dining room floor and tries to enter the house. Sheriff Sawyer Dunn, who Bailey had just run into, breaks open the door. They find Humble dead, a large biscuit with Granny Bee’s honey spread on it, and a large bite taken out of it next to his body. Humble was known to be allergic to honey and most likely died of anaphylactic shock. Granny Bee will become the primary suspect as Sawyer heard her threaten him the day before at her home. Sawyer had been Bailey’s boyfriend during high school but hadn’t had any contact since then.

Bailey will ask her good friend, Evie, to help with the investigation into who might have wanted Humble dead. Bailey has written several mystery books and will also call on a private investigator she has used to help get her books right. Bailey also will call upon The Hive, a group of Granny Bee’s sisters and friends. It quickly becomes apparent that there is no shortage of people who want to see Humble out of the picture.

Take The Honey And Run is a great start to this series. The characters are believable and well-developed. I enjoyed The Hive; they provided the right amount of humor. Daisy was a wonderful character; she was considerate to her elders and was eager to help her mother investigate. There is also an adorable Golden Retriever who will be the hero. The story is well-written, plotted, and descriptively told. There were enough twists and turns that I kept guessing until the end, when the murderer was revealed. The book moves at a nice pace.

There are delicious-sounding recipes included in the book.

I’m looking forward to the next book to see Bailey and Sawyer will become a couple once again.

A honey of a read!
I love Marts’ cowboy romances so I was delighted to find one bad boy cowboy turned sheriff in the opening chapter, riding a tractor, herding some cattle. But wait, there’s also a sexy mechanic with a catching smile. Oh, Marts, 2 hunks in one book?!
It’s a whole new cast of characters. I love the Hive and their stingers. The town reminds me of Petticoat Junction. I love that Daisy whiles away afternoons with a book.
I can already discern a major story line for book 2, now I must wait to see if I’m correct.
This new series bees knees!

What a fabulous cozy series debut. I enjoyed every bit of this marvelously written cozy mystery. This mystery has two of my favorite things - quirky characters and quirky humor.

Bailey is a famous mystery author and the whole town seems to have read all her books. Even Sawyer, who still makes Bailey's heart flutter, is a fan of her novels. So, when Granny Bee becomes a suspect in the murder case, Bailey decides it's time to play detective. Her decision is not only supported by her (quirky) aunts but also the rest of her granny's book club members.

Sawyer keeps warning Bailey to keep away from investigating the murder. But when has an amateur sleuth paid heed to a detective's warnings. I cannot pick a favorite character in this series - almost all of them are quirky, funny, and nice.

The mystery behind the murder kept me guessing till the end. Soon after he's found murdered, Bailey learns that he was a Casanova of sorts - had many affairs.

If you are looking for a super fun, quirky, humorous, and absolutely fantabulous cozy mystery, I highly recommend you give Take the Honey and Run by Jennie Marts a try. As the title suggests, this sweet cozy mystery does have loads of honey in it. And mouthwatering recipes too. Slurp!!

This fairly entertaining little cozy mystery is my introduction to the author’s work, and also the first in the Bee Keeping series, starring one Bailey Briggs, single mom who apparently makes enough money off her writing (about one book a year, mind), to mostly support herself and her daughter.

But only mostly, as we learn by the end of the book.

The book starts with a bit of infodumping, and the introduction, in quick order, of some ten characters–all of whom play roles of varying importance in the novel; while the story is narrated entirely from Bailey’s point of view, most of the secondary cast have their own lives and some character development.

The first couple of chapters showcase the ‘small rural community’ setting, and by the time Bailey and her long-ago boyfriend find the body, it’s been established that few people in town actually liked the victim; in the few hours after that, it becomes clear that he was actually universally hated—even by the various women he ‘dated’.

Here I must warn about the ageism in the text; the victim was a man in his early seventies, who apparently charmed a good chunk of the town’s (county’s?) well-to-do, sixty-plus female population. Not quite a gigolo but close, as he dated several women at once, receiving sex, money, gifts, or all of the above, for whatever attention he gave them. Our heroine, who’s in her late twenties, has repeated “eew” moments even acknowledging that older people can enjoy ‘canoodling’ (more on the language below).

