I know for some of us all this pollen in the air is torture but what a lovely Spring song  in the humming of bees .

 

I love to learn about professions and hobbies as I read. Beekeeping has always fascinated me. I think when a writer takes the time to layer a book with such details the love story is made better and deeper. 

 

Here are some great Romances featuring Apiculture (Bee Keeping)

 

1. Truly by Ruthie Knox

 

May Fredericks hates New York. Which is fair enough, since New York seems to hate her back. After relocating to Manhattan from the Midwest to be with her long-distance boyfriend, NFL quarterback Thor Einarsson, May receives the world’s worst marriage proposal, stabs the jerk with a shrimp fork, and storms off alone—only to get mugged. Now she’s got no phone, no cash, and no friends. How’s a nice girl supposed to get back to safe, sensible Wisconsin?
 
Frankly, Ben Hausman couldn’t care less. Sure, it’s not every day he meets a genuine, down-to-earth woman like May—especially in a dive in the Village—but he’s recovering from an ugly divorce that cost him his restaurant. He wants to be left alone to start over and become a better man. Then again, playing the white knight to May’s sexy damsel in distress would be an excellent place to start—if only he can give her one very good reason to love New York.

 

2. The Tarnished Lady by Sandra Hill

 

Disgraced!

 

Banished from polite society for bearing a child out of wedlock, Lady Eadyth of Hawks' Lair spends her days hidden under a voluminous veil, tending her bees. But when her son's detested father threatens to reveal the boy's true paternity and seize her beloved lands, Lady Eadyth seeks a husband willing to claim the child as his own.

 

Eirik of Ravenshire is England's most virile bachelor, notorious for loving—and leaving— the most beautiful damsels in the land. Now a mysterious lady is offering him a vow of chaste matrimony in exchange for revenge against his most hated enemy, and Eirik simply cannot refuse. But the lusty knight's plans go awry when he finds himself unable to resist Eadyth's myriad charms . . . and he succumbs to the sweet sting of the tarnished lady's love.

 

3. Sweetened with Honey by Valerie Comer

 

Gabriel Rubachuk returns to Galena Landing, Idaho, once the setting of a charmed life before an accident killed his pregnant wife. Will he embrace hope for a new life or escape once again?

Beekeeper Sierra Riehl has spent three years helping to keep Gabe's health food store afloat while he worked with orphans in Romania. Now he's back, but it looks like he might bolt. Can she hold him still long enough to spark a romance? But Sierra's hope falters when she begins to suspect she can't give Gabe the life he deserves.

Is new love sweet enough to overcome the pain of the past and the uncertainty of the future?

 

4. The Keeper  by Suzanne Woods Fisher

 

Life on Windmill Farm hasn't been the same since Julia Lapp's father has had trouble with his heart. But that doesn't stop Julia from hoping for a bright future. She has planned on marrying Paul Fisher since she was a girl. Now twenty-one, she looks forward to their wedding with giddy anticipation. But when Paul tells her he wants to postpone the wedding--again--she is determined to change his mind. She knows who is to blame for Paul's sudden reluctance to wed: the Bee Man.

Roman Troyer, the Bee Man, travels through the Amish communities of Ohio and Pennsylvania with his hives full of bees, renting them out to farmers in need of pollinators. A mysterious man who relishes his nomadic life, Roman especially enjoys bringing his bees to Stoney Ridge each year. But with Julia seriously at odds with him, Windmill Farm is looking decidedly less appealing.

Can Julia secure the future she's always dreamed of? Or does God have something else in mind?

 

5. Morning Glory by LaVyrle Spencer

 

On the eve of World War II, two people are brought together by fate and discover an unexpected passion.

