Triquetra Reviews: Excerpt: Honey Queen by Christina Mercer

Honey Queen by Christina Mercer
Release Date: 05/31/14

Love is honey sweet, but it comes with a fatal sting . . .

Melaina Maris needs wings to fly the gap between loving Sam and her family’s ancient curse that forces carnal love and then kills the male lovers. She won’t let the same fate that killed her father befall another. She refuses to allow her goddess-created bloodline to continue. But there’s no easy way out, especially after the curse turns her into the Honey Queen—savior to honey bees—intensifying her charms.

To help her fulfill the curse’s demands in the least harmful way, her grandmother takes her to mate with terminally ill Boyd. But Boyd’s gay. And an expert in mythology. Instead of having sex, Melaina learns how she might summon the goddess who created the first ancestor bee-charmer and cursed her bloodline. Melaina's magic—tears to save honey bees from endangerment—could be enough to persuade the goddess to end the curse. But an unexpected discovery soon changes that hope, spinning Melaina into a swarm of love, friendship and death.

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http://www.amazon.com/Honey-Queen-Christina-Mercer-ebook/dp/B00KP3TLX4

“What about you?” I fold my arms against my chest, suddenly aware I’m not wearing a bra.

“Have you felt okay since being in the hospital?”

“Yeah. They pumped me up with adrenaline and I was good to go. Have to carry an EpiPen with me now, just in case.”

Just in case he tangles again with my sisters.

I nod like a bobblehead doll and wonder if it’s the aftereffects of the trance, or whatever it was I just awoke from, or if it’s Sam’s presence that’s causing the room to shrink.

“Listen,” he says, “I thought we could go for a walk by the river. I brought a couple poles to throw in the water.”

“I . . . really need to shower, change my clothes, plus I have a lot of things—”

“Change your clothes and meet me outside,” he says, and heads for the door.

My jaw falls. Gran was righter than royal jelly. Every cell in my body is screaming to touch him, and now he’s insisting we go out. Double crap. But I need to go; I owe him that much. I will just have to maintain control.

I hurry upstairs and swirl a toothbrush in my mouth, throw on some jeans and a fresh tee, and grab a hoodie. I scribble a note to Gran before I head out the door, fully aware I’ll be facing her crinkled forehead later.

The passenger side of Sam’s white pickup is open, inviting me inside. He’s behind the wheel, head cocked to watch me as I walk toward him.

Steady now.

We’ll walk by the river, maybe fish. Then I’ll tell him once and for all we can’t ever be more than friends, and that he’ll thank me in a few months when August brings his eighteenth birthday and his ticket to boot camp somewhere far from here. He won’t want to think about leaving, but for once, I agree with his dad. Sending Sam away is the best thing for him.

It’s the best way to keep him alive.