There are also a couple instances of fatphobia, but not many, and mostly in the form of passing remarks.

Speaking of the town/county bit, I was a little confused about the small town setting, because there’s only the one hotel, but also a library with enough demand to operate from morning to evening, but also we are told there are fewer than 1600 inhabitants (“counting the dogs”), but also there are five lawyers and a courthouse, and also several small beef ranches, and also a “wealthy people” part of town, and… So I decided it’s basically a well-off white-people-suburb an hour or two from Denver, and called it good.

I had to come to terms early on with both the endless cutesy bee puns, and the annoyance of an entire town where all adults say things like, “darn”, “dang” and “what in the H-E-double hockey stick?”, and a sixty-something woman, who has supposedly been the ‘wild child’ of her family her entire life, saying (and I quote!), “none of your beeswax”.

(Note to authors: changing the actual word does not change the intent, it’s still swearing, please deal with it.)

Beyond the early instance infodumping mentioned early, the author only occasionally falls into the “excessive description” trap, wherein every object in a room, every article of clothing, every bit of food eaten, and so on, is spelled out on the page; it’s still mostly unnecessary, as it contributes little-to-nothing to the story, and only occasionally to characterization.

There are a few things that bothered me that may be completely invisible to many white USians; for example, the Spanish phrases that Evie’s Puerto Rican abuela uses are clearly a product of goggle-translate. Idiomatic phrases are very rarely literal translations, and they change depending on regional culture; not all Latinx people speak the same Spanish any more than all English-speaking people around then world do. (In other words, please have someone from that culture check those passages for you; do it out of respect for your own readers, if not that culture generally.)

Another quibble: if you lie to a cop, and they catch you on the lie, that may eventually lead to charges, but it’s not perjury unless you’ve been sworn in. (Don’t talk to the cops, kids, not even to be helpful.)

The way all cops, and really, the legal system, is presented, is rather unsubtle copaganda; it’s not just that our bad-boy-done-good is now the town’s sheriff, or that the previous sheriff basically saved his life and set him on the path to a productive life, or that Bailey’s private investigator friend is an ex-cop who “had to retire after being injured in the line”. The tone in the novel is that law enforcement (and the military) are inherently good and just institutions.

It’s soon clear to the reader that the long-ago boyfriend is the father of Bailey’s daughter; it also seems clear that he comes to suspect it in short order, but the whole thing is left dangling for “later”, likely as a developing story thread for the series.

Which, okay, there’s quite a bit to be getting on with in this book, what with the number of red-herrings and secrets that come to light as Bailey, her best friend Evie, her daugher Daisy and an ex-cop turned private investigator Griffin, dive into the investigation of the dead man’s murder, and history.

I will say that I guessed the culprit early on, yet I was distracted enough by some of the subsequent revelations to doubt myself; some of the potential solutions are fairly convoluted, some are pretty straightforward, but the actual solution is quite simple indeed.

Aside from Daisy’s paternity, the author leaves a few threads dangling, but they don’t affect the actual solution of the mystery, and most seem fairly self-evident; it’s pretty much a given that at least one of the secondary villains will be facing jail time on unrelated charges, so it’s not necessary to give chapter and verse on that on the page.

I was less okay with Bailey losing her breath over both her child’s father, for whom she admits to still having strong feelings, and one of Evie’s older brothers, with whom she already had a short try at a relationship that didn’t work for either of them. (No, I am very much not a fan of love triangles.)

Among the things this book does well: the short chapter structure makes it seem like more things are happening than actually are, so we keep reading almost without feeling it.

The bee keeping stuff is present enough to show the writer’s knowledge without drowning us in detail, and the relationships between Bailey and her daughter, Bailey and her grandmother, and between most of the characters in close relationships with them, are well done; I particularly liked that Daisy’s characterization shows the uneasy moment in adolescence when a child changes from responsible, sensible and caring, to impatient with parental strictures, and back.

