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The Honey Well
Paperback
Publisher Price: $17.99
ISBN13: 9780967878942
Publisher: Gemini Press (NY)
Published: Feb 24 2026
Pages: 310
Weight: 0.83
Height: 0.77 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Money has put Esther Rayford exactly where she's always wanted to be-comfortably established in the sixteen-room Victorian mansion where her mother once worked as a housekeeper. Now she's running a thriving business that's surely making the previous owner turn in her grave. For Esther, money is the root of all happiness, and nothing and no one will stand in the way of her making it however she wants-not even Arnell, her only child.
While some may call Esther's live-in employees prostitutes, Esther prefers to call them ladies of charm-or tenants, if the police come sniffing around. There are no laws against renting out rooms, but there are laws against pimping one's own underage daughter. It's a devastating secret Arnell and Esther have kept for years and despite Esther's promise that Arnell could quit after college, it seems Arnell is never quite free of her mother's grasp. Esther calls the jobs favors, but now that Arnell is successful and engaged to a preacher's son, she knows them for what they are: demands couched in blackmail.
While Esther is holding her daughter's past over her head, Esther's own past is coming back to haunt her. Having lived a life where the lines between love and hate, parent and child, sex, profit-and even murder-have been irreparably, dangerously blurred, Esther will soon learn that she is not untouchable.
A devastating secret, a sordid past, blackmail and betrayal all make The Honey Well a place that readers will find frightening and intriguing.
-Naleighna Kai, USA Today Bestselling Author of Open Door Marriage and Every Woman Needs a Wife
With a suspenseful plot that reads like a movie, The Honey Well demonstrates how the perils of blackmail, trickery and deceit can overshadow the simple rewards of life.-Upscale Magazine
Queen Esther...is the ultimate Mommie Dearest type...The Honey Well is a page-turner that shows a fascinating side of the mother/daughter relationship.-Book-Remarks.com
The relationship between mother and daughter, as they struggle to balance love and hate, and the intertwining of sex and money make Mallette's tale both entertaining and unsettling. -Lillian Lewis, Booklist
A superb story-starts with a bang and ends with a full-blown 4th of July fireworks display.-QBR, The Black Book Review
All the characters are well-developed, and the writing voice of Mallette is top-notch. She takes the reader on a journey that is similar to riding a rollercoaster, dips, turns, shockers, and eye-openers, all of which makes for another great, and highly recommended read. -APOOO Book Club
This one charts new territory for Ms. Mallette. A page turner, and each turn ignites a fiery reaction. -- R.A.W. Sistaz Reviewers
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