What do you think?
Rate this book
Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl
Some people can’t wait to have babies. They’re ready for it—with their perfect lives and their pregnancy glow…
Poppy Adams doesn’t have a perfect life, and she wasn’t ready for the positive test. An unexpected baby—Poppy’s unexpected baby—won’t exactly have her family doing cartwheels. But she’s making the right choice.
Right?
Poppy’s totally got this. She just needs a little encouragement, and a knitting group is the perfect place to start. Baby blankets, booties, tiny little hats—small steps toward her new life. But she feels like she’s already dropped a stitch when she discovers the knitting group is led by the charismatic Rhiannon.
It’s not exactly a great time to meet the woman who might just be the love of her life. While the group easily shuffles around to make room for Poppy, it’s not so easy fitting her life and Rhiannon’s together. With the weeks counting down until her baby arrives, Poppy’s going to have to decide for herself what truly makes a family.
Poppy Adams doesn’t have a perfect life, and she wasn’t ready for the positive test. An unexpected baby—Poppy’s unexpected baby—won’t exactly have her family doing cartwheels. But she’s making the right choice.
Right?
Poppy’s totally got this. She just needs a little encouragement, and a knitting group is the perfect place to start. Baby blankets, booties, tiny little hats—small steps toward her new life. But she feels like she’s already dropped a stitch when she discovers the knitting group is led by the charismatic Rhiannon.
It’s not exactly a great time to meet the woman who might just be the love of her life. While the group easily shuffles around to make room for Poppy, it’s not so easy fitting her life and Rhiannon’s together. With the weeks counting down until her baby arrives, Poppy’s going to have to decide for herself what truly makes a family.
336 pages, Paperback
First published March 30, 2021
44 people are currently reading
591 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 116 reviews
March 30, 2021
3.75 Stars. This was an enjoyable read that I liked more than I expected too. It always feels weird to make the statement that I liked a book more than I expected, since I go into every book I read hoping to love it, but in this case it is true. While most of the early reviews are very positive, a few of the comments had me wondering if this book would be for me or not. I’m happy to say that I did like this cute read and it put a smile on my face which is always welcomed.
I really liked the feel of the book. While the book takes on a few more serious subjects like contemplating abortion, adoption, or keeping a baby, and a parent who is emotional abusive, the feel of this book is much lighter and at times almost hits rom-com territory but not quite. I had just read a serious book with quite a few deaths so the lighter feel of this was welcome and the happy feeling I was left when I finished the last page was a nice bonus.
I love first person books so I enjoyed connecting with the main character of Poppy. While I did wish that she would stick up for herself more, I understood why she didn’t so it didn’t bother me as much as it might have. I ended up liking Poppy for the most part and I enjoyed watching her journey. I did have some issues with her love interest. I had trouble understanding where she was coming from at times. But even if this was not first person and I could be in her head, I’m not sure if I would have been okay with how she treated Poppy (at times) anyway. Some of her decisions (especially as someone who worked part time at Planned Parenthood) just did not make sense to me.
While I had some ups and downs with the love interest Rhiannon, I liked the potential of them as a couple. I thought parts of the romance were really sweet. It is a bit fast moving, I don’t mean insta love but the relationship was speeded up. Normally, this might bother me but I think if you are dating a pregnant woman, the relationship is bound to become more serious faster anyway.
I also can’t pass up this review without mentioning the first sex scene. While it was not what I would really call steamy, and in fact I might call it uncomfortable at times, it was different. I was taking this all in and I realize that in all the WLW books I have read, that I have read thousands and thousands of sapphic sex scenes. And what makes this worth talking about is that this sex scene was partially unique. It somehow felt different than all the thousands before it so I have to give Bell major props for writing a sex scene like that.
If you are looking for a sweet romance with just enough angst to keep the pages turning, this would be a good choice. In the end this book made me feel good and put a smile on my face. It did also confirm the fact that I cannot knit and that I probably should not try to again. This book did have a few bumps, but a lot of the issues I might have normally had ended up not bothering me and I was able to enjoy myself. This was a good debut and I would absolutely read Bell again. Edit: This is a WLW fiction debut.
A copy was given to me for a review.
I really liked the feel of the book. While the book takes on a few more serious subjects like contemplating abortion, adoption, or keeping a baby, and a parent who is emotional abusive, the feel of this book is much lighter and at times almost hits rom-com territory but not quite. I had just read a serious book with quite a few deaths so the lighter feel of this was welcome and the happy feeling I was left when I finished the last page was a nice bonus.
I love first person books so I enjoyed connecting with the main character of Poppy. While I did wish that she would stick up for herself more, I understood why she didn’t so it didn’t bother me as much as it might have. I ended up liking Poppy for the most part and I enjoyed watching her journey. I did have some issues with her love interest. I had trouble understanding where she was coming from at times. But even if this was not first person and I could be in her head, I’m not sure if I would have been okay with how she treated Poppy (at times) anyway. Some of her decisions (especially as someone who worked part time at Planned Parenthood) just did not make sense to me.
While I had some ups and downs with the love interest Rhiannon, I liked the potential of them as a couple. I thought parts of the romance were really sweet. It is a bit fast moving, I don’t mean insta love but the relationship was speeded up. Normally, this might bother me but I think if you are dating a pregnant woman, the relationship is bound to become more serious faster anyway.
I also can’t pass up this review without mentioning the first sex scene. While it was not what I would really call steamy, and in fact I might call it uncomfortable at times, it was different. I was taking this all in and I realize that in all the WLW books I have read, that I have read thousands and thousands of sapphic sex scenes. And what makes this worth talking about is that this sex scene was partially unique. It somehow felt different than all the thousands before it so I have to give Bell major props for writing a sex scene like that.
