Customer Reviews

The Lover's Knot: A Someday Quilts Mystery

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
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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

This is an enjoyable murder mystery with some light romance. Nell Fitzgerald is upset when her fiance, Ryan, tells her he wants to delay their wedding and she heads to her grandmother's home in the Hudson Valley of New York. Eleanor, Nell's grandmother, owns a quilting shop and has a number of friends who quilt with her at her shop, Someday Quilts. While Nell is visiting a murder takes place in her grandmother's quilting shop, and Nell helps to solve the murder.

This is an enjoyable story but I did not think that the characters were too well developed. I did enjoy the ending because there are some twists to the story and to the relationship between Nell and her fiance.

A quick and easy read.

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As an amateur quilter I found myslef longing to be part of a quilting circle. I could connect with the characters and had fun trying to unravel the mystery. All you will need is a rainy day, a cup of tea and you will not put the book down until it was finished. I hope there are more books to follow!

THE LOVER'S KNOT is a well written story and begins when Nell Fitzgerald, a young woman who with wedding invitations in hand is told by Ryan, her fiance' that he's confused and wants to call off the wedding. After that nasty shock, Nell sheds many tears while lying beneath her lover's knot quilt which was a recent gift from Eleanor, her grandmother. Heartbroken, Nell, takes a leave of absence from her job and flees to her grandmother's home in the Hudson River Valley.

Eleanor is the owner of a shop called Someday Quilts, and she's a very busy woman. She feels that keeping her granddaughter occupied will be helpful to both of them. So, she not only gets Nell involved in helping in the shop, she also introduces her to her quilting buddies at the Friday Night Quilting Club! The members are fun and add a lot of the entertainment to the story. They are all people that I feel I know!

In the meantime Marc, a charming, bad boy who is a handyman and works for Eleanor flirts constantly with Nell! Her ego is wounded and she enjoys his attention and he knows it. Meanwhile, Ryan, her former fiance' tells her he wants her back! When a murder takes place, Jesse, the very likeable local police chief, is kind to Nell and allows here to become involved in the murder investigation.

I liked the premise for this story a lot! My only criticism would be that Nell's character was a little disappointing. I wanted to like her, but I thought that she reverted between being childish and weak and then daring and over confident.

The author, Clare O'Donohue, had been a producer of the Simply Quilts TV show and she knows her subject very well. She has a great style of writing and the book was enjoyable.

Twenty something Manhattan based publisher Nell Fitzgerald is stunned when her fiancé Ryan informs her he is not ready to marry. Upset, she decides to leave town to visit her grandma Eleanor Cassidy in Archer's Rest to help her elderly relative recover from a nasty fall and somewhat based on the lovely wedding quilt her grandmother and Friday Night Quilt Club made for her.

Eleanor, who owns Someday Quilts, hires local handyman Marc Reed to expand her store. He outrageously flirts with the newcomer and Nell enjoys his attention. Ryan arrives and ends up brawling with Marc over Nell. Soon after their fight, someone scissors Marc to death at Someday Quilts. Local police chief widower Jesse Dewalt investigates knowing many of the townsfolk hared the womanizing Marc and is aware of the brawl with Ryan, who wants Nell back. Instead she tries to prove his innocence one stitch at a time.

This is an engaging Hudson River Valley amateur sleuth that will remind cozy fans of authors like Maggie Sefton. Although Nell has no experience and no cause to investigate placing herself in danger, she makes for a fine detective. Lighthearted fun as the relationship triangle (to include Jesse not Marc) supersedes the mystery.

Harriet Klausner

First Line: "I'm fine," I said between sobs.

When Nell Fitzgerald's grandmother Eleanor asks what colors she wants for her wedding quilt, Nell is ecstatic. She's over the moon when the finished quilt arrives, but she comes crashing down when her fiance calls off the wedding. Heartbroken, Nell packs a bag and hurries to Archer's Rest, the small town on the banks of the Hudson River where her grandmother lives. There Nell can recuperate and make some sort of plans for the future.

Nell's grandmother's life has always revolved around her quilt shop, Someday Quilts, and the members of the shop's quilting circle. Eleanor is having repairs done to the building, and when the local handyman she hired is found stabbed to death in the shop, Nell finds herself drawn into the case-- primarily because her ex-fiance followed her to Archer's Rest and he's now a suspect in the murder. The women of the quilting circle may be piecing together their quilts, but Nell is piecing together the clues that will lead her to the killer.

This may sound strange, but I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. Don't get me wrong, I always expect to enjoy any book that I pick up to read, but some books have little extras that make them that much more pleasurable.

One of those little extras was the strength of O'Donohue's characterizations and the cast she introduced. Nell may be heartbroken, but she's also intelligent, determined, and has plenty of common sense. Her grandmother Eleanor is a strong woman who dearly loves her granddaughter, but she's also willing to let Nell live her own life and make her own mistakes. Of course this doesn't mean that Eleanor's not going to give her some sound advice from time to time. While Nell's getting interested in the local police chief, I'm looking forward to learning more about him in future books. Last but not least, the quilting circle is filled with interesting women. On the strength of the cast of characters alone, this is a very promising series.

