Customer Reviews

Knit the Season: A Friday Night Knitting Club Novel (Friday Night Knitting Club Novels)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The third installment of The Friday Night Knitting Club, Knit the Season is a feel-good holiday book that celebrates friendships, family, new milestones, and unlimited possibilities for the future.

Knit the Season offers readers the chance to revisit the characters from The Friday Night Knitting Club and Knit Two, following them as they reconnect during a holiday season in New York and abroad. A novel that continues to explore the dynamic of friendship between a group of diverse women, Knit the Season offers readers hope and joy after the long and sometimes painful road they've traveled with Georgia Walker, her daughter, friends, and family.

I, like many others, had a difficult time with the plot twist at the end of TFKNC, but this newest installment helped me see that it served as an impetus for the other characters. Kate Jacobs used the twist as a motivation for all the changes the characters make--they are dynamic--altering their life courses as a result of plot events.

By using memory flashbacks from various characters' perspectives, we get a closer look at how one character can influence the life path of others. The flashbacks in Knit the Season also serve to enhance the characterization of Georgia Walker in her role as mother, sister, daughter, granddaughter, lover, and friend. Like the Christmas tree garland she and her Scottish grandmother knit over the years, the characters are connected to each other by Georgia and form a strong chain that can't be broken by the passage of time, distance, or age.

Fans of TFNKC and Knit Two will really enjoy catching up with the circle of friends, especially when they are each poised to embark on new and wonderful opportunities. Knit the Season, to be fully appreciated, needs to be read after the first two novels. Those books help build the relationships and back story that pave the way for the happiness and closure of Knit the Season.

An enjoyable read, Knit the Season put me in a festive, upbeat mood. Jacobs includes some knitting patterns and delicious recipes at the end of the novel, inspiring me to get in touch with my inner Martha Stewart! If you've yet to read the TFNKC, consider adding it to your holiday wish list.

-Natalie of Book, Line, and Sinker

11.3.09

I actually pre-ordered this book ... that's how much I enjoyed Kate Jacobs' first two installments in the "Friday Night Knitting Club" series, as well as her book "Comfort Food". However, unlike the other readers who have thus far reviewed "Knit the Season" here, I was somewhat disappointed in the end product this time.

Knit the Season is not a *bad* book, but it's also not a terrific one. Some of the plot elements were contrived and overly-predictable, and the author's use of flashback scenes/dialogue (snippets from various points in Georgia's life) was - to me - an irritating, extraneous interruption. For all of the characters' zeal about telling Dakota unvarnished stories about her mother, these flashbacks still paint a picture of Georgia as largely saint-like; the first book did a much better job at fleshing out her character and providing insights into the woman she was. Presumably, since Dakota was not a young child when her mother died, her memories of her mother would have provided her with a much more realistic snapshot of the woman than the vignettes that the flashback segments produce.

If I hadn't read the first two books, I would have pegged the characters here as two-dimensional. Dakota's "passion" for baking and her desire to ultimately pursue a career as a pastry chef - which was quirky, charming, and just one facet of her personality in the previous books - reaches nearly obsessive proportions throughout most of the book. Dakota also tends to stay "in her own head" a great deal. It would have been interesting (and more illuminating) to see her interact with her classmates or her teachers, but her interactions in the book are virtually limited to those that involve her family and the "knitters" although she is purportedly a full-time student. Anita is a spineless simp who allows her son to dictate her life. The spirit and "spark" that characterized her in the previous books is missing here. Catherine waffles back and forth about committing to her long-distance paramour, due to her inability to reconcile retaining her independence with being in a relationship. Professor-and-mom-to-twins Darwin and producer-and-single-mom Lucie - two of the more-interesting characters in the previous books - are, here, reduced to looking on from the periphery as their families share a duplex and each wonders how to let the other know that sometimes there's such a thing as too much togetherness.

You get the idea.

Kudos do go to Jacobs for including a brief but pivotal scene set at a Chanukah party given by Anita and her beau; it was nice to see the holiday included as more than an afterthought. However, I think I'd have preferred a better-conceived plot that wasn't shaped around the holiday season.

In sum, an unremarkable albeit quick read, with predictable outcomes. I wouldn't mind revisiting the Club, but I hope that next time there is a more compelling story to tell. Based upon her other books, Kate Jacobs seems to be a talented author, and this is not a bad book - it's just not a terrific one. I recommend reading the first two books in the series before heading into this one. And I recommend Jacobs' "Comfort Food" as a superior alternative that better showcases her talent.

This was a great read for the holiday season. I know that a lot of people are like me, and enjoy the break from our normal reads at this time of the year. This book captures the warmth and spirit of the holiday season to share with family and friends. This is the third book in the series and I had to go read the first two books before reading this. It's not necessary, but it gives you more history and background for each of the characters. I love the flashbacks from each of the characters and it helps with the reasons of their choices in life. Every character is different, but they each share a meaning and love of friendship. A truly warm and wonderful read for this time of the year.

