The Lover's Knot: A Someday Quilts Mystery [Paperback] Review

For a novice quilter like me, The Lover's Knot was a happy discovery. The latest trend in the "cozy" mystery genre is to write a series of books based on a particular career or hobby. There are mystery novels set in the world of knitting, scrapbooking, cross-stitch, bridge and dogwalking, with some of the best of these reviewed at StoryCircle Book Reviews. I love them all, but this was the first quilting mystery I've read. It was a welcome treat.

The story begins when Nell Fitzgerald, a young layout artist for a Manhattan publishing house, has her heart broken by a fiancé with cold feet. She heads for the Hudson Valley town of Archer's Rest, New York to seek the comfort of her grandmother, Eleanor, owner of the Someday Quilts shop. The lovers' knot of the title is the pattern on the quilt Eleanor has made for her granddaughter's wedding. In a very short time, Nell falls in love with the town and the art of quilting.

Meanwhile, her fiancé Ryan tries to win her back and becomes a suspect in the murder of Marc, a local handyman known for his flirting. A fistfight occurs, a child's paternity is questioned, someone greases the shop stairs with quilter's hand cream and a load of money is found hidden in the shop. The women of the Friday Night Quilt Club, Barney the golden retriever and the handsome widowed police chief round out the cast of characters. (Barney has his own stash of five small quilts with dog fabrics or appliquéd bones lining his bed!)There is enough going on in this story to keep you guessing until the very end.

Quilting jargon like UFOs (Unfinished Objects), stash and fat quarter (twenty-two inches by eighteen instead of a quarter yard) are scattered through the book like fabric scraps on a cutting table. O'Donohue is an avid quilter herself and former producer of the HGTV program "Simply Quilts." She's also skillful in piecing together the ordinary things that can make life difficult: mother-daughter clashes, the death of a spouse, and the shaky steps to recovery after rejection by a lover. She cleverly leaves a few of the personal issues unresolved, so that the reader wonders what the main characters are doing after the novel ends.

I've read a lot of "cozies." They are the books I'm most likely to pick up at the end of a long day or take with me on vacation. The Lover's Knot went in my travel bag on a recent weekend, and was as much fun to read as I hoped it would be. I look forward to my next visit to Archers Rest and the women of Someday Quilts.

by Linda Wisniewski
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

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Kansas Troubles (Benni Harper Mystery) [Paperback] Review

Benni Harper and her new husband, Gabe Ortiz leave California for a vacation in Kansas so that Benni can meet Gabe's family and old friends. The experience is stressful for Benni because she knows very little of Gabe's background or former life.As usual, Gabe is not into explaining things to Benni and they are constantly locking horns in between their flirting.Gabe's sister shares Benni's love of quilts and asks for her help in setting up a local quilt show. In the mean time, the murder of a young woman singer named Tyler takes place. She happened to be dating Gabe's old friend Rob and he is a suspect in her death. Tyler was also a runaway wife from the local Amish community and a superb quilter. When Benni sees the last quilt that Tyler made, she discovers some clues that could lead to the identity of the killer.
There's a lot offascinating "quilt talk" in this book and some interesting facts about the state of Kansas. This is the third book in the Benni Harper series and I'm now committed to reading them all.

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The Pattern (The American Quilt Series #1) [Paperback] Review

I loved the Pattern. It was a sweet book about a young girl who falls in love with a man who is a doctor. Her parents dont approve but let her marry him anyway. The whole story is about never giving up and always trusting God.

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Product Description:
Prior to the Civil War, well-to-do Johanna marries a doctor from a poor family and moves to the harsh mountains of North Carolina.

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