The Sweetgum Knit Lit Society...Review

About the book:
Sometimes life has to unravel before you can knit it together…

On the third Friday of each month, Eugenie, Ruth, Esther, Merry, and Camille meet at the Sweetgum Christian Church to enjoy the two things that connect them: a love of knitting and a passion for books. Their camaraderie remains unthreatened until Eugenie, the town librarian, introduces an angry teenager into their midst. Eugenie also gives them a new reading list: the classic novels of girlhood that young Hannah has never read. Little Women. Pollyanna. Heidi. Books that remind the women of the hopes and dreams they have lost along the way.

With each click of their needles, the ladies of the Knit Lit Society unravel their secrets: A shadow from Eugenie’s past haunts the controlled order of her life. Merry’s perfect little family is growing again–but will she continue to feel her identity slip away? Camille dreams of leaving town but is bound by ties of love. And the sisters, Ruth and Esther, must confront a lie they have lived with for over thirty years.

As Hannah is reluctantly stitched into their lives, the women discover the possibility that even in sleepy Sweetgum, Tennessee, they can still be the heroines of their own stories.


I've seen many good reviews of this book, and nearly every one praises it. I received the second book as an ARC and figured I should read this one first. It's a nice story: a group of women get together once a month to talk about the latest book and knit. Sounds lovely. Predictably, each woman has a crisis of some sort in her life and by the end of the story, everything has worked out.

While the characters are probably true to life, I didn't really find them likeable: Esther and Eugenie are downright prickly. There wasn't really anything that drew me to any one of them. The chapters alternate telling each story and showing what happens at the latest meeting. The friendship aspect was really lacking. Other than getting together once a month, these women really had nothing in common and little contact outside the Knit Lit Society.

I did appreciate how the author tried to tie in each month's book with what was going on in these women's lives: especially choosing childhood classics to help Hannah, the young teenager they reluctantly all adopt into their circle.

I'll read the sequel and hope I find it more enjoyable than this one. Light Christian, but unfortunately there was nothing stellar about it. A promising story that fell flat. Many other people enjoyed it more than I did, so you will find a lot of good reviews out there, too.

Thanks to my local library for having a copy I could borrow. You can purchase your own copy here.

Read 7/09

* *
2/5 Stars

Comments

  1. That's too bad. This one sounds like it would be so good. It reminds me of the Blossom Street series.

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  2. I enjoyed this one better than the sequel. Go figure, my favorite character would be the prickly librarian too!

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  3. I have this TBR and it sounds like it would be very good. I'll give it a go and see what I think. I'll be interested to see what you think of the second book.

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