Real Men Knit

Despite the story being set in the four walls of a knitting shop, and the shop being a staple in the neighborhood, there's not a ton of knitting going on. We have issues and plenty of internal dialogue, backstories, grief and the reputation of Jesse as a ladies' man. It was a slow start with large amounts of information dumped, much of it rather tragic as all the Strong men went through the gamut of foster care. But, while the information provided background, it didn't allow the characters to step forward and engage, with the exception of Jesse. He was intriguing from the start, even with the large info dump, and his determination to keep the shop open and do Mama Joy proud was engaging and intriguing. Romance is slow to develop but creates major pacing issues once the 'fact' is established, and the pacing throughout the story was uneven, again I believe, owing to the info dump at the start. I would have liked to have a bit more development in the characterization of the other three brothers, perhaps bringing their dialogue to a point where it would have felt more natural to share a bit of their backstory - but without that, they felt rather wooden and one-dimensional. Surprisingly, the writing flow and lyricism was solid enough to overcome these hiccups in construction, and it does appear that this was the first book in a series about the Strong brothers and their lives after their adoptive mother's death. I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

3 stars — I was so excited for this book. 1) Guy knitters?? Yes please! My hubby is a sexy male knitter, so I’m all over that. 2) Look at that cover! 3) #ownvoices book with main characters of colour?? WOOP! But…well…I kinda had to push myself to finish this book, and if it hadn’t been a NetGalley ARC, I probably would have DNF’d it. It was just kind of boring. The beginning especially was a LOT of time in the characters head, with basically nothing going on, but continually going over the emotions that they were feeling with the loss of Mama Joy. So much so it sort of lost the emotional impact for me. The ARC was clearly before a final editing pass, so I had to contest with quite a few wrong word choices, and some sentences that didn’t make sense in context (perhaps a previous paragraph was removed?). So I can’t say for certain what would have made it through to the final copy…but it was probably more distracting because I wasn’t that invested in the characters. Jesse and Kerry had some good moments, but in general they were kind of flat. Their love story was also RIDDLED with lack of communication and misunderstandings, and while I’ll handle a bit of that, it was basically their entire romance. And as a romance? This book was meh. It took forever before they started making any moves in that direction, and then they were both focused on what they thought they knew about the other, and about keeping the relationship physical only. Needless to say, I just wasn’t sucked in. While the steamy scenes weren’t explicit, there were some good moments. What I loved most was the story surrounding how the Strong Knits store had become such an important part of the community, and wanting to continue that tradition. I loved the side story with Errol, and the subtle ways they tackled some toxic masculinity. I also mostly enjoyed the journey of Jesse discovering his passion…but only mostly because he never really figured that out for himself, and at the end it felt like he still felt he was worthless. Which was a bummer. I learned more things through reading this book, by having to google things….I love that. And now I want a chopped cheese. As far as other secondary characters, I expected to love the brothers more than I did. Damian was awful…and while I know there’s a backstory, I just don’t care. Lucas’s behavior was confusing. Noah was the star IMO, seriously adorable. Kerry’s friend Val was fun and spunky, but missing a bit of depth. So yeah. I feel like with some editing and tightening up on pacing, this story would bring more. I still probably wouldn’t have loved it, but it would have prevented me wanting to DNF at least. Ah well.

This is a tender, heartfelt story of loss and learning to love yourself. Jesse and Kerry are sweet together—but with so much unspoken between them from the past, it's difficult for them to be honest and vulnerable with each other. It's lovely watching these two grow together and open themselves up to true love—and to believing they deserve it.