Review: HIVE by April Doyle

Near-future Britain. Climate change has led to food shortages and civil unrest. Pollinating insects are in steep decline. Commercial bee farmer Victor Martin travels around the farms of Kent with his hives to pollinate fruit trees and crops. Local research entomologist Dr Annie Abrams is devastated when she’s ordered to give up her captive bee colonies – her life’s work – to join forces with Victor and ensure a harvest. But the bees are dying. Their only hope seems to be an experimental alternative to insect pollination: robot pollinators called nanodrones. But why does the drone designer seem so familiar? And who is behind the shadowy organisation intent on sabotaging their vital work? Can Annie and Victor win their battle to save the bees… or is it too late? 

Hive is and excellent book, and an important one. It is an excellent story, well crafted and beautifully written, with well rounded and empathic characters. I really felt I could relate to Annie, but all the other people populating this desperate vision of the future are equally engaging.

This is a book with an important message, and yet, it doesn’t come across as messagey at all. The power of the story dominates. Hive is very well researched and informative, but also you can sense the author’s passion for the countryside and nature. It’s a delight to read something so well attuned to the world around us.

Five stars from me.

Review : The Prisoner of Paradise by Rob Samborn

Medieval and modern Venice collide in ways you simply wouldn’t expect. I’ll never view a Tintoretto in quite the same way again!

On a trip to Venice, Italy, an American comes to believe that his true soul mate is not his wife, but a woman whose soul has been trapped in a Renaissance painting for 450 years--along with thousands of others. Teetering on the brink of insanity and navigating present-day and Renaissance Venice, he discovers a secret society that taps an ancient power to extract and imprison souls for eternity. He'll do anything to free his love, but freeing her means freeing all the souls--which the secret society will never allow.

The Prisoner of Paradise is at once a heart pounding adventure and a heart wrenching love story. Set in Venice and moving between the past and present we are immersed in a dual world. In the present we can taste and smell Venice as if we are there with all the tourists, and with Nick. And then there are Nick’s memories of a past life in 16th century Venice and his love for Isabella. Another Venice which the author deftly brings to life, and feels as real as the modern Venice we know so well. This is a novel with a powerful sense of place and characters I did not want to leave. It is a novel that continued to resonate long after I had turned the last page.

But if I thought that Prisoner of Paradise was s good then the second book in the series, The Painter of Paradise, was even better. So many unexpected turns and twists that I simply didn’t see coming. And they kept coming, right up to the thrilling finale.

I was fortunate to receive an ARC for this. There’s going to be a third book but I’m going to have to wait. Agh!! The torment! I feel like one of those souls – trapped in the painting.

This has to be one of the most original concepts I’ve ever come across, and, combined with skilled storytelling and compelling characters, as well as the author’s clear love of Italy and of art, this is a series that has huge appeal, and is really something rather special. It would make an amazing film or miniseries. Any producers reading this – take note!

I can’t recommend it highly enough. Now to plan a trip to Italy to go and look at some art….

In addition to being a novelist, Rob Samborn is a screenwriter, entrepreneur and avid traveller. He’s been to forty countries, lived in five of them (including Italy) and studied nine languages. As a restless spirit who can’t remember the last time he was bored, Rob is on a quest to explore the intricacies of our world and try his hand at a multitude of crafts; he’s also an accomplished artist and musician. Born and raised in New York, he lived in Los Angeles for twenty years, and he now makes his home in Denver with his wife, daughter and dog.

www.robsamborn.com