Review: Keeper of the Bees

 

Title: Keeper of the Bees

Series: Black Bird of the Gallows

Author: Meg Kassel

Release Date: September 2018

KEEPER OF THE BEES is a tale of two teens who are both beautiful and beastly, and whose pasts are entangled in surprising and heartbreaking ways.

Dresden is cursed. His chest houses a hive of bees that he can’t stop from stinging people with psychosis-inducing venom. His face is a shifting montage of all the people who have died because of those stings. And he has been this way for centuries—since he was eighteen and magic flowed through his homeland, corrupting its people.

He follows harbingers of death, so at least his curse only affects those about to die anyway. But when he arrives in a Midwest town marked for death, he encounters Essie, a seventeen-year-old girl who suffers from debilitating delusions and hallucinations. His bees want to sting her on sight. But Essie doesn’t see a monster when she looks at Dresden.

Essie is fascinated and delighted by his changing features. Risking his own life, he holds back his bees and spares her. What starts out as a simple act of mercy ends up unraveling Dresden’s solitary life and Essie’s tormented one. Their impossible romance might even be powerful enough to unravel a centuries-old curse.

So I read Black Bird of the Gallows when it first came out. And I finally got my hands on Keeper of the Bees. 

And while Keeper of the Bees is part of the Black Bird series, it can be read as a standalone (you will understand more if you read Black Bird first of course). 

Keeper of the Bees follows a beekeeper named Dresden - a supernatural being who was cursed with a bee hive in his chest, and stings people with a psychosis-inducing venom. His ever changing face shifts bearing features of all the people he has stung over his centuries following the harbingers of death, who travels from place to place marked for death and disaster. 

When they travel to a Midwest town, he encounters Essie. She suffers from hullucinations and his bees want to sting her on sight. But, she doesn't see the monster Dresden is upon looking at him. She isnt frightened, but fascinated by his ever changing features. Dresden risks his own life, holding his bees back to spare her. 

That simple act of mercy ends up enabling Dreaden's life, and setting off a string of events, that could alter their lives forever, and makes them hope for the impossible. 

So, like I said it has been years since I read Black Bird of the Gallows- but I loved it. It was unique and charming. And loved the set up for their world and the characters. Plus Harbingers of Death, in the form of supernatural crows? - what was not to love.

Keeper of the Bees was also unique. Dresden was a immortal Beekeeper. Cursed to sting others, usually sending them spiraling into murder or death, and then to wear their features on his ever-changing face. He not only had a hive of bees living inside him, but can turn into a swarm of bees at will. He couldn't always control them, nor did he want to. Not until meeting Essie. 

Essie may suffer from hullucinations - not always knowing what is real and what may be a delusion. A family "curse"- that spanned back decades, passed down from generation to generation. Doctors were baffled by it. But she didn't let her condition bother her too much. 

The pair formed an unlikely friendship, both intrigued by the other. Both considered invisible or monstrous from those around them. But both seeing beyond their appearances for the first time. 

This book was different, and cute. But it didn't captivate me as much as Black Bird did. Maybe it was because I've been in a book slump, and I wasn't in the right headspace upon picking up this book. I didn't connect with these characters as much as I would have liked, and it took me longer to finish it than it should have. It was an easy YA read- A tale inspired by beauty and the beast & a urban fantasy with supernatural beings and curses.  It was still a good read & I enjoyed getting lost in Dreaden's & Essie's tale. 

3.5⭐ out of 5⭐. 

1🌶️ out of 5🌶️. - YA, kissing, tension, & fade to black. 

Tropes: 

→ YA 

→ paranormal romance 

→ beauty & the beast inspired

→ urban fantasy 

→ small town 

→ monster H 

→ cursed H