Bailey’s anxiety, manifesting as panic attacks that paralyze her at best, and can cause her to hyperventilate into passing out at worst, is well done, if a bit superficial; there is, for example, no mention of either therapy or medication, for something that’s at the same time treated as a serious condition by all the characters.

Despite some early hints of TSTL, Bailey quickly redeems herself; we see how observant she, and later Evie, are, and the sensible, logical way they connect what they learn, both through what people tell them and what they themselves see.

It also works that the characters themselves are aware that they are two women in their late twenties, with zero previous experience in similar circumstances, fumbling their way through a murder investigation in order to protect someone they love.

Even when they do something seriously adolescent, both Bailey and Evie are aware that it’s both a long shot and pretty stupid, and somehow, the author makes it work; not in small part because the banter between them is very much of the “we’ve been friends since early childhood” type that flows naturally between some people.

Honestly, the humor here worked almost against my will; it’s almost campy, but not quite, and we get the impression that the characters themselves are using humor as a way to cope with some of the stresses of the situation.

With all that said, the balance is that I read the book in one sitting, and am intrigued enough to keep an eye out for the next one.

Take the Honey and Run gets 8.00 out of 10.

This book feels similar to a series that just ended right down to the elderly ladies raising bees and making bee products. The setting and the protagonist were different but there are definitely some overlaps. Interesting start to a new series but I am not sure if the characters were engaging enough for me to continue.

The bee-puns abound in this debut hardcover cozy from small town cowboy romance favorite Marts. The characters are relatable, the mystery solid, and the humor on the punny side. I can’t wait for book 2, and more!
4.5 stars

---Synopsis---

When Bailey Briggs and her middle-school aged daughter Daisey return to Humble Hills, Colorado to help Granny Bee around the farm while she recovers from a bad fall, they encounter a few surprises.

First, Bailey's childhood friend and 'bad boy' Sawyer Dunn has not only returned to Humble Hills, but he also owns his own farm and is the sheriff.

Second, Granny Bee's sisters Aster and Marigold drink beer during high tea.

And third, the unsavory mayor, who deceived quite a few women in Humble Hills, is found dead in his own home. The cause of death is anaphylactic shock from consuming Granny Bee's honey.

Since Granny Bee is Sawyer's number one suspect, Bailey and her family decide to conduct their own investigation into the mayor's suspicious death.

---Thoughts---

There are many laugh-out-loud moments in this novel. I particularly enjoyed the scene where Bailey and her best friend Evie attempted to break into the mayor's house. Jennie Marts is good at writing playful banter and outrageous scenes.

I also thought that Bailey's romance with Sawyer was sweet and believable. From the very first chapter, I was rooting for this couple.

Finally, the mystery was satisfying. The reveal made sense and brought new insight into the characters.

I must say that I was surprised by the less-than-cozy elements in this story. Sawyer has the sort of backstory that readers are not accustomed to encountering in cozies. While I enjoy my cozies with a bit of an edge, I know that not all readers want to read descriptions of physical abuse.

There were times when I felt that the action lacked focus. While Bailey and Evie make a fun duo, their high jinks can sometimes be a bit too much, even for a cozy. I also hope that future books will give readers more insight into the day-to-day operations at Granny Bee's farm. Bailey's grandmother harvests honey from a bee hive in only one scene.

All in all, this was a fun mystery with quirky characters. I look forward to seeing where this series goes. Sawyer is probably one of my favorite love interests.

A good start to a new series. The way it ended I was certainly hoping for more. Not that there isn't a satisfactory ending to the murder mystery, but I want more details about the characters. It was a surprise ending as I was guessing wrong. That just makes the tale more entertaining. Thanks to the publisher for providing a copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary.

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Bailey Briggs and her twelve year old daughter Daisy arrived back in Humble Hills, Colorado, to stay with Granny Bee - Bailey's gran, Daisy's great-gran - after a fall resulted in a broken foot. Bailey was a successful crime/mystery writer, with eight books to her name. But when she discovered the dead body of the Humble Hills mayor, she knew it was worse than living it in fiction.