I was also pleased to see how large a part quilting played in the book-- and not just piecing and sewing them together. O'Donohue includes quilt design as well as information on the set-up and running of a quilt shop. I could see all the colors, hear the scissors cutting through the fabric, and smell the cloth as I turned the pages.

A wealth of characters and artistry, a small town setting, and an interesting mystery to solve... all these pieces came together to create a fun reading experience. I'm definitely continuing with this series!

I simply adored this trip down mystery quilt lane! Claire has a wonderful way of combining her love of quilting & mystery.

In this first book of the series we are introduced to Nell Fitzgerald as she receives a beautiful quilt handmade by her grandmother and The Friday Night Quilting Circle to celebrate her engagement and her upcoming wedding. Her grandmother owns a quilting shop, Someday Quilts, in Archer's Rest on the Hudson River. Nell was overjoyed to receive the gorgeous quilt with the Lover's Knot pattern, but her joy quickly turned to despair as her fiancee, Ryan, told her he just wasn't ready to get married. It becomes a true Lovers NOT!

A heartbroken Nell takes her belongings that were mostly already packed to move to her new apartment with Ryan and leaves New York behind and heads to her grandmother and Archer's Rest for comfort, time and space to figure out what to do now that her life has been turned upside down. She is welcomed with open arms by her grandmother and all the ladies in the quilting group.

While Nell is trying to sort out her life, her grandmother takes a terrible fall and Nell decides to stay until she recuperates. She has also talked her grandmother into expanding Someday Quilts into a vacant building right next door and knows she must be her grandmother's eyes and ears on the project so it is completed quickly and to her grandmother's exact specifications. Things are going fine until the handyman hired to complete the project is found dead in the store. Guess who arrived in town just around the time of the murder? Nell's ex-fiancee and he becomes the prime suspect. Nell and the ladies of the quilting circle are drawn right into the investigation and try to piece together the clues to "help" the sheriff pin down the killer seamlessly.

I LIKED IT!!!!

I love reading series books one right after the other, the authors and characters grow and evolve right before your eyes. This author knows quilting, she worked on the HGTV show, Simply Quilts, for four seasons, eventually becoming the Supervising Producer. But after reading these books I have learned that she is also quite a storyteller.

You can tell just by reading the author's words she is a true quilter that understands the tactile life of finding the perfect fabrics for the perfect quilt. She also knows how to piece together a good mystery. Stitch those things together, add a hint of romance and humor and you have a cozy mystery.

Her words not only drew me into the mysteries but into the Someday Quilts shop. It was almost like I was going through the aisles, feeling, touching the fabrics. Stacking the fabrics, standing back viewing how they would compliment and contrast with each other. I used to spend hours searching for just the right fabric choice, calculating the yardage and choosing the right pattern. These books not only entertained me with their mysteries but brought back some truly wonderful memories.

I think if I could change one thing in my life it would be to follow my bliss after high school and have worked on my crafts and maybe opened a craft store instead of studying and working in the accounting field, minus the murder, of course.


I have to thank Mary at Plume for sending me this wonderful series for review and I hope there will be many more adventures forthcoming in the Someday Quilts Mystery Series!!


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received these books free from Plume Books, a Division of Penguin Publishing. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 : "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

This book was different from most other cozy mysteries that I have been reading this past year. For one, the main character is a lot younger, more professional and not as bumbling. The mystery doesn't even come into play until about halfway into the story. It's refreshing to instead read more about the characters and not immediately dive into trying to find out whodunit. The town of Archers Rest sounds like a wonderful place to visit. It's just the type of refreshing location that Nell needs to heal after her fiance deals her the words no one wants to hear.

While the other focus of the book aside from the mystery is quilting, it's not really a quilting book. If you know nothing about the craft, you won't feel lost while reading. There's talk about quilting but it's nothing that will go over the head of a beginner or a non fan. I was worried that there would be technical jargon that I wouldn't understand but luckily there isn't. Instead the story

The only part of the story that I didn't like was Nell and Ryan's relationship. I didn't like the guy from the start of the book and when he reappears later in the story my opinion hadn't improved at all. In fact it got worse and as the story went on, my feelings were justified. I just didn't like how Nell handled herself around him. I understand her actions due the situation she had just gotten out of but that doesn't mean that I thought they were smart actions.

Other than this, I really enjoyed the story. It's a nice change of pace from your typical cozy mystery with mostly likable characters and a really intriguing plot. The mystery is very well done and I didn't know who it was until right before the killer was revealed. Nell is my age so I felt at times that I could relate to her. I really like her grandmother as well as the other women in the quilting club. I'm looking forward to more adventures with these new friends as well as learning more about quilting.

I enjoied the book very much. The writter kept your interrest through out the book. It was predicable, but enjoyable to read. I look forward to the next book and have already ordered it.