If you are looking for a sweet romance with just enough angst to keep the pages turning, this would be a good choice. In the end this book made me feel good and put a smile on my face. It did also confirm the fact that I cannot knit and that I probably should not try to again. This book did have a few bumps, but a lot of the issues I might have normally had ended up not bothering me and I was able to enjoy myself. This was a good debut and I would absolutely read Bell again. Edit: This is a WLW fiction debut.
A copy was given to me for a review.
April 9, 2021
*3.5 stars*
I don't read a ton of WLW or F/F romance, but when I saw that Hettie Bell was coming out with a contemporary romance, I knew I had to try it.
I've been reading Hettie Bell for many years under a different pen name, and I was thrilled to read her again here. She took her writing talent and really made a great story for her readers to enjoy.
I loved, loved, loved having a full-figured female MC who doesn't have perfect, effortlessly cool sex all the time. Sex is super awkward, especially with someone knew, and I found those scenes to be extremely charming. Hettie Bell struck just the right notes there. I will say, however, that I could have used more heat in this book. Up those sex scenes for next time, pretty please!
I'm not a knitter or any kind of artist, so I didn't really relate much to those moments, but you don't have to in order to enjoy the story. I liked the pregnancy details and the trials and tribulations the MC went through with her friends and family.
I think having only one POV made it harder to relate to the other MC. She ran very hot and cold, and I didn't love how she was so wishy-washy. The fact that we didn't get to see inside her head made her less relatable in my book. The back and forth between them was the only thing I really didn't enjoy.
However, I'm beyond pleased with the bisexual rep, the curvaceous MC with the BODY, the butch love interest (yeeeeessssss), the effortless humor, and the excellent writing. I'll be reading more Hettie Bell in the future, you can bet on that.
*Copy provided in exchange for an honest review*
goodreads|instagram|twitter|blog
I don't read a ton of WLW or F/F romance, but when I saw that Hettie Bell was coming out with a contemporary romance, I knew I had to try it.
I've been reading Hettie Bell for many years under a different pen name, and I was thrilled to read her again here. She took her writing talent and really made a great story for her readers to enjoy.
I loved, loved, loved having a full-figured female MC who doesn't have perfect, effortlessly cool sex all the time. Sex is super awkward, especially with someone knew, and I found those scenes to be extremely charming. Hettie Bell struck just the right notes there. I will say, however, that I could have used more heat in this book. Up those sex scenes for next time, pretty please!
I'm not a knitter or any kind of artist, so I didn't really relate much to those moments, but you don't have to in order to enjoy the story. I liked the pregnancy details and the trials and tribulations the MC went through with her friends and family.
I think having only one POV made it harder to relate to the other MC. She ran very hot and cold, and I didn't love how she was so wishy-washy. The fact that we didn't get to see inside her head made her less relatable in my book. The back and forth between them was the only thing I really didn't enjoy.
However, I'm beyond pleased with the bisexual rep, the curvaceous MC with the BODY, the butch love interest (yeeeeessssss), the effortless humor, and the excellent writing. I'll be reading more Hettie Bell in the future, you can bet on that.
*Copy provided in exchange for an honest review*
goodreads|instagram|twitter|blog
January 24, 2021
3.5 Stars
This was an enjoyable book for me. It was funny, quirky, with a light amount of angst.
This is told in Poppy’s first-person point of view so I felt like I got to know her really well. She’s fat, bisexual and has dropped out of college, which are all very terrible things in the eyes of her mother. She has accepted and is mostly content with these things. However, she’s always lived in her perfect, older sister’s shadow with her mother constantly nagging her about her life choices. She knows being pregnant is only going to make it worse. At 22, she’s not sure she should even have the baby and goes back and forth on what to do.
Poppy meets Rhiannon at Planned Parenthood and they hit it off at first glance. When Poppy later decides to join a knitting group, Rhiannon is part of the group. Their romance starts off pretty quickly but Bell takes time for them to have on page conversations so the pacing feels pretty natural. I liked how this wasn’t a fairy tale romance and it showed the issues of finding out your pregnant and meeting a love interest at the same time. Rhiannon has to decide if she’s ready for an instant family and Poppy has to figure out if she’s ready for motherhood and a romantic relationship, especially with a partner who isn’t sure about the baby aspect. This felt pretty realistic, as there are issues and bumps along the way.
This is a romance and the romance is pretty heavily featured. But I really enjoyed another thing about it as well. To me it really speaks on not accepting other people’s expectations of you. Poppy has struggled with herself and her confidence when she lets her mother get into her head. She second guesses herself a lot and doesn’t trust herself to make the right choice. She grows and comes to learn that her mother’s expectations aren’t hers for herself and she’s quite happy with her life. It was nice seeing her mature and grow from who meet in the beginning.
I recommend this to romance fans, especially new adult romance fans. Also, fans of knitting. From the title and the cover, you may be able to guess knitting is involved!
I received an ARC from NetGalley and Harlequin-Carina Press in exchange for an honest review.
This was an enjoyable book for me. It was funny, quirky, with a light amount of angst.
This is told in Poppy’s first-person point of view so I felt like I got to know her really well. She’s fat, bisexual and has dropped out of college, which are all very terrible things in the eyes of her mother. She has accepted and is mostly content with these things. However, she’s always lived in her perfect, older sister’s shadow with her mother constantly nagging her about her life choices. She knows being pregnant is only going to make it worse. At 22, she’s not sure she should even have the baby and goes back and forth on what to do.
Poppy meets Rhiannon at Planned Parenthood and they hit it off at first glance. When Poppy later decides to join a knitting group, Rhiannon is part of the group. Their romance starts off pretty quickