Needles and Pearls

I was charmed by this book. I was worried when I picked it off the new releases shelf at the library because I've been burned by other knitting books that were really shallow romance novels with characters that happened to knit. Gil McNeil's writing style is crisp, concise and oh so comical. I laughed out loud many times reading this book. The last time that happened was either Bridget Jones or The Ya-Yas. The characters are engaging, quirky and genuinely like each other. Though this book was a [...]

I think what charms me about this series is the total and unapologetic flavor of life it brings. I love the discussions and grumbles about what the children want for tea time, a big galumphing dog, crusty old ladies, snooty "Better than they aught to be's", women with spirit, people with heart. That it's set around a wool shop in a British sea town, is just fine with me. It's got no major start or stop, though both this and the first book cycled through a number of daily life events. Everything' [...]

Originally Reviewed at Novel EscapesI loved Divas Don’t Knit, finding Gil McNeil a fresh voice in chick lit and loved the premise and the story. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for Needles and Pearls and I wasn’t as pleased with this sequel as I had hoped to be.Divas Don’t Knit began with Jo, newly widowed, starting over in a new town with her two boys, making friends and taking over her Grandmothers’s knitting shop. Quite a lot to overcome! In this sequel though, things stayed pre [...]

It´s a nice read. Sometimes a little boring but all in all good entertainment for knitters and woolaholics.

In The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club, Gil McNeil introduced us to Jo Mackenzie. Having learned that her husband was cheating on her and was leaving her and their two sons, Jack and Archie, for his mistress was the first crushing blow of the night. The other? Having her husband die in a car accident within an hour after breaking the news and walking out on her. (We learn all of that on the back flap, so no need to throw rotten tomatoes at me for ruining the book.) What happens next [...]

Mlle Alice, pouvez-vous nous raconter votre rencontre avec Le Petit Magasin des Tricoteuses ? "J'avais vraiment apprécié le premier tome et envisageais depuis un moment de lire la suite. D'ailleurs, il n'est même pas resté un seul jour dans ma PAL."Dites-nous en un peu plus sur son histoire "Jo continue son petit bout de chemin dans sa nouvelle vie depuis la mort de son mari et commence à trouver ses marques. Mais un évènement inattendu va venir bouleverser tous ses plans"Mais que s'est-i [...]

wouldn't work properly when I tried to add my review for this book a few weeks ago, so here it is. I sauntered into my local library to browse for a non-annoying chick lit book. These are hard to find, as chick lit heroines are usually either so dense or so truth-telling-challenged that I want to pull my hair out. On the other hand, once in a while, I really appreciate a book that I can just read without thinking a single serious thought, for pure relaxation. I was looking for something that was [...]

didn't feel like paying for the kindle version of this, but liked this second book in the series just as much as the first one (although why the first one is titled, "Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club" when a)there is no "Beach Street" mentioned in the book and b)NOWHERE does it say anything about a "Knitting Society and Yarn Club" is a bit beyond me. But I suppose "The Stitch and Bitch at McKnits" probably wouldn't sell as many copies??), anyway, despite that one niggling complaint, I [...]

BASIC PLOT: Heroine (Jo) is a single parent (from some seriously screwy circumstances). She's had one hot fling since the break (break really isn't the right word, but anything else will SPOIL IT), and an awkward date with a cute carpenter. Things get complicated with a movie-star sort-of friend, a handful of well-meaning old ladies, and one seriously (and hilariously) bitchy carpool mom.WHY I PICKED IT UP: The cover caught my eye. WHAT I LIKED ABOUT IT: It's a quirky story and I love me some qu [...]

I generally like the characters in this series (wish I had a Gran like that), but the kids sound like the worlds most spoiled and absolute brats. I sort of skim over those parts to get on with the story because it makes me want to cringe that a Mom would let her kids run over her like that. I have to agree with other reviewers, these books go nowhere very slowly, but it's knitting chick-lit so I bear with it and get it read. What can I say? I love knitting.

The second in a series, though it doesn't indicate that anywhere on the covers or end papers. I thought I recognised the setting and characters and sure enough, discovered that I've actually read number 3 in the series - Knit One Pearl One. However it was such a long time ago I don't really remember what happened. I found this book a little frustrating as it would have been better if I had read the books in order.

