**Real Men Knit was sent to me for free in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to Random Things Tours for having me on the tour.**
Summary
Kerry Fuller has worked at Joy Strong’s knitting shop – Strong Knits – for years. And she’s had a secret crush on Joy’s son, heartbreaker Jesse Strong, for even longer.
When Joy unexpectedly passes away, Jesse vows that he will keep the shop open, no matter what. And with no idea of where to start, he reaches out to Kerry for help. Soon Kerry is teaching Jesse all the knitty-gritty parts of the business – all the while trying to keep her heart from getting broken.
The longer they spend together, the closer they become. But Kerry doesn’t believe their relationship can last longer than she can knit one, purl one. It’s up to Jesse to prove her wrong…
Review
Real Men Knit is more of a family drama than a romance, but it has fun moments and ends on an uplifting note.
I’ve got to be honest, this wasn’t my favourite read of the year thus far. The pacing was a little off and I didn’t feel much of a connection between the two main characters. It took a long time before the two main characters developed even a hint of a romantic connection which was unfortunate given it’s been marketed as a romance.
It focused on some hard-hitting topics such as living life after the death of a loved one, which everyone will suffer through at some point in their lives. It was lovely to see the brothers eventually come together and put some faith in Jesse. Sure he was initially put forward as your typical ‘bad-boy’ but he wasn’t really. He’d been through a lot in life that he was looking for ways to deal with which is understandable. His love for Mama Joy was clear as in many ways she’d saved him in his youth when she took him in as her adoptive son. The other men, Damien, Lucas, and Noah had very different personalities which I enjoyed reading about. Even though the four of them were brothers by adoption, they clearly stopped seeing it that way many years before and were simply brothers.
Kerry was a cool character, I enjoyed seeing different sides to her and thought she was an integral part of their ‘survival’ after Mama Joy’s sudden death. She’d never been a ‘side-character’ in the Strong Knits story and that was made obvious by how much love the men had for her. They treat her like their sister – well, maybe one person had other ideas for a relationship with her – but they definitely only ever wanted the best for her. I thought that was very sweet and added more depth to their collective story.
There is an issue that I need to highlight as it became impossible to ignore. The writing style just didn’t do it for me. I felt the plot was a little haywire at times as well. It made the story more difficult for me to read and connect with.
However, in saying this, I did enjoy finding out more about the character’s backgrounds and thought there were several humorous moments in it. I rate Real Men Knit 3/5 stars.
Thanks for the blog tour support xx