Book Review - Knit One Kill Two

Knit One, Kill Two
By Maggie Sefton
Summary from Goodreads:  Kelly Flynn never picked up a pair of knitting needles she liked—until she strolled into House of Lambspun. Now, in the first in a brand-new series, she learns how to knit one, purl two, and untangle the mystery behind her aunt's murder.

My review:  Kelly Flynn has returned to Colorado upon the death of her aunt Helen.  Kelly originally plans to settle affairs after her aunt was murdered in a robbery.  Kelly sticks around when she decides that the police simply could not have the right guy and when she finds that she has quite a few more issues to take care of when it comes to her aunt's estate. Kelly's aunt lived in a cottage across the street from her former farm house.  That farmhouse now houses a knitting shop and cafe. Helen apparently spent a lot of time at this knitter's paradise, and made great friends with many of the frequent patrons.   These friends quickly befriend Kelly, and support her as she tries to find out who killed her aunt.

I liked the setting of the story.  The knit shop sounded like a dream to go to if you were into knitting.  The author described it so well, it was definitely like you were there.  The whole area was described beautifully.  I like small-town cozy mysteries, and I really wanted to like this one.  To be honest though, things kept pulling me out of the story.  I haven't had something like this happen before to such a degree.  So I hope I don't sound nitpicky.

1 - The cafe in the old farm house has a cook who apparently makes a great coffee.  It is so great that it is named again and again and again.  It was so tiring reading about Eduardo's aromatic brew in various different ways.  It pulled me out of the story time and time again because it was so annoying.

2 - The knitting shop - Kelly spends a lot of time at the knitting shop and makes fast (I mean FAST) friends with some of the other women.  They are all youngish probably mid to late 20s with full time jobs yet have endless time to always be at the knitting shop.  The friendships all seem a little too familiar for such a short time too.  I could understand the author rushing the friendships.  I just wish she maybe went with one and kind of moved the circle wider as the series moves.  It was the crazy flexible schedules that were weird to me and overly distracting.

3 - I hated that Kelly was obnoxious to this dude Steve simply because he looked similar to an ex of hers.  She continually scowls about him and grouses which is the oldest recipe in the book for romance novels.  Girl meets boy, girl hates boy, boy teases girl, and they fall in love.  It hasn't yet, but it is already obvious.  When a woman in the real world acts as obnoxious as Kelly does to a guy who is so obviously nice, any guy with half a brain would have no interest in her because they were see her as a witchy crab.

4 - Kelly's aunt was her last living relative.  Supposedly like a mom to her.  Yet from the description, she would have to be in her late 60s close to 70.  I couldn't figure out if Helen was a great aunt or much older sibling to her dad.  Either way, it distracted the heck out of me.  Why?   Because Kelly would talk to people who knew her aunt when she was much younger.  If her father and her aunt were siblings you'd think she would mention her dad to these people.  If not, you'd think she would mention her grandpa who would be the sibling (since Helen had the same last name as Kelly). Either way, the familial ties were so unclear, I kept wondering about this and loping right out of the read.

I'm going to stop there.  I don't want to cover everything that bugged me.  It was a good effort and just the start of a series.  A friend lent me the first two books in the series, and I have already started the second.  My hope is that the things the distracted me in the first book will be resolved in the second.  I look forward to seeing how things work out.

Book Journal

I used to love reading.  I shouldn't say "used to" because actually I still love it quite a bit.  I simply haven't found the time to indulge in reading like I once did.  This is one of the reasons I want an elliptical trainer.  That will give me the much needed exercise I need (and boy do I need it!) as well as the opportunity to read again!

When I was at the gym I read all the time.  I have a Kindle and a Nook, and I found it absolutely fantastic to be able to escape the workout that I was doing by following a crime solver in the latest cozy!  Then my hours changed just enough to make those gym breaks impossible.

But I digress.  I do that often.

I have decided that before the new year even gets here, I am going to dive back into reading like I enjoy.  I will not just read for work, but I will read for fun again.  Oh the joy, the joy, the joy!!!!!

I have reviewed books in the past on a blog and of course at commercial sites.  The one thing I didn't do though was use a book journal.  When reading recently I realized how very cool it would be to have one.  There are many times that I have read a book and then come across something that just annoyed the pulp out of me.  I also found things I absolutely loved.  The trouble is, I couldn't always remember those details.  My hopes is that a book journal will help with that.

I have seen lovely journals and would like to go that route some day, but for now, I am going to use a composition book. I bought lots of them during all the back-to-school sales and I believe this will work just fine for now.  Maybe I'll even decorate it at some point.  Who knows.  

Why I am sharing this with you?  Because for now, no one but me is reading anyway.  :)  I don't mind.  I like it.  I can get a little crazy with this if I want.  The beginning really is the sweetest thing.  

My first book that I will be enjoying and eventually reviewing is "Knit One, Kill Two" by Maggie Sefton.  As Thanksgiving is this week, I think I should actually finish it by the end of the week.  I don't plan on doing too much Black Friday or Nightmare Thursday shopping anyway.  Well, except to maybe locate an elliptical trainer of my own.