A Year in Books: The Honey Queen - Cathy Kelly

The Honey Queen is a nice Irish tale by Cathy Kelly read by Amy Creighton. It has three overlapping stories of a family, a woman who was adopted and now in her 60's travels from Australia to Cork to meet her brother and a woman who opens a knitting shop in the small village.

The story had a feel of a Maeve Binchy but with less intricacy and substance. Much of it is clichéd and contains many stereotypes with everything all working out the way you can probably guess. I'd have liked the knitting shop to figure more prominently but both the shop and the honey queen reference are just back drops to the people and their interactions.

This may make it sound like I didn't enjoy the book but I did. It was total easy listening which is great for relaxing to or while crocheting, and when it finished last night I felt quite sad that I had to leave Redstones village and the people I'd been hearing about.

The reader's voice and soft Irish accent were gorgeous to listen to as well and I think this is critical to enjoying an audiobook as the reader's voice, accent and style can make or break a book.

The very first audiobook I bought about 12yrs ago utterly destroyed my enjoyment of Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti novels which are set in Venice. I adored her series and would even buy the hardbacks the moment they came out. Unfortunately, I found Andrew Sach's accent and delivery totally at odds with how I imagined Guido Brunetti. Obviously this is a personal view as reading is all about engaging your imagination whereas listening involves additional information added by the reader. Sadly I could never read her books again without hearing his voice and stopped reading them altogether.