Tall, dark and handsome Will Parker has served time for the killing of a Texas prostitute, but keeps losing jobs as his reputation becomes known. In the small town of Whitney, Ga., at the beginning of WW II, he answers the advertisement of a pregnant widow and mother of two, the abused and reclusive Eleanor Dinsmore, who is looking for a husband. Soon in love with ostensibly plain, bedraggled Ellie, Parker dotes on her two boys, and works to support the family. Fittingly for this sort of bucolic idyll, Will and Ellie, despite their rudimentary educations, love books and develop a special friendship with wise old Miss Beasley, the local librarian. Alas, brazen and rapacious Lula Peak, the town floozie, sets her sights on Will, waylaying him in the library; meantimes, Lula is blackmailing her lover, the cowardly Harley Overmire, who is no friend of Will. The clearly drawn characters fulfill their imperatives including Will, who becomes a war hero and all is neatly and pleasingly resolved.

 

6. The Accidental Wedding by Anne Gracie

 

When Nash Renfrew wakes in the bed of lovely Maddy Woodford, he thinks he's dreaming. Then he learns of his accident and the loss of his memory. But when it returns, Nash has no desire to leave Maddy's side and continues pretending he has amnesia. With each passing day, Nash's attraction to Maddy grows. But he's a diplomat and she's just a country girl. How can he even entertain thoughts of seducing her?

 

7. The Beekeeper's Daughter by Janice Carter

 

Just as every bee returns to its hive…

 

She came home to help her dad. But Annie Collins never expected to run the family business on her own. Nor could she have guessed that the daughter she gave up at birth would seek her out.

 

Will Jennings never expected to find Ambrosia Apiary—a place that felt like home before he'd ever laid eyes on it—or to face the tragedy that made him quit firefighting.

Sometimes, though, the sweetest things happen when you least expect them….

 

8. The Sweetness of Honey by Alison Kent

 

Dark-haired beauty Indiana Keller buys a property in Hope Springs, Texas, for three reasons: to expand her vegetable business, to harvest and sell delicious honey from the property’s established bee colony, and to reunite with her estranged siblings. But her older brother Tennessee keeps his distance, even after Indiana hires his construction crew to fix up her cottage. It’s almost as if he shares her guilt over the disappearance of Dakota, their missing brother…

 

While Indiana tries to reconnect with Ten and find Dakota, two local men begin vying for her heart. Handsome, laid-back Will Bowman has a checkered past, but now he’s determined to get what he wants out of life…and he wants Indiana. Meanwhile, refined Oliver Gatlin can’t fight his own attraction to Indiana, especially since his brother also fell victim to tragic circumstances. Amid the raw natural beauty of Hope Springs, can Indiana’s heart finally heal enough to love?

 

9. Snowflakes & Beeswax by Jess Schira

 

Madelyn Wickham is a shy farmer’s daughter who wants to be left alone to tend to her bees and make candles so elegant they captured Queen Charlotte’s attention. For years, she and her father had a good system. Madelyn made the candles the queen requested for the Christmas celebration she hosted at the Queen’s Lodge, and Madelyn’s father handled the men the queen sent to fetch the merchandise.

Her father’s death changes everything. The idea of dealing with the queen’s men terrifies her, people have always made her feel uncomfortable, but she has no choice. It takes all of her courage, but she manages to walk up to them and start a conversation. Moments later they find the candles she’s prepared for the Queen’s celebration have been destroyed.

Oliver Hamilton has always had a knack for seeing the bright side of every situation. He understands the seriousness of the situation, but doesn’t see any reason for despair. He sees the situation as a chance to spend time with a woman who’s always intrigued him, but who he’s only ever seen from a distance. He has no idea he’s stepping into the middle of a tense sibling rivalry, and a bitter fight custody fight over the small farm, a battle Madelyn can’t handle by herself.

As Christmas Day draws close, Madelyn’s panic gives way to a softer, sweeter emotion. Instead of running away from Oliver, she wonders if there’s any possibility of ever being able to put her fear aside completely so they can explore the future together.

Snowflakes & Beeswax is a Georgian romance that is set in 1800, just before Queen Charlotte's famous Christmas Ball. It's a sweet romance that combines rural romance with historical romance.