Honeybuzz Mountain Ranch had been Bailey's home for a lifetime, and Granny Bee, the largest beekeeper in the area. Everyone loved the honey, with the whole town having at least one jar in their cupboards. Except for the mayor, who was highly allergic. It was discovered Granny Bee's honey was a factor in his death - now she was a suspect, high on the list. Bailey and her best friend Evie decided it was up to them to solve the case, to stop Granny Bee going to prison. The local policeman, Sawyer, was an old friend of Bailey's - but would he mind her helping?

Take the Honey and Run by Jennie Marts was laugh out loud entertainment! I thoroughly enjoyed this 1st in the Bee Keeping Mystery series, and look forward to the 2nd. Great characters, lots of suspects, with the culprit being quite a shock (to me). Daisy and her adorable dog, golden retriever Cooper, (his picture on the cover) plus the aged members of The Hive, Granny Bee's book club, all made for a fun and entertaining cozy mystery. Highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

Bailey Briggs and her daughter Daisy are on their way back to her hometown. The first person she spots is her old high school boyfriend.
Bailey's grandmother has a broken foot and needs her help. She finds her grandmother running the mayor off from her property with a warning she'll kill him. Well guess what he is murdered with her grandmother's honey.
Sawyer is the sheriff and high school sweetheart, of Bailey. Bailey has been writing mystery novels for years and sets out to find who killed the mayor.
I loved this story line and can't wait to see what's next in the story line for A Bee Keeping Mystery. There is a lot of characters in the story and would love to hear more about all of them.

Freaking adorable! Bailey’s aunt is a beekeeper and honey entrepreneur, everything is bee or honey themed. A murder has been committed, as a mystery writer Bailey feels the pull to solve the case and clear her aunt’s name. You’ve gotta love small towns for the gossip but teens can’t escape the scrutiny. Bailey and Sawyer, both back in town, had quite the history as teens and everyone knew their shenanigans. Every character has a purpose and tons of unique personalities that just add to the cute factor of this book. I like to guess the whodunit but it was difficult to nail the specific perp as there were many options, it was quite entertaining. Although Marts’ other books offer something for the romantic lovers this was a lovely change focusing on the mystery, but a slight hint that the coals still burn between Bailey and Sawyer. I got to enjoy an early copy and wrote this review voluntarily.

New cozy series! This is the first and it was a wonderful debut!! I loved being introduced to the new characters, learning a bit about bee keeping and the mystery was entertaining. I will definitely read more in this series, highly recommend to my fellow cozy lovers!

Take the Honey and Run by Jennie Marts is the debut of A Bee Keeping Mysteries. We get to meet Bailey Briggs and her daughter, Daisy. Bailey returns to her hometown of Humble Hills, Colorado. She was raised by her Granny Bee (aka Blossom Briggs) on Honeybuzz Mountain Ranch. The story has a cast of eccentric characters that includes Granny Bee and her two sisters, Aster and Marigold. Bailey arrives to find Granny Bee yelling at the mayor, Werner Humble (he should not have made a pass at her) and making a threat that she will soon regret. When the mayor is found dead with one of Granny Bee’s honey products nearby, Granny Bee becomes the prime suspect (of course). I was baffled as to why Sheriff Sawyer Dunn would let Bailey schlep around the crime scene. I know this is fiction, but it needs to be realistic. Evidence can be thrown out of court because a civilian was roaming around the crime scene (I do not care if Sawyer and Bailey used to canoodle). Bailey wastes no time in rallying the troops (aka her two aunts along with their book club—The Hive) and digging into the case. There are several suspects in the crime. The mayor was not a good guy. The sheriff just happens to be Bailey old high school boyfriend. Bailey uses her knowledge of whodunits (she writes mysteries for a living) to prove Granny Bee’s innocence. Bailey points out details that the sheriff overlooks (is the man that bad at his job) and she manages to stay a step or two ahead of him throughout the case. During the course of Bailey’s investigation, there are (of course) some shenanigans that provide levity. Bailey and her bestie, Evie manage to get themselves into trouble often. The pair provide several laugh out loud moments. The mystery is one that can be solved before the solution is revealed. There is a secondary mystery regarding the identity of Daisy’s birth father. We will have to wait for the next A Bee Keeping Mystery for more details. I found Take the Honey and Run to be easy to read. It is a lighthearted story with plenty of humor. The food descriptions will have you salivating. Take the Honey and Run has all the bees a buzzing with a murdered mayor, a gregarious granny, a helpful Hive, surprising secrets, a clueless sheriff, and a busy Bailey.

