Queen of the Warrior Bees by Jean Gill (ARC Review)

One misfit girl and 50,000 bees. Together they must change the world. As the Mages of the Citadel fight amongst themselves and prepare for war against the Forest, Mielitta, a despised servant, has her own battle to face. Bastien and Jannlou, the boys who terrorised her as a child, have grown into their status as Mages and she cannot escape them forever.

In desperation, she flees to the forbidden Forest and its dangerous attractions. Her scent angers thousands of bees and, although she survives their attack, she has changed. A strange bee symbol glows on her thigh and her senses are altered. She learns that her connection with bees enables her to summon their aid and gives her the power to shift shape.

This new-found bond works both ways and the bees need Mielitta's help as the rift widens between Forest and Citadel. Can one girl and a colony of bees reunite Man and Nature, or is the split irreversible?

Block Nature out and she'll force a way in.

Book Overview:

Author: Jean Gill | Series: Natural Forces | Format: eBook - ARC | Length: 273 pages | Publish Date: June 7, 2019 | Genre: YA Fantasy | Rated: ★ ★ | Recommend: Maybe




Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

First, I want to say thank you so much to Netgalley for taking a chance on me in giving me this book. I know it's been a long while since I've done a read for review for Netgalley so I honestly wasn't sure if I was going to get any more requests, but thank goodness I did. Thanks again, Netgalley!

Now on to the actual review.

I tried my hardest to get through this as well. Unfortunately I didn't get too far, although I did want to do my best. The premise was interesting enough, and the cover really got me. There's another book from Jean Gill that's been on my list that I've been wanting to read, although I didn't get a chance to get to it yet, so I went into this one with the hopes that this was going to be an awesome ride. Unfortunately, it fell a little flat for me and I wasn't able to feel something for Mielitta except for anger. I didn't understand why Jannlou and Bastien were such jerks to her besides the fact that she didn't have her maturity ceremony, and maybe if I had continued the story further I would have found out.

I got about 33% into the book before I decided that I wasn't as emotionally invested as I wanted to be. However, just because it wasn't my cup of tea doesn't mean I write it off completely. I did feel for Mielitta for the way she was treated, and I wanted her to kick some major ass on the Citadel, but at that point I didn't feel like trying to make it that far would be worthwhile.

I may go back into this book in another format when it gets published. Maybe hearing it as an audiobook would be beneficial for me, although I felt like I was getting lost while I read it. There were scenes that seemed to jump without any explanation, or times where the scene felt like it should have ended a few paragraphs ago but was extended without a reason.

The book had promise - and it irritated me how controlling the men of the Citadel were to women and girls enough that I wanted Mielitta to free her fellow women - but at this time, it's not one that I would continue to read.