Queen Bee * Dorothea Benton Frank * Lowcountry Tales #13

A quiet beekeeper living on Sullivan's Island has her peaceful life upended when her flamboyant sister returns home from an imploded marriage, drawing both siblings into a comical but protective obsession with their widowed neighbor's chaotic love life.

The Story: Written by prominent New York Times bestselling voice of the South Dorothea Benton Frank, this heartwarming twentieth novel transforms the landscape of South Carolina into a rich, character-driven family workspace. The narrative centers on Holly McNee Jensen, a gentle soul who splits her tracking lines between working at the local island library and tending to her backyard hives. Holly's domestic routine is managed by her domineering mother—the literal "Queen Bee" of the household, an overbearing hypochondriac who demands constant coordination loops of attention. Holly finds a quiet personal sanctuary by submerging herself in nature and helping out the handsome, widowed neighbor next door, Archie, and his two sweet young boys. The family's tracking lines hit a highly volatile boundary when Holly's polar-opposite sister, Leslie, unexpectedly flees an unhappy marriage and crashes back into the neighborhood grid. Restless and desperate for validation, Leslie joins forces with Holly as both sisters fixate on a suspicious parameter next door: Archie has fallen under the spell of an insufferable, opportunistic "ice queen" who threatens his children's stability. Frank guides fiction enthusiasts step-by-step through a fast-paced, multi-layered puzzle packed with witty banter, small-town pub life, and complex mother-daughter relationship dynamics. To break through the compounding layers of neighborhood deceptions and protect Archie's family sanctuary, Holly finds herself talking solutions directly to her bees, trusting the magic of the natural world to heal broken spirits. This final masterpiece serves as an invaluable reference tool for classic beach literature, instructing the reader's mind on how to take responsibility for who you allow yourself to become. 

Perfect For: Devotees of traditional, fast-reading Southern women's fiction and coastal family sagas like those by Mary Kay Andrews, Elin Hilderbrand, and Patti Callahan Henry; readers who enjoy warm, hilarious stories featuring quirky maternal figures and sibling dynamics; and book collectors archiving a complete set of the globally bestselling Lowcountry Tales library.