Review - The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs

Kate Jacobs’ debut novel takes a while to get going, but once it does, you can’t help but fall in love with the characters. A group of knitters accidentally start meeting at Georgia Walker’s yarn shop every Friday night to sip coffee, try Dakota’s (Georgia’s daughter) latest baking inventions, chat, and occasionally knit. They become a support system during betrayals, stalled careers, pregnancy, teetering marriages, blossoming romances, and everything else you can think of. I love the structure of the book—built around knitting instructions, and the way she ties that in at the end, well, I won’t ruin it, but I liked it.
Personal Writing Lesson: Jacobs has a habit of jumping POVs. We’re going along, perhaps in Georgia’s POV and suddenly we’re in Anna’s mind. Did I miss something? I think the reason this bothered me was because it took away from the reader’s secret. You know, when you get to see how different people think, but they don’t see it between themselves, so you know something the characters in the book don’t know, and it’s always fun to see their reactions when they misunderstand what’s really going on. (Wshoo, I’m out of breath!) With Friday Night, we miss those fun reactions because right when they would occur, Jacobs jumps POV so that it feels like everyone knows everything.
Another thing I learned: good characterization makes up for a whole lot. As I mentioned above, Jacobs takes a while to unfold the raison d’etre of the book. I don’t know why I’m reading. But it was okay because I liked the characters and wanted to be a part of their lives.
I used to knit (a tiny bit) when I was but a slip of a girl. This book inspired me to take it up again. Seriously, I’m doing searches at my library to find How-To books.