A TASTE OF HONEY
DeWanna Pace
Jove Friends Romance
May 1999
ISBN # 0-515-12387-0
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"A Taste of Honey" by DeWanna
Pace begins in poverty stricken Nassau Germany in 1838.
Two nine year old girls, best friends,
must part but
not before declaring their undying friendship. Betina Bram is
leaving for the New World with her parents to seek a better
life, but this means that Betina must leave her best friend,
Toya Reinhart behind. March 1849 shows these two friends together
in New Genesis, Texas at 20 years old and still closer than
they've ever been in their lives. But a promise to a sister
and a vow to a parent may drive these girls apart forever.
Toya Reinhart has come to live in New Genesis,
Texas with her family. But tragedy tears the family apart
and Betina is all that Toya has left in her life, except for
the vow she made to her father that she would marry her twin
sisters fiancé in her place. Tilly falls gravely ill
three years before this story opens and instead of waiting
for the wasting disease to take her she goes into the mountains
to take her own life. Guilt stricken over the sour relationship
she and Tilly shared growing up Toya can only agree to her
dying sisters wish to marry Peter Stoltz, though her heart
will always belong to the local bee keeper and peach farmer
Conrad Wagner.
Conrad Wagner loves Toya with a strength that
overwhelms him at times but understands the promise she's
made to marry Peter Stoltz, town councilman. He can feel the
energy that pulses between them when they're together and
has to fight himself to keep from taking her into his arms
and making her his own. His grandfather, known to the locals
as Opa, isn't any help either when he insists on hiring Toya
to take care of him when Conrad is out in the field tending
to his bees and peaches. Opa is getting on in years and his
memory fails him quite often, getting him into mischief. With
Toya by his side she will help him to remember things he forgets,
but at the same time her simple presence distracts Conrad
considerably. A stolen kiss has him questioning his own honor
and sends his body into an emotional and physical torment
of his own making.
Betina and Peter are secretly in love. A veritable
love quadrangle! Their love for Toya, the memory of her sister
Tilly, and the promise made to her keeps them apart though.
When the town's gossipmonger witnesses their kisses, Toya's
and Betina's friendship is put to the test. It's when the
township of New Genesis is confronted with the plight of neighboring
towns that pulls these four friends together to find a cure
for a strange strain of scurvy racing across the countryside.
Conrad's peaches and honey and Opa's knack for healing the
sick could help to find the cure. And finally force the truth
out into the open.
I found "A Taste of Honey" a quick
read with a fairly straightforward storyline, well thought out
characters and evenly paced plot. I enjoyed reading how the
friendship between Toya and Betina was put to the test and the
lengths they were willing to go to preserve their trust and
love for each other. Pace puts her plot to the test herself
by enriching the book with the creation of local remedies of
the time mixed with the German migration and the life they endure
to reach the New World. Though I would not think of this book
as a real "page-turner" with a storyline and characters
that will stay with me, I would say that "A Taste of Honey"
is an easy read. It is a book I would suggest to those just
beginning to read romance and to those looking for a story with
an innocence as pure as the honey and as sweet as the peaches
that Pace writes of in this story.