The coziness of the knitting shop in the seaside town continues. A fun drinking game would be to have a drink every time someone has a cup of tea or puts the kettle on. You'd be drunk within a chapter. Again, it was just as charming as the first onerahsbookjournal.wordpress.c

I just finished this book and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a light, fast read with lovely characters. The same characters and town as in Diva's Don't Knit (aka The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club) with a few new characters, weddings, babies and relationships.

Another delightful time in Jo's life of knitting, raising kids, and coping with the death of her husband. I very much enojoyed this book and look forward to the next installment. It has a very good balance of humor and drama and touching moments.

Pros: Pretty mindless read, very witty.Cons: Not much about knitting, copious f-words, misery lit (yawn!).The Bottom Line: It's a sequel, so treat it as such. Long, almost plodding read. Meh.I'm an avid knitter and even have a knitting website, so my dear, sweet husband decided to purchase me this book when he saw it on the bookshelf.I'm also a literature snob who rarely reads anything in contemporary fiction, regardless of the genre. What I was introduced to was not a good novel about knitting, [...]

From time to time, I need to take a break from my usual murder/suspense/thriller books and visit the calmer sides of life. I cannot say that Jo Mackenzie's life of running a knitting shop in the seaside village of Broadgate and raising two bickering boys is calm, but it is definitely a break that I enjoy.Jo’s philandering husband was killed in an accident right after he admitted to an affair and wanting a divorce. With the world, and his mother, not knowing the truth and thinking that he was a [...]

this is a good summer non-romance. I didn't read the first one, maybe that introduced the main character more. I didn't learn her name in this one until around page 30. there was a lot to relate to - feeling inadequate, worries about motherhood, hesitancy in the face of disasters - but the difference in the narration internally for Jo, and the way other people talk and think about her was so big it made it tough to figure her out. looking back I'd say she was a strong woman, but it didn't feel t [...]

A sweet, pleasant book about Jo McKenzie, her two sons and her friends and family in a small seaside town. She took over her grandmothers wool shop and develops it into more of a social network for all the town. Lots of references to knitting projects which show the author to be an experienced crafter.

I was so enchanted with the first book about the hilarious Jo Mackenzie and her family and friends that I had to order the other two books in the series. Who knew a character owning a knitting shop and raising two exuberant young boys could be so much fun to read about?

Hard copy.The 2nd in the series, and they really should be read in order to understand the characters. I really enjoyed this book and all the real-life complications that Jo goes through. Perfectly lovely.

Light reading, just a little too light. I was hoping for more knitting details and facts. Oh well got me through a day in bed with a bad cold.

Fun read for knitters.

A lire sur un transat en mode pas besoin de réfléchir

Likes and dislikes Not quite what I expected. Could have left out unexpected pregnancy involving a movie star. Liked part about teaching star to knit.

This was a fun one, it sucked me in and I got invested with the characters. I love it.

I like reading books that have something to do with knitting.

I have enjoyed book #2 Everyday life how hectic it can be.

Fun and fast read. Enjoyed the continuation of the characters from the first book in the series and immediately started the third book. Nice writing style, a bit too much extraneous writing, but it mirrors real lifemetimes too much minutiae in between the interesting parts.

I picked up Needles and Pearls on my hunt for a novel with a gem in the title as part of the “What’s in a Name” challenge. (A pearl is a gem, yes?) And as a beginning knitter, I thought I would enjoy this.The novel begins one year after the death of Jo’s cheating husband. When I first picked this up, I didn’t know it was the second novel in Gil McNeil’s Jo Mackenzie series. Being the second in the series, Ms. McNeil did a great job developing Needles and Pearls without leaving me fee [...]

This was recommended to me via our library catalog "if you like that, try this" section. It was on a list along with "Bet Me," a favorite Jennifer Crusie book, so I decided to try it. There's an enormous amount of dialog, plus first-person exposition. In the right hands, this could be a fabulous movie. It's not sentimental or twee or laugh-out-loud funny. Roughly, it's about a knocked-up young widow with two small boys in a small beachside town in England somewhere (south?) and about her job, f [...]