by Kate Jacobs
I am reviewing these together because you really can't read one without the other because one truly is only half the story.
The Friday Night Knitting Club was a good, solid story. One online review compared it to a warm blanket on a cold night, which is an accurate description -- it really is comfortable. The premis is a knitting club made up of multigenerational women forms at a knitting shop run by single mother Georgia Walker. As they women get to know each other, they also come to depend on one another even though they come from such different places, backgrounds and experiences. It reminded me a lot of my Bunco group. I did not know any of the girls well at first, but we have battled divorce, unemployment, breast cancer, loss of parents, homeschooling, ADHD diagnosis and a million other life events. There are my "go to girls."
I thought there were some great characters in the book, especially Cat. Cat is a high school friend of Georgia's who reappears as a damaged, spoiled socialite on the verge of divorce from a neglectful husband. Watching Cat's journey (and it is a LONG one) to self-confident, independent, successful business woman was quite a ride. She is my favorite character precisely because her journey was so rough and for her to come out in one piece was a triumph.
The second book, Knit Two picks up where The Friday Night Knitting Club leaves off, but it follows Georgia's bi-racial daughter, Dakota as she struggles to find her own path in the world. For me, I needed to "finish" the story and I enjoyed this book. However, I did feel the plot veered off in some unrealistic directions, had a few dead end events and the author tried to hard to wrap it up into a neat package at the end.
Both books were entertaining and enjoyable reads, but I liked the characters more than I liked the author. I probably won't seek out other books by Kate Jacobs, but I did dust off my old knitting needles and began knitting again!
Rating - B for both books
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