Customer Reviews

Spells & Stitches (A Knitting Mystery)

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In Sugar Maple, Vermont, Sticks and Strings knitting store owner Chloe Hobbs, a sorceress in training, struggles with her out of control half-human hormones as she is over eight months pregnant with her first child that comingle with her magical DNA. Chloe owes a zillion favors from her otherworldly pals for clean up duty such as sending two women from Boise on a magical mystery tour and sending a fire ball at her mate's mother Bunny when caught by surprise by the woman entering her establishment; apparently someone leaked to the MacKensie brood that a grandchild is coming. Chloe's significant other Police Chief Luke MacKensie, the only purebred resident of the town, is ecstatic over the upcoming birth of his first child.

Laria is born healthy while the parents and others go gaga over her. However, raising a baby and running a business or enforcing the law is difficult. Raising a baby with magical skills is impossible especially trying to conceal the paranormal from his family.

This bewitching charmer is filled with humor as it takes a village to raise a baby sorceress. Fast-paced the collision between the MacKensie human horde and the paranormal residents of the Vermont village is jocularly entertaining. However, it is Laria who makes this a fresh tale as she has typical baby needs and some extraordinary extras as Laria has unique ways of "communicating." Although it behooves sub-genre fans to read the previous A Knitting Mystery romantic Green Mountain village fantasies (see Spun by Sorcery) to understand family dynamics, Barbara Bretton provides an engaging tale of parenthood.

Harriet Klausner

This is the fourth book in the Sugar Maple series and it keeps getting better with each one. The premise of the series is that the town of Sugar Maple is populated with magical creatures of all kinds who have transplanted their village to Vermont after the Salem Witchcraft trials. Chloe Hobbs is half human and pregnant by her human lover, Luke, a policeman who has moved to the town. She is the last in a line of Hobbs women who are the key to keeping Sugar Maple safe.
I love the varied people who live in the town and how Luke deals with them and they with him. Chloe is a great character with her pregnancy hormones causing random disasters all around her. I would recommend reading the earlier books but the backstory is skillfully interwoven into this book and the reader is able to follow the relationships with no problem. Elspeth, the troll, is a riot, going around being a major meanie to human and magick folk alike. The stress of imminent child birth, meeting Luke's family, and keeping herself from wrecking things makes Chloe's story so much fun to read. That said there are moments of suspense in the book and there lurks through the whole book portents of future trouble. The ending is big and emotional.I hope there will be more tales of the folks from Sugar Maple in the future.

For Chloe Hobbs, life couldn't get any better. She's in love with the gorgeous Luke MacKenzie, her knitting shop, Sticks & Strings, is thriving, and her magical hometown of Sugar Maple is doing well after narrowly missing a disaster a few months back. Best of all, Chloe and Luke are expecting a new addition to their family. But being a pregnant sorceress isn't easy. Chloe's little sorceress-to-be is making her powers go haywire and on top of that, Chloe and Luke are stuck with a cantankerous troll who's intent on guarding Chloe until the baby's born. If that wasn't enough, Luke's very human family has discovered that Chloe's expecting, and the soon-to-be-parents have to figure out how to mask Chloe's magical outbursts. It's almost too much for Chloe and Luke to handle...and that's before a dark force intercedes, threatening Chloe, Luke and their baby.

Magic and mayhem are part and parcel of the SUGAR MAPLE series, and author Barbara Bretton makes no exception with SPELLS & STITCHES. I love this zany series and in SPELLS & STITCHES, Ms. Bretton ups the stakes for Chloe, Luke and the readers when it comes to the dark magic in this book. There are few things more frightening than a child in danger, and Ms. Bretton definitely tugs on readers' emotions when Luke and Chloe's baby is threatened. I could not put down SPELLS & STITCHES until I was sure the entire Hobbs-MacKenzie family would be all right.

Though the ominous presence in SPELLS & STITCHES kept me enthralled, the book itself isn't all darkness and danger. As she has in her previous SUGAR MAPLE books, Ms. Bretton keeps the overall tone of the story light. SPELLS & STITCHES feels joyful most of the time, and it really was a delight to revisit the oddball town of SUGAR MAPLE.

SPELLS & STITCHES is the fourth book in the SUGAR MAPLE series, and Ms. Bretton provides enough information that readers new to the series can read this book as a standalone. I will say, however, that my emotional investment in SPELLS & STITCHES stems from reading this book's three predecessors, CASTING SPELLS, LACED WITH MAGIC and SPUN BY SORCERY. I fell in love with Luke and Chloe in those books, and my attachment to them and their growing family only strengthens with SPELLS & STITCHES.

As far as buoyant paranormals go, Ms. Bretton writes the best. I absolutely adored SPELLS & STITCHES, and I hope Ms. Bretton has more adventures planned for Chloe, Luke and baby Laria.

Lily
Reviewed for Romance Junkies