Two separate but joined worlds. Myth and magic juxtaposed with modern society. Unsuspecting heroes from both sides of the divide must find a way to work together to stop the malevolent forces which are gaining strength.

Immersive and enjoyable read.

Thanks very much to the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title. Many thanks, Dave

A charming fantasy adventure aimed at an adult audience.

The main characters in this story, Ebbie and Bek, start like in all good stories, as wary enemies who eventually become the best of friends. They face magical terrors and travel between realms to try and find the missing heir to the throne of the Wood Bee Queen.

A slow start, but persevere, and the story builds into a grand adventure.

In a small town called Strange Ground by the Skea, Ebbie Wren is the last librarian at a library that is about to be shut down. In a parallel world, in Strange Ground beneath the Skea, the Queen of House Wood Bee has been murdered and the usurper threatens destruction for the entire realm. The unsuspecting Ebbie is magicked beneath the Skea and tasked with finding the heir to House Wood Bee in order to save the realm; but Ebbie isn’t interested in being a hero, and all victories come at a price.

The best thing about this book was the concept of the two worlds, Strange Ground by the Skea and Strange Ground beneath the Skea. I thought this was well done, especially the threat of Earth weapons on the Realm, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I thought the characters were good… They are likeable and easy to root for, but they weren’t developed enough to become really memorable or have much of an impact. I also found the plot a little bit simple and very slow in set-up and progression. I got the impression that the author was trying to tell quite an epic fantasy story, but it falls a bit flat. Overall, I mostly enjoyed it but found it a little bit boring.

I very much liked the description of this book. All in all it was an enjoyable and interesting read.
I struggled sligthly to get into it at first : the reader is (voluntarily) left in the dark about some of the history surrounding the story. But once you are into it and have understood the powers in play and the way the world works the story is interesting and well paced.
If you are looking for an easy to read, stand-alone fantasy novel with strong female characters and you enjoy fantasy based in folk-legend I think this is a good fit for you!

This was the first book I have read by Edward Cox, the title and the cover art drew me in like a bee to a honey pot. I found the book to be well written and engaging, the world building was excellent and the story had likeable characters .

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book*

Ebbie is a lonely librarian, his only friend a homeless woman who lives near it and dies at the beginning at the novel. While Ebbie has not expected an adventure to arise from the late woman's will, this is what he gets. His preoccupation with folklore, however, has not prepared him for the weirdness of the otherworldly adventure he embarks on.

I had a very hard time getting into this novel, I did not care for the secondary world storyline after my initial confusion. Eddie was okay, but overall, the book did not draw me in. I was never immersed, always rather bored and I started skim-reading the parts that did not have anything to do with Ebbie. Did not care for the villain, did not really care for the characters, but that might be my fault.

2.5 stars because it was maybe a mood-thing for me

The Wood Be Queen wasn’t for me. Edward Cox’s novel was promoted during the Gollanz Fest earlier this year and I immediately requested a review copy. I was very happy when I got approved for an ARC, but this is where my happy reading experience stopped.

It took me felt ages to get into the story. I gave it several tries. The first 20-ish % that I read, and re-read, reminded me of Erin Morgenstern’s The Starless Sea. Though, where I stuck it out with Morgenstern’s book and actually re-read that one, I just couldn’t get into The Wood Bee Queen. The dialogues felt forced, the arrangement of the chapters/scenes felt weird, which is probably a feature not a bug. I kept wandering off, first in my head then physically by picking other books.

A good solid standalone fantasy with excellent and original world-building, and potentially interesting characters. There was much I liked about this book but I felt that the constant point of view shifting between characters meant that most characters lacked depth and motivation. From paragraph to paragraph we could change characters and many times I had to reread passages to work out exactly who was talking. Just as I was getting into the swing of things I was thrown into another point of view and had to re-calibrate my thinking. I did love the writing though, it was imaginative and rich and I will be investigating further works by this author.

Very rare for me to DNF but I just couldn't keep up with this book. The premise hooked me in, but too fantasy/supernatural for me with lots of twist, turns and hidden meanings which distracted from the pace of the story.

Firstly I loved the title of this one and the play on words. I will admit I wasn’t quite sure what to expect this one, but I was intrigued by the premise. I found an enchanting story in a beautifully realised world, and I loved the originality in the worldbuilding and the use of the mythology – and when paired with the prose, which was accessible yet wonderfully descriptive, created a rich world. I liked the characters across the board, and the characterisation was great and well-rounded for the villains and heroes, with flaws and engaging personalities and I really liked Ebbie. Where this book did fall down a little bit for me was with the dialogue, which compared to the rest of the prose felt a little clunky in places and was used a few times to convey unessecary information. This was also a book that took a while to find it’s pace, and it felt as though it didn’t really get into it’s flow until about a third of the way through, although once it did it was difficult to put down.

3.5 stars.

The Wood Bee Queen is a well-written fantasy novel, with an engaging hero and a beautifully drawn world.

Things I liked/loved:

-The world- & mythology-building was superb and original
- the quality of the prose was great
- The characterisation was good. I found Ebbie and Bek in particular to be engaging characters who I cared about and wanted to succeed.


Things I wasn't so keen on:

- The slowness of the beginning third of the book. It didn't really take off for me until Ebbie crossed from his own world into 'The Realm'
- Sometimes dialogue was used to get across information that both characters would have already known (a pet hate of mine & totally not needed in third person narration)
- Mai's magical letters to Ebbie which felt like a series of deus ex machina. I would have loved to have seen him (& other characters) use their ingenuity a bit more to solve tricky situations.