Jennie Marts’ debut cozy mystery, Take the Honey and Run (book 1 in A Bee Keeping Mystery) was seriously so much fun. I laughed out loud several places including during one particular breaking and entering scene where my guffaws woke up my husband. Whoops.

Like any good cozy mystery there is a required amount of suspension of disbelief and I’m totally fine with it. Main character Bailey is a successful murder mystery author and back in her small hometown Humble Hills to help her grandmother run Honeybuzz Mountain Ranch. She’s happy to be home but certainly not expecting to find a dead body so soon into her stay. Unfortunately, her grandmother is the handsome sheriff’s number one suspect so Bailey and her best friend take on the case. Much to the frustration of that handsome sheriff.

I loved all of this so much. It was just the escape I needed when I was annoyed with all the adulting I had to do. I loved the mystery (and all the red herrings totally got me) and there’s even a little light, second chance romance that worked perfectly into the story. I adored the characters–I always love grandmother/granddaughter relationships in stories and Bailey’s aunts were wonderful too. I loved Bailey’s 12 year old daughter and her love of reading. I can’t wait to go back to Honeybuzz Mountain Ranch.

This publishes on Tuesday July 17th and I highly recommend. Thanks to @netgalley and @crookedlanebooks for the eARC.

TAKE THE HONEY AND RUN introduces us to the Bee Keeping Mystery series, Humble Hills, and Bailey Briggs. Bailey’s a mystery author returning to her hometown and her Granny’s farm with her daughter after years away.
Bailey’s friends and family (including her Granny Bee and two quirky great-aunts) are a great crowd. I really enjoyed the way Bailey teamed up with her bff, Evie, to get into some real investigative scrapes! TAKE THE HONEY AND RUN has some great comedic moments (some disastrous B&E, awful disguises, and a comedy of errors funeral scene) but Marts managed to balance it out with some really high-stakes and darker elements that kept this cozy from feeling too ridiculously light. I enjoyed the investigation itself, the way that each of the supporting characters played an important part in contributing to Bailey’s plans: from Griffin the PI hacker to preteen Daisy’s social media digging. I particularly liked the surveillance and blackmail plotlines.
One thing I would’ve liked to have seen more of was Humble Hills itself. I thought that the town felt a little flat, and devoid of the usual ‘bustle’ I’d expect from a small-town cozy. I also felt that although the ‘honey’ element factored into the plot, I didn’t feel like we actually saw any bee-keeping, honey-making etc. and I’d have enjoyed that unique aspect to the world-building.
That’s a minor gripe though, and something that could easily develop in future instalments. And I would be happy to pick up the next book in this series, so I’ll be interested to see more of the setting, and more of Bailey’s antics. TAKE THE HONEY AND RUN was a real page-turner: it kept me guessing who the killer was throughout and had a particularly dramatic finale.

This story was a fun and quick read. Characters were fun and free spirited and I love stories that including the characters pets. Look forward to more in the series and what the author has in store for the future

I so enjoyed this first in series based on beekeeping. Thank you to the author and to the publisher for the opportunity. This is a promising cozy series with great charcters, a intriquing setting and fun sleuthing.

Bailey Briggs is a mystery writer from Humble HIlls Collorado who grew up with her eccentric Grandmother Granny Bee on her beekeeping ranch. When her grandmother suffers a fall Bailey rushes home to help her and manage the ranch. When a murder occurs using her grandmothers signature honey Bailey is on the case as her beloved Granny Bee is the primary suspect. Bailey is determined to save her grandmother and her reputation.

I enjoyed al the charcters in this fun series. The sleuth was well crafted from beginning to end. I look forward to the next in series. This is a fun introduciton to beekeeping for readers.