I totally enjoyed the first book in this series. . and liked the second. This third book, Knit the Season is really a disappointment. Too much time is spent recapping the events of the first two books, and there are senseless flashbacks to childhood events that have nothing to do with the story. I couldn't even finish it. I think the author needed to turn out a third book - and fast - for her publisher. And this trite and boring read is what we got. Too bad. Save your time and money. But do take a look at the first two books. The first book, especially, is a delight.

I really enjoyed TFKNC and I liked Knit Two, but admittedly a little less than the original. The third book seems to be a little more "phoned in." I agree with the reviewer who said that the characters are more two-dimensional here, and have lost some of their spark, particularly Anita. I found the entire plot with her son Nathan - just a plot device to provide conflict -- entirely unbelievable. I thought Jacobs did a better job trying to humanize Nathan (a very little bit) in Knit Two than in this book, where his actions are entirely unbelievable, and Anita's lack of backbone makes no sense. Part of the appeal of TFKNC is that readers can see themselves in some, or even all, of the characters. Of course I know people who had trouble with their parents remarrying, but I know no one who acts like Nathan or has a son like him. It was jarring.

Not trying to give spoilers here, but it's clear from the book description that a component of this novel are "memories" of Georgia. I found them contrived and not very compelling -- personally, I prefer my own memories of the Georgia I "met" in TFKNC over these little over-simplified, slightly schmaltzy vignettes. I also dislike some of the hackneyed narrative techniques she uses in this book and Knit Two, such as characters slipping into reveries (aka our insight into their memories, feelings, etc.) and then being interrupted with the way overused novel line, "Earth to So-and-so! Where were you?" If a character is going to give us info via a daydream, just do it already! You don't need to create a fake conversation around it.

On the positive side, although I didn't exactly believe it, I like the focus Jacobs places on Catherine and the growth of her character through the second and third books.

Overall, it was a light read and a fun, warm holiday catch-up with old friends, but a bit like visiting people you haven't seen in a while, and then you're not exactly sure why you were drawn to them to begin with.

I guess you have to read the first books of this series to understand what is going on. This is the first one I have read and it seemed very confusing and disjointed to me. Perhaps I need to read the others before giving this an honest review, but right now I do not believe I would want to read other books by this author. I usually am sympathetic to the characters in a book after the first two or three chapter, but I am a third of the way through this book and am not enjoying it at all. I feel nothing for any of the characters which is odd for me.

KNIT THE SEASON is my first Kate Jacobs book. I realize that I began this "series" on book three, and I understand that these are continuing characters. I also realize that I did not get much enjoyment from the story and found most of the characters dull and lackluster and the story less than engrossing.

A great deal of the story involves reminiscences about Georgia, the joint owner of a knitting shop. For someone who has been dead for six years there is a lot of print devoted to her...which would be fine if there were any pertinent details that added to the storyline. I assume that the authors goal was to let us know how Georgia affected the lives of those around her but I found myself wanting to shout, "I don't care....just get on with the story" and I'm relatively certain that anyone who read the first two books would find this one repetitious and tedious.

As for the characters, let me address just two. There is Dakota, Georgia's somewhat immature, petulant 20 year old daughter whose dialog reads like she's a spoiled, immature 15 year old. Do 20 year olds really sound like that today?? Oh and how about Anita, the octogenarian whose nuptials with the ever patient Marty have been postponed several times due to the manipulation of her deceitful 50-something year old son. At 80 you would think the woman would be smarter than that.

The other members of the Friday Night Knitting Club, Peri, KC, Catherine and Luci, as well as Luci's seven year old daughter, Ginger, are equally uninspiring.

If your interest lies in knitting I would strongly advise you to spend your time continuing with the holiday gifts you have waiting on your needles. A nicely knit scarf will leave you with more "warm fuzzy" feelings than this book could ever produce. 2 1/2 stars

"Knit the Season" is not the best book in Kate Jacobs "Friday Night Knitting Club" series, but I still enjoyed reading it since the characters are all so familiar by now. There didn't seem to be much of a plot, things moved along too slowly, and there was repetition from earlier books in the series. Perhaps the series should have ended with the death of Georgia in the second book, "Knit Two".

This book is very thin on story. Maybe you have to read the other books in the series to enjoy it. I received it as a Christmas gift, so, I thought if I liked it, I would buy the others for myself. The thin story line of this in no way made me want to read the rest of these books. My Mom gets an A for effort on this one, though. I love knitting and reading, so, it was a great idea as a gift. It's a shame the book was so blah and lacking a good/interesting story. Reading this was like coming in in the middle of a boring movie, hoping it would get better and then it just ends, leaving you to realize it didn't get better and all you have is wasted time spent on this. So, so sad to end a book feeling so let down.

This book was as good as the previous two. I enjoyed the continuation of the story. However, if I hadn't read the previous two books in the series, I think I would have been extremely bored & lost. I'm not sure if I'll read a 4th book to the series if she writes one. Its getting old.