Friday Nights at Honeybee's
By Andrea Michele Smith 

     Set in the early 1960's, Friday Nights at Honeybee's is the tale of two women, Forestine Bent of Brooklyn and Viola Bembry of Jasperville, South Carolina, two women with vastly different backgrounds who meet at Honeybee McColor's Harlem Brownstone and develop a wonderful friendship.

      Viola is the daughter of a preacher man. Raised in the strictest of households, her mother ,Nelvern, prides herself on being the wife who does whatever her husband wants, an example of a perfect marriage with a perfect child, to boot. Viola desires other avenues but is forced to submit to her family. A loveless marriage, a moment of passion and an expulsion from the church find Viola on her way to Honeybee's.

      Forestine, on the other hand, is a girl who lives in the shadow of her pretty sister and a mother who makes no bones about her opinion that Forestine is nothing and never will be anything. If not for her father, Willie, Forestine's hopes would be dashed. He insists that she is a good jazz and blues singer and encourages her to follow this pursuit. This eventually leads her to Honeybee's.

     Once the convergence on Honeybee's takes place, both women seem to develop into their own personas. Viola comes into her own, a mature young lady who at last follows her heart and does what she wants to do for a change. Forestine has a promising career, which is only enhanced by her performances at Honeybee's "gathers" in the Big House.

     Honeybee and her other housemates are a hoot. Who wouldn't like living at the Big House? The reader can really feel the atmosphere of the Big House with Ms. Smith's writing. She's done a wonderful job of bringing in the essence of blues and jazz into the story.

     Friday Nights at Honeybee's has a cadence of its own that starts at the front cover and moves throughout the entire book. I'm a jazz and blues fan and some of the names mentioned of other performers in the book were real which leads me to believe that Ms. Smith did her homework. This always makes a book more grounded and enjoyable. The melding of reality and fiction make for an interesting read. I took pleasure in learning about Forestine and Viola, how two vastly different lifestyles yield similar results based on good values put forth by two families in two different ways. Read Friday Night's at Honeybee's, you will be thoroughly caught up and entertained.