 

10. The Wedding Bees by Sarah-Kate Lynch

 

Sugar Wallace did not believe in love at first sight, but her bees did. . . .

 

Every spring Sugar Wallace coaxes her sleepy honeybee queen—presently the sixth in a long line of Queen Elizabeths—out of the hive and lets her crawl around a treasured old map. Wherever the queen stops is their next destination, and this year it's New York City.

Sugar sets up her honeybees on the balcony of an East Village walk-up and then––as she's done everywhere since leaving South Carolina––she gets to know her neighbors. She is, after all, a former debutante who believes that manners make the world a better place even if they seem currently lacking in the big city.

 

Plus, she has a knack for helping people. There's Ruby with her scrapbook of wedding announcements; single mom Lola; reclusive chef Nate; and George, a courtly ex-doorman. They may not know what to make of her bees and her politeness, but they can't deny the magic in her honey.

 

And then there's Theo, a delightfully kind Scotsman who crosses Sugar's path as soon as she gets into town and is quickly besotted. But love is not on the menu for Sugar. She likes the strong independent woman she's become since leaving the South and there's nothing a charmer like Theo can do to change her mind . . . only her bees can do that.

 

Did I miss your favorite beekeeper? Let me know! Vote for the best of the best on my Goodreads list: Buzzed: Bee Keeping in Romance Novels.

 

These stories are centred around Rainbow's End in the Missouri Ozarks, where four women arrive to participate in a geocaching hunt – will they find what they are looking for, or will they find love? (It's a romance collection. No prizes for guessing the correct answer, I'm afraid.) Geocaching is like a treasure hunt with GPS devices. Participants are given GPS locations for caches, and, in these novellas, they also receive clues in the form of poems. The idea is to find as many caches as possible and leave a small memento to prove you were there. I’m not sure this is my idea of fun, but the four authors in this collection certainly manage to inject the challenge into their romances, which all take place over the same two-month period. In Topaz Treasure by Valerie Comer, Lyssa Quinn is soliciting sponsorship for the Rainbow's End Treasure Hunt being organised by her church when she meets Kirk K, her ex-college professor, who is helping run his brother's new shop. Although she recognises Kirk immediately and remembers his very anti-Christian stance, he does not remember her and does not understand why she is so antagonistic towards him when he asks her out. My favourite part of this story was the point at the end about how we are all parts of the same body, and not all of us are called to be the mouth. Beneath the Surface by Annalisa Daughety is the story of Madison Wallace, who has returned to her home town in time to enter the geocaching contest with her sister. However, an accident means that Madison is soon working on the geocaching competition with the home town boy next door, who is everything she never wanted, and who seems to disapprove of her too. But spending time together forces them both to overcome their preconceptions about each other. In Welcome Home, Love by Nicole O’Dell, Hadley Parker has returned to Osage Beach after thirteen years to take part in the geocaching competition. She is flattered to be asked out by handsome Brad, partly because that takes her away from Noah who she liked as a teen. This story had a couple of loose ends that meant it didn’t work as well for me, but it still illustrated an important principle in that we need to ensure we are following our own calling in life, not trying to live someone else’s. My personal favourite was the final story, Love’s Prize by Cara C. Putman, because it had a suspense element and I really enjoy romantic suspense. Reagan Graham is spending an extended vacation with her brother, Gerard, and his new college roommate, Colton. They have come to remote Osage Beach and the geocaching competition to escape a stalker who has been plaguing Reagan. But they might not have managed to escape after all. I liked the development of the romance in this, and I especially liked the twist at the end that I really didn't see coming. With the exception of Topaz Treasure, these were not so much Christian romances as clean romances with Christian characters, but they were still enjoyable. I find the Barbour 4-in-1 romance novella collections are always a light-hearted and easy-to-read, perfect for a lazy afternoon when I want a short read with a happy-ever-after that will leave me with a smile.Thanks to Barbour Publishing and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.