Sometimes you have to go back before you can move forwards...
One magical summer Nell fell in love in the mountains of Crete and her life changed for ever.
Eighteen years later, Nell is ready for a new beginning. When she sees a honey farm in the same hilltop town has lost its bees, the opportunity is impossible to resist. Welcomed back to Greece by the warm sun and aroma of wild thyme, Nell finds memories of her past at every turn. But much has changed since she's been away.
As Nell throws herself into restoring the honey farm, she starts to unlock the truth of what happened all those years ago. She soon learns that the course of true love - just like Cretan honey - can be wild and sweet. And well worth the wait...
With The Honey Farm on the Hill Jo Thomas has certainly cemented herself as one of my top authors whose books I will buy without even reading the blurb. I have loved everything she has written and feel she just gets better and better with each book. Every story she writes is highly readable, with stunning settings, characters you are instantly rooting for, plenty of romance and some life lessons and life changing experiences to enjoy along the way. Once you pick up a book from this author it is very very difficult to put it down as Jo has a way of drawing you into the story right from the very first chapter. You are soon quickly immersed in the lives of the characters and by the end your only regret would be that you read the book way too fast and that another year has to pass before you can indulge in such brilliant writing once again. Jo Thomas's books aren't your normal run of the mill romance books, instead she sets each book in a different country and the main female character will have a new profession/adventure to embark on. So we've been to Ireland in The Oyster Catcher, the vineyards of France in Late Summer in the Vineyard and Italy in The Olive Branch. Now is the turn of Crete and a rare and special herb called dittany will play a major role over the course of the book and unite the characters in ways they never imagined.
As we first meet Nell she is standing outside the Christmas decoration factory where she works (what a brilliant job to have) watching the entire place go up in flames. This incident only confirms the way Nell is feeling as her 18 year old daughter Demi has fled the nest and left to work as a nanny in London. With no job until the factory is restored, no money coming in and no daughter to look after Nell is feeling lost and adrift. She needs a focus, something to keep her going over the next few months. Urged on by her friends Angelica and Gracie she stumbles across a website which offers wwoofing. Before you go thinking this is something not meant to be in a book of this nature, wwoofing stands for World Wide Opportunities on Oraganic farm. Nell sees this as an opportunity to grab and even more so when a farm needs help on the island of Crete in a mountain top village called Vounoplagia. This is definitely a sign that Nell is meant to go to this village. Crete holds a special place in her heart for more than one reason and it's 18 years since she has been there. It's time to put old ghosts to rest before she can look forward to and embrace the future. My initial feelings were fair play to Nell, she knew she would go crazy sitting around moping and doing nothing and at the back of her mind there was unfinished business in Crete from that fateful summer 18 years ago and she wanted to put it to bed. She was brave to go away on her own and was to be admired.
Again as with every book I have had the pleasure to read by Jo Thomas she absolutely nailed the setting. Most of the books I have read I have never visited where they are set and it's a mark of a skilled and talented author that by the conclusion of the book I feel as if I have been there and lived the journey with the main character. This book was no different, the island of Crete came alive on the pages right from the minute Nell stepped off the plane onto the tarmac. The journey she takes from the airport with Georgios, a neighbour of her hosts Maria and Kostas, was so vividly described. I could feel the heat, the hairpin bends on the road and the wonder and beauty of the Cretan countryside as they journey up to the mountain to where she will be staying. I felt as if I was in the car next to Nell and with her every step of the remainder of her time spent on the island. The little house where Maria and Kostas live with their animals and the surrounding farmland and the mountain were all so clear in my head thanks to the author's descriptive writing. I think this is what made me enjoy the book so much. As well as having a very good storyline that didn't seem over the top, it was filled with mystery, some romance and a sense of community but the fact I was visualising everything made me really understand and connect with everything going on. In the past, Nell had fallen in love with the small town for a reason and she hopes as she searches for her new identity by escaping the emptiness at home that the answers and admitting the truth will bring her the resolution she needs. By confronting memories hopefully things would become clearer for her.
It may sound like this is just your typical storyline that has been done before of a middle aged woman setting off to find 'herself' once she has raised her child but it's not that at all. Jo Thomas brings so much more to this book as it's evident how much she enjoyed writing the story. Her research was impeccable from the glorious descriptions of the island to the mouth watering Cretan food made to the history of the dittany plant which in itself provides a major storyline in which all the other plot lines feed off from. Nell has arrived at a time when Maria and Kostas are struggling. They wish to reopen their small honey factory but the fact of the matter is no honey can be made if there is no bees. There are no bees because the plant dittany is no longer growing. Dittany is believed to have magical healing properties, it beings good luck and with it the bees make the most amazing honey. Nell sees the community she remembers has changed and with the shadow of loosing everything hanging over them as no tourists come to the village anymore, Nell decides she needs to help. It's like the town is sleeping and if dittany can be discovered again it will once more awaken and become rejuvenated and be the place Nell holds so dear to her heart.
Nell totally changed once she knew she had a quest. OK there was an element where she missed her daughter and worried for her and it did become slightly repetitive but I suppose that's only natural for a mother. I felt she took on this challenge and viewed it as something personal. She wasn't going to let the strange noises coming from the top of the mountain put her off. Even if handsome yet abrupt Georgios didn't appear all that embracing of her quest she would do the best she could for the people she had come to hold so dear. Apart from attempting to discover dittany for the sake of the community, Nell had her own personal mission regarding the events of 18 years ago.
I loved how much mystery and suspense surrounded this and I had my suspicions as to what had actually happened but it was very clever of the author that she let it stretch out the way she did and how Nell remained so clueless as to why people were so secretive. Regarding the overall reveal I thought it was done to be perfection and it took on another worldly quality and allowed for a great and deep exploration of the romance side of things. In any other book this would have felt clichéd and contrived but here it felt so natural and real and I was hoping against hope that a happy and positive outcome could be achieved.
Nell was an amazing woman who grew in independence. She became brave and fiery and no way would she stop until she righted what she believed were wrongs partly incurred by her. I loved every minute of her journey and the time I spent with all the characters in Crete. Jo Thomas has written another stunner of a book that many weeks later I still can't get out of my head. I haven't read anything as good in this genre since I put The Honey Farm on the Hill down. It's not just a summer read as judging by the colourful cover but can be read any time of year and by the time you read the last word you will certainly want to visit Crete. Come the end of the year undoubtedly this book will feature in my most memorable books of the year as it captured my imagination and had me hooked from beginning to end. My only disappointment is I have to wait so long for another book from Jo.
Many thanks to Headline for my copy of The Honey Farm on the Hill to review via NetGalley and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
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