Overall I enjoyed the book and will read more by this author.

The Wood Bee Queen is a modern quest fantasy with an unlikely pair in the lead. It is interesting and original, funny and sweet, thrilling and dark. The worldbuilding is great and the characters are meaty and complex. What more can you ask for?
I loved the dynamic between Ebbie, Bek, Ghador and Karin and how they held together and competented each other. I loved the ending and how Ghador and Bek got to be sisters again.
The literary lover falls in to his "book world" trope is one of my favourites.

What a fantastic book! Such an interesting twist on 'rag tag bunch take on usurper', I was hooked the whole way through. The mystery of where the second stone was dogged me for so long when, having finished it, I bet if I read it back it's so obvious. Hindsight is 20/20! I need to re read it again immediately!

I got interested in this book because of the title and the whimsy of the pun that appealed to me is preserved throughout the entire story. It acts as a coagulant of various narrative threads into a tale of queens, magic swords, libraries, and ancient gods. At times I got a bit lost in all the lore, chains of events, and characters that were being introduced, but it was still a pleasure to get to explore this world. Though, with everything that was going on, a lot had to be rushed and that left me feeling remote from core moments and from the individuals in the story.

This book wasn't for me. The Ocean at the end of the lane aesthetic is not speaking to me. But I definitely recommend this one for those who loved the ocean at the end of the lane!

It’s a fairytale - there’s magic letters, royalty, queendoms, evil magic, wolf men, dragons and even a magic sword, only in a classic modern take, we’ve got two heroes who’d rather not be anywhere but saving the world.

This was a fun read, really. One of the highlights of this story was that there were so many female characters in this book both young and old and how familial relationships were such an important part of the story, although I will admit it was confusing at first with more than one generation of princesses and so many sisters being referenced. It was wonderful reading a story where older characters like Mai and Kingfisher had important and active roles to play and also where connections other than teacher/student existed between different generations - I really did enjoy reading about the friendship Ebbie had with Mai, the elderly homeless woman in his town.

There are a lot of interesting roles played by the many characters of The Wood Bee Queen and a lot of potential, however, with there being so many characters, most of them felt very shallow with a lack of page presence and even those with more prominent roles were flat; they existed for plot reasons and not to develop. They were characters without character, really. This did fit that fairytale vibe of the story where characters have their roles and are there to serve the plot before being left behind which you’ll have no problem with if you’re just looking for a fairytale adventure and don’t care about the characters but it didn’t work for me as a reader who likes stories about people and to connect with characters.

The adventure plot of this story includes many predictable elements, yes, but it’s charming in how it goes about it for the most part and is a fun to read modern fairytale, albeit a little slow to kick off. There are a lot of threads to unravel as the story progresses and I was genuinely interested in finding out how it would all tie together in the end.

In hindsight, while I had fun reading the first half to two-thirds of the book, the last third lost me a little, to the point where I’m not entirely sure how what happened at the end actually happened and how those actions led from one another to the ‘good’ ending described. The somewhat convenient plot beats of the story which at first felt like fun nods to it being a magic world, just go with it, began to lean way too heavily into the deus ex machina trope for everything. I just wish the two main characters, Ebbie and Bek, had had more agency rather than being constantly told by secondary characters and magic letters what was going on and what they had to do.

In the end, I did like this book and as a stand alone fairytale-esque story it made for a nice palette cleanser after some more dense, heavier fantasy. For that I would recommend this and give it 3.5 stars.

I absolutely adored this, something about the author style reminded me of one of my favourite authors Laini taylor. The world building and magic system was amazing, interesting and engaging. I definitely recommend this for anyone who loves a good and well written fantasy

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

This was a great read, I'll definitely read it again and recommend it wholeheartedly.
If the author ever jumps in again to these characters i’d pick it up in a heartbeat.

Wood Bee Queen is the kind of timeless fantasy that could come from any era. The narrative is lingering, the point of view is slightly distant, and the language is beautiful. It’s set in an imaginary English seaside town with a connection to—and mythical knowledge of—a faery world beneath the sea, the Realm. It’s probably always summer.

Ebbie is a twenty-something librarian whose carefully organised life is at crossroads, because his library has been closed. He doesn’t want to look for a new job, he wants to keep his old one, and he doesn’t want to go to his parents whose plans for him don’t agree with him. He has only one friend, an old homeless woman, Mai, who tells her stories about the Realm. And then she dies, and Ebbie is told that she’s chosen him as the executioner of her will.

It turns out, Mai wasn’t just a homeless woman. She’s the former Queen of the Realm, hiding on the other side from her power-hungry youngest daughter. Yandira has finally managed to murder the Queen, Mai’s eldest daughter, and the true heir is missing, making Yandira the queen. It’s up to Ebbie to set things straight. He’s about to decline when things take a drastic turn.

Pulled into the Realm against his will, Ebbie isn’t exactly in his element. Luckily, he’s not alone. There’s Bek Rana, a thief who’s in possession of a sword that may be more than she’s bargained for, and knowledge of a war that is coming to remove the usurper queen, which might get her killed. And there are gods too, closer than anyone knows. Together they’re plunged on a quest that they’re not exactly qualified for to save the Realm.

Wood Bee Queen is delightful fantasy. Despite the lingering quality, the story moves forward in a steady pace, with short chapters and multiple points of view characters. Ebbie was a somewhat wishy-washy character, but likeable in his cluelessness. Bek had strength and resolve abundant for even him. Their quest has a fairy-tale quality, and the ending seems to fit that too. All in all, a good read that will stay with me for a long time.