Title: Real Men Knit
Author: Kwana Jackson
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Edition/Pages: Audiobook, 8 Hours 52 Minutes
Goodreads page

I received an ARC copy of this from Berkely via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Summary

When Mama Joy suddenly passes away, her 4 adopted sons have to decide what to do with her knitting shop. The youngest brother Jesse has is heart set on keeping the community staple open. So he teams up with Kerry, who has grew up in the shop along side the Strong family. The two them must find a way to keep the business running. But the more time they spend together, the more their chemistry builds. Jesse is determined to prove that for once, he is here to stay. 

Overview

➸ POV: 3rd Person from Kerry & Jesse’s POVs

➸ Jesse Strong: 27, Adopted by Mama Joy, Youngest of 3 adopted brothers, Wants to keep his mother’s knitting shop open, Womanizer

➸ Kerry Fuller: 27, Part time employee at Strong Knits, Has had a crush on Jesse her whole life, Agrees to help keep the shop open

➸ Content Warnings: Death of a parent, Sexism, Bullying

My Thoughts

I have such weird feelings about this book….

First, this is easily the most oddly paced story I’ve ever read. This book is a meandering family drama for 300 pages and an insta-love romance for the last 30. It was strange (and I wasn’t a big fan). 

I will say, that while I went into this expecting a romance, I didn’t hate the familial focus. In fact, I was ready to give this a middle-of-the-road 3 star rating for the majority of the book. I liked the brothers’ dynamics and the community members. This book had a strong emphasis on found family which I loved. And the family aspects is really where this book shined! If the focus had stayed there, this wouldn’t have been such a disappointing read.

Unfortunately the last 30ish pages (or 30 minutes of the audiobook since I listened to this on audible) were honestly a train wreck.. This book went from 0, to 100, back to 0, then raging back to 100 so quickly I got whiplash. And that final scene was hands down the most cringeworthy confession of love I’ve ever read.

And why, for all that is holy, did he have to call her “girl” until the very last page despite Kerry’s requests for it to stop?? I was so frustrated… 

Overall this book just didn’t work for me. While the found family and community aspects of this story were really sweet, the actual romance portions were a big miss. I could clearly see the physical attraction between the main characters, but I never bought into it developing beyond that – especially at the pace it did.

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