The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs

GENRE: chick lit/women's fiction

SUMMARY:
Juggling the demands of her yarn shop and single-handedly raising a teenage daughter has made Georgia Walker grateful for her Friday Night Knitting Club. Her friends are happy to escape their lives too, even for just a few hours. But when Georgia's ex suddenly reappears, demanding a role in their daughter's life, her whole world is shattered. Luckily, Georgia's friends are there, sharing their own tales of intimacy, heartbreak, and miracle making. And when the unthinkable happens, these women will discover that what they've created isn't just a knitting club: it's a sisterhood.

THIS MISS REVIEWS:
I really wanted to read about a group of women attending a knitting club, discussing things and having every-day adventures. I had very high expectations, but not all of them were satisfied.

The novel as a whole is a very entertaining read. It has some great characters and a very nice story with a tragic twist. Georgia Walker, the protagonist, is a single mother raising a 12-year-old biracial daughter Dakota, as well as running a Manhattan yarn shop. She has some loyal customers that have also become her friends over the years. Eventually, the women form an idea that they should meet together on Fridays, knit, eat muffins and just talk.

The group consists of very diverse women. Darwin Chu is a feminist who thinks that knitting is terribly old-fashioned, but she’s a member of the club because she’s writing a thesis and the club is her field of research. She also starts to get genuinely drawn to the club because of her marital problems. Lucie is a TV producer in her early forties; she is pregnant, but single, and wants to find some balance in her life. KC is a book editor who has career issues. Peri works for Georgia, but she also has a line of her own bags in production. Anita, Georgia’s elderly friend, is – I think – Georgia’s closest friend. She’s a sort of mother figure in Georgia’s life, and she’s a grandma to Dakota. And last but not least, here’s Cat, Georgia’s friend from high school, married to a rich, important guy, but she’s not happy in her life. When Georgia’s ex and Dakota’s father, James, comes back and suddenly wants to play daddy after all the years of absence, the story begins for Georgia.

So, the club features a bunch of ordinary women from all walks of life, trying to figure out what they want, trying to find themselves. The story itself, and the way it flows and unfolds, is not exactly what I’d expected to read. The idea is really great, it’s just not executed so well. It lacks something.

The characters are nice and some of them are really enjoyable, like Anita and I also really liked Cat, although she’s first presented in a way that asks you to not like her. She’s very misunderstood. Dakota, Georgia’s child, is a bit ungrateful. When her now rich daddy comes back into her life, she clings to him and Georgia is suddenly the bad guy, despite all the years of raising the kid, feeding her, dressing her, sticking by her side etc. I mean, eventually, Dakota comes back to her senses and starts acting normal again, but the kid is a bit annoying at times, at least to me she was. As for James, he’s a douche-bag. He comes back after he left Georgia when he found out she was pregnant, and now he wants both Georgia and Dakota back because now it’s convenient for him.

The club really isn’t a real club. It starts randomly and really doesn’t send off the vibes of a proper women’s club. The title is a bit misleading, I have to say. There are also some clichés inserted into the story, things that have been written about over and over again. The ending, however, is surprising and really sad. I have to confess that it brought tears to my eyes. It was, in fact, a beautiful ending.

However, although I pointed out some bad things, or at least things that bothered me, The Friday Night Knitting Club is a very nice and pleasant read, and provides warm entertainment for the reader. I don’t regret reading this book. If you see it in a library, borrow it. It is a very nice read. After all, it’s not that bad since I bought the sequel, Knit Two, and Comfort Food, unrelated to the Knit stories. Such stories may not be impressive, but I like to read them. At the end of the read, they give me a heart-warming, cosy feeling. This novel also made me want to brush up on my knitting skills.

THIS MISS RATES: /(3.5 stars)