It seemed like such a great idea! Knitting shop owner! Paranormal town! Murder mystery--oh, crap. Murder mystery?
You know, I kind of get the impression that the book was meant to be just the romance, and the murder mystery got shoehorned in because the author felt it needed that little extra something in order to sell. It doesn't serve the book at all, and I'd think that even if I did like murder mysteries, which I don't. The main conflict in the book is Chloe Hobbs, knitting shop owner and half-human/half-sorceress (hey, at least she's not a vampire half-dragon weretiger), who's being pushed to find a mate and fall in love and have babies because only the women in her family can renew the protective spell over the town that keeps people outside the town from realizing OH HAI LOOK MAGIC. On top of that, the spell is fading because it's taken Chloe so long to come into her powers, and now one of the fae who lives in town wants to take the book to faerie-land.
I'm easily seduced by knitting chatter. It got me through about six or seven different knitting mysteries before I got so tired of reading mysteries that I just didn't want to read any more. And make no mistake, the knitting chatter in this book is excellent -- there's brand-name dropping all over plus tools and techniques that may or may not read like Greek to someone who doesn't knit (or speak Greek). Nonetheless, I found the writing kinda clunky, the description unclear, and the plot very untidy. To top it all off, my favorite character in the book wasn't one of the main two and probably won't be appearing in any sequels (he was the best friend who had a thing for the heroine--those guys never do well in these books).
Two stars because it was readable enough to get to the end, but I definitely won't be reading any sequels or picking up more books by this author. I may actually put this book in the "to sell" pile, as it isn't good enough for a re-read. How disappointing! :( I was really hoping for a great paranormal knitting chicklit story. There is an audience out there for that kind of book, and I am it. ^_^
Tags: barbara bretton, paranormal, reading, romance