This book held me captive from the first page. Narrated by fourteen year old Lily Owens, it is set in 1964 South Carolina. It gives us a first hand view of the racial strife of that era, but it is so much more than that. Lily is living with a father that is cruel and abusive, and the hazy memory of her mother's death when she was four years old. When her black "stand in mother" is put in jail for insulting some racist men, Lily springs her out and they run away together. With nothing but a few belongings of her mother's, they make their way to Tiburon, SC, where they are taken in by three bee-keeping sisters. The story is totally engaging, and I couldn't put it down until I was finished reading. Heartwarming and wonderful!