⭐⭐⭐⭐★
⭐⭐⭐⭐★
This book truly hooks you in and
draws itself delicately around you.
Anna, a teacher and mother of two
is in a life-by-rote kind of place. She has adopted Timothy, a young man on the AD
Spectrum and has a daughter, Bethany. She has a kinda relationship with Liam,
universally disliked by both her kids. She teaches, holds book clubs for her
students and gardens. Her daughter encourages her to meet new people and
suggests joining or developing a hobby. Anna decides to do the hobby thing
first and thinks of maybe, knitting. She goes to buy yarn at the quirkily named
shop, Darn That Yarn, owned by Ollie. A war veteran, Ollie had got involved
with a colleague in Iraq. A female colleague. That led to a very messy divorce
and a breakdown of her relationship with her daughter. Her relationship with
her son remains okay, but coming out also led to a complete rejection from the
rest of her family including siblings et al. She struggles to actually label
herself gay, though she has no doubts about her sexuality.
Ollie suggests crochet as a new
hobby for Anna and informs her that she (Ollie) runs a crochet class twice a
week. After trying to learn crochet via YouTube and failing miserably, Anna
finds herself in Ollie’s class featuring an interesting set of tertiary
characters, including Ollie’s best friend, Mathew.
The book is deceptive in its
pace. The changes in Anna from being straight to being attracted to a woman to
questioning her sexuality to acting on her attraction move fluidly and at an even pace.
However, Ollie puts brakes on the physical aspect of their relationship (still
cannot figure out why!?!) and that makes the pace of the book way slower than
it is. And yes, unless you know and/or are interested in crochet, the heavy
detailing and leave you a little glazed over (it did that to us).
But all in all, this is a great
read.
⭐⭐⭐⭐★
