Honey; Sweeter Than Honey. Maya Mahree. 2019/2020. B. Love Publications. [Soure: Kindle Unlimited.]
This review actually covers both books in this series, Honey and its sequel, Sweeter Than Honey. I started reading the sequel, not realizing it was part of a series. Naturally, I had to go back to find book 1. I’ll start here by saying that I likely wouldn’t have known I was reading a sequel if not for my spidey senses because Mahree’s style gave context and detail in a way that the plot of Sweeter Than Honey certainly would’ve held its own even without reading Honey beforehand.
The books centers Trinity, a recent college grad on a group trip that includes her long-time boyfriend, Joseph, and her sidepiece, Kelly — the two happen to be best friends. Along for the trip are a host of other friends, including Kelly’s actual girlfriend, Vanessa. Where the first book is a buildup to a fallout, the second book reconciles the issues in book one. It is capital D drama, so there are significant issues that need resolution.
Honey unfolds mostly in the present, with the group of friends on a graduation trip to Hawaii. Through flashbacks, you’re able to get context for how relationships started, where things go left, and see some self-reflection for the characters. Sweeter Than Honey has more flashbacks to Hawaii, but continues in the same vein of allowing you to see the characters’ growth, with the book taking place over the course of about six months. Something I noted while reading is that these are new adults; you really see how they’re all stepping into adulthood and how their approach to problem–solving shows their inexperience, then highlights their maturation over the course of a year.
Mahree uses first-person perspective throughout the books, and the chapters alternate between Trinity and Vanessa in Honey, then include Kelly in Sweeter Than Honey. I appreciated this style because these two are really at the heart of the circles of drama. Nearly every point of conflict involves at least one of the two, so it makes sense to tell the story from their vantage point. Kelly’s inclusion in the second book was particularly relevant, as he is one of the characters who experiences some of the greatest obstacles, even if caused by his own choices.
While I didn’t find any of the characters totally irredeemable, the author absolutely allows them to be fallible. So often, I read romance where characters are one-dimensional until some defining moment causes a shift. Here, few characters are particularly innocent or all terrible. I struggled with Trinity because while she’s not wholly unlikable, her decision-making is piss-poor and shows her immaturity and selfishness across both books. She is flawed and broken; it’s only with time and circumstances that she’s really forced to do some work for herself. Kelly is another character I struggled with; I saw far fewer redeemable qualities in him and could never muster up pity for the situations he was in. Other characters, luckily, were more balanced and tended to push some kind of growth in the main characters.
These books remind me of the movies Crash and Babel, in that their characters are intertwined in myriad and often unknown ways. They’re all newly graduated from college and most of the relationships were initiated during their time in undergrad. A few even knew each other in high school. To that end, it almost becomes necessary to chart how the relationships start (and end) and how they’re all connected. This is where reading Honey was invaluable for me — understanding exactly how certain issues arose provided clarity. Mahree deserves credit for her subtlety in introducing new characters and foreshadowing. I could never quite decide whether a character would matter later on and was pleasantly surprised to see how and when some of them showed up again to stir or calm the pot.
These are the first two releases by author Maya Mahree, and are solid for a debut novel and follow-up. While they’re romances, the idea of a neatly packaged “happily ever after” is clearly not a defining tactic for her. I’m interested to see what she brings out next. While I think she definitely has some loose ends that could easily lead to a third book in this series that I would gladly read, I’m also excited to read where she goes with a different set of circumstances and characters.
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