Santa Montefiore (Secrets of the Lighthouse) has a knack for creating intriguing romances in the vein of Maeve Binchy or Rosamunde Pilcher. The Beekeeper's Daughter is no exception: it's a sweeping, multi-generational saga of love that begins shortly before World War II.
In 1973, 19-year-old Trixie Valentine is sure her parents are wrong. Jasper Duncliffe, the Englishman who swears he loves her, will come back to tiny (and fictional) Tekanasset Island, Mass., for her. But Trixie's mother, Grace, with tragic memories of an Englishman who didn't follow through on his own professions of love some 30 years earlier, is skeptical.
Told in alternating chapters, The Beekeeper's Daughter is mainly the story of young Grace Hamblin, daughter of the Marquess of Penselwood's beekeeper, in the golden years before World War II. But as the reader quickly realizes, Trixie would not exist if things had gone according to Grace's dreams, and the gap between her hopes and her reality is what keeps the pages turning.
The quirky Tekanasset islanders add charm to this story, as do the servants on the Penselwood estate. Montefiore has created an appealing world, in which long-suppressed secrets of a mother and a daughter finally come to light. Although both Grace and Trixie make some poor decisions, in the end, love has a way of winning out. The Beekeeper's Daughter is a pleasant and enjoyable read for fiction and romance readers alike. --Jessica Howard, blogger at Quirky Bookworm