Book Review: He Should Have Told the Bees

My first Amanda Cox book was The Secret Keepers of Old Depot Grocery, a 2022 Christy Award winner. I sought another one to fill my treadmill time and landed on He Should Have Told the Bees. The what-if premise is clear: What if your anxiety, stemming from abandonment issues, explodes when another person holds claim to your safe haven? The topics addressed in this book will hit home with someone in this day and age. Anxiety is rampant. The future feels uncertain. Substances often beckon with peaceful illusions.

Beckett Walsh's life with her father is stable, considering her mother abandoned them when Beckett was quite young. As long as she stays on the farm, helping her father tend their bees, she manages fine. But chaos descends after his death. Beckett learns that her father's will names another individual, Callie Peterson, as a co-owner of the only haven she knows. Who is this woman? Why is she named in the will?

Callie has no clue why George Walsh left her anything. He was a customer at her natural candle and lotion booth. But could this solve her financial problems? Can she keep her dream of owning a store and still provide for the needs of her addicted mother in rehab? Will she ignore the niggle of guilt because she knows this is Beckett's only safe space?

Two separate lives torn apart by trauma. Two separate needs pitted against each other. This book showcases the power of friendship, the gift of grace, and the promise of restoration. Once again, delving into the trauma response of addiction, I'm full of questions about what traumas may have induced my son's addictions. I'm praying for God's power, gifts, and promises in my son's life.