Review: Knit Two by Kate Jacobs

find it here: Barnes & Noble, Amazon, iBooks, Goodreads

Why did I pick this book: This was the pick for my book group for January.

Did I enjoy this book: It was okay. I thought Knit Two was kind of boring. It took me a long time to finish this book. I just didn’t care if I picked it up and continued reading it.

I found Knit Two to be confusing because of the changing of perspectives. There are a lot of characters and the transitions between whose story was being told was not always clear. Not all of the characters were that sympathetic. I just did not care about them. James was too overprotective and worried about appearances. He needed to let Dakota live and choose her own path in life. She seems like an exceptional baker, so why not allow her to go to culinary school? And what was the big deal with her being an au pair for her friend’s daughter? That was a chance of a lifetime…a summer in Italy! James was just too sensitive.

I did like Darwin’s transformation. She seemed to take to motherhood fairly easily. I also liked that she finally asked for help and accepted it. And she really got into knitting. She was probably my favorite character.

The book started to move for me once the story shifted to Italy. From that point on, I wanted to see how it ended. I cared about the characters a bit more at this point. It kept me interested. I did enjoy the ending. Some of the characters redeemed themselves and became a bit more likable in my eyes.

Would I recommend it: Only if you read the first book, The Friday Night Knitting Club (see my review here), and you really want to know what happens to these ladies.

Will I read it again: I will not.

About the book – from Goodreads: The sequel to the number-one New York Times bestseller The Friday Night Knitting Club, KNIT TWO returns to Walker and Daughter, the Manhattan knitting store founded by Georgia Walker and her young daughter, Dakota. Dakota is now an eighteen-year-old freshman at NYU, running the little yarn shop part-time with help from the members of the Friday Night Knitting Club.

Drawn together by the sense of family the club has created, the knitters rely on one another as they struggle with new challenges: for Catherine, finding love after divorce; for Darwin, the hope for a family; for Lucie, being both a single mom and a caregiver for her elderly mother; and for seventy something Anita, a proposal of marriage from her sweetheart, Marty, that provokes the objections of her grown children.

As the club’s projects – an afghan, baby booties, a wedding coat – are pieced together, so is their understanding of the patterns underlying the stresses and joys of being mother, wife, daughter, and friend. Because it isn’t the difficulty of the garment that makes you a great knitter: it’s the care and attention you bring to the craft – as well as how you adapt to surprises.