Keeper of the Bees by Meg Kassel

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.

“One day, I will say no to this girl and I will mean it. One day I will walk away. But not today.” 

This was a great companion to Black Bird of the Gallows! We get to see some familiar characters from that book here and it was awesome. 

Our story is about a beekeeper named Dresden and a mortal girl named Essie. For me, it was a take on beauty and the beast and I just couldn’t stop reading. The writing was great and kept me glued to my Kindle.

Dresden has been a beekeeper for so long he thinks himself incapable of so many things, especially love. Essie suffers from hallucinations and never really knows what’s really there and what isn’t. 

When they meet it’s hard not to wish them together. The angst was so real in this book. These two were both battling something internal and could find comfort in each other.

“There is no comparison. I’m a monster.”
“So am I,” she says in a silky voice.
My monster lives inside my head. People are afraid of monsters, wherever they reside.”
“People are fools.” 

While I did enjoy this one, I felt like it was a bit too fast paced and some of the background story wasn’t gone into as much. Besides that, I really enjoyed it! 

If you enjoyed Black Bird of the Gallows, then you should really check out this companion!

** Quotes were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.

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