Archive for the ‘Anthology’ Category

THE KNITTING DIARIES
Debbie Macomber, Susan Mallery, Christina Skye
ISBN: 978-0778329374 (Mass Market Paperback)
B004P5NY3Q (Kindle eBook)
March 2011
Harlequin Enterprises/MIRA
Contemporary Romance/Anthology
Mass Market Paperback and eBook

Three best-selling authors team up in this anthology of love and knitting, complete with detailed knitting patterns straight from the heroine’s stories.

Debbie Macomber kicks off the fun with The Twenty-First Wish.   Anyone who has read Macombers other books in the Blossom Street series will be eager to read this continuation story of Ellen and Anne Marie who we first came to meet in Twenty Wishes.  Ellen has now penned her 21st wish.. for her birth father and her adoptive mother to marry and make them a “real” family.

This story of diverging paths, missed opportunities and the difficult choices involved in second chances will touch hearts everywhere.

Susan Mallery has the unenviable task of following Macomber with her entry Coming Unraveled.   Her story more than lives up to this difficult task as we meet Robyn.  After several humbling and difficult years trying to break into Broadway theater, Robyn has finally headed home to her grandmother’s knitting shop to help her grandmother run the shop while recovering from her knee surgery. Secrets, crossed conversation wires and mixed loyalties add to the difficulty of love’s journey as she meets T.J. there.

Three interesting older ladies, all facing changes in their lives added extra sparkle to me with this story.  I would have also enjoyed the entire novella rewritten from the perspective of Marion, one of Grandma’s partners in the shop.  Her late-in-life love story and pending marriage was heartwarming and brightened every corner of the story.  There are not enough stories of older people finding love and I think it is a market that is just waiting to be found.

The third story in the anthology was Return to Summer Island by Christina Skye.  Caro McNeal, an avid knitter who uses her knitting to work through difficult problems, finds her outlet ripped away by a car accident that seriously injures her arm and hand.  Her grandmother takes Caro home to Summer Island and together they work on rehabilitation for her damaged limb.  There Caro meets Gage, a serviceman waiting for imminent deployment orders back to Afghanistan.  His two beloved pets, Bogart and Bacall, add enormously to the storyline, reminding us that love is not just between people.

I loved Gage as a character.  He is strong, dependable, capable, loving and empathetic. Yum!  I also loved the plot device of Gage and Caro growing to know each other through emails as they were continents apart.  My only complaint is that I would have preferred this to be a full-length novel.  I didn’t get to spend nearly enough time with the characters and felt the email-writing love story development was rushed by the limits of the novella format.  That being said, this was my favorite of all the stories.

Usually with anthologies, a few authors carry the other weaker stories.  Not so in the case of The Knitting Diaries. Each story was very different in plot, yet equally heartwarming, uplifting and enjoyable to experience.  This anthology is definitely for the keeper shelf.  Don’t miss it!

CUPID CATS
Katie MacAlister, Connie Brockway and Vicki Lewis Thompson
ISBN:  978-0451230720
July, 2010
Penguin Putnam/Signet Eclipse
Mass Market Paperback

Cupid Cats brings together three female authors at the top of their game, challenged to write a romantic novella in which a magical cat shelter called the Cupid Cats Animal Shelter plays a key role. How could you go wrong?

First we have “Unleased” by Katie MacAlister. The plot centers on a Morovian, were-jaguar and a wildlife officer.  When Jacintha responds to a frantic call about a wild jungle cat that has been found in the Cupid Cats shelter she takes it in stride.  While not a natural territory for puma or jaguars, she knows exotic animal owners are everywhere and assumes this “kitty” is an escapee. When she arrives and enters the shelter by herself to subdue the kitty, she finds something else entirely. MacAlister is at her zany best in this fanciful, sexy romp of discovery and love. Extra kudos to Ms. MacAlister who donated her proceeds from the sale of this anthology to three animal rescue organizations!!

The second novella, “Cat Scratch Fever” by Connie Brockway was my favorite, and another very strong entry by this author that I had not previously read.  Be assured, she is on my radar now, and I will be scooping up her next story asap!  Jim Curran takes his young daughter to the nearby cat shelter.  Once there, his young daughter is fixated on one very frail, elderly cat whom the girl insists is Pixie, the cat that disappeared when her mother died, years ago in Philadelphia.  This sets a mystical stage that will enchant readers as the shy but brilliant manager of the shelter and Jim work together to help a grieving daughter and an ailing cat find closure.  I  loved Edith, Jim’s genius coworker who moonlights at the cat shelter to keep it from closing.  The growth and transformation of the lonely widower and the resigned cat-lady is heartwarming and uplifting.  Bravo!

Finally, Vicki Lewis Thompson chimes in with “A Cat’s Game.”  In Vicki’s story, Cupid Cats has a new manager, a mystical lady called Esmeralda.  This stuck somewhat of a discordant note with me since I had just finished Brockway’s story and loved Edith in that role.  But Esmeralda added a was-she-wasn’t-she-a-witch element that was fun. I also felt the cat in this story had the weakest role in the resulting romance compared to the other two titles in the anthology.  That being said, as a straight romance, Jon and Kate had a great romance with the theme of reunited hearts with differing views of lifestyle to overcome.

If you love cats, romance and a touch of the magical in your stories, try Cupid Cats.  I think you will enjoy it.