Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, a little girl whose life has been altered following the afternoon her mother was killed.

The story revolves around Lily and Rosaleen, a peach worker who was brought up to the house to care for Lily when her mother died.

Set in 1964 in South Carolina, a place and time of racial division, conflict arises when Rosaleen insults three wine men in the town.

To save herself from her emotionally abusive father and Rosaleen from harsh inevitable consquences, Lily decides they should both escape to Tiburon, a town that holds the secret to her mother’s past.

This book brilliantly follows Lily, the young and brave heroine of the novel, on her journey as she frees Rosaleen and sets out across South Carolina in search of a new life.

The characters are presented as compelling and believable. The story effectively creates a world in which faith and inner strength preside over challenging outside forces.

In her journey, Lily finds a world of strong women who, unbeknownst to her, helped raise her mother.

Lily learns more and more about her own past, and in the meantime discovers how to live her life in the present.

This novel is beautifully written. It is simple yet complicated in its own ways. Dealing with issues that are still relevant today, The Secret Life of Bees is a remarkable story.

It reveals that true family, blood related or not, can be found in the most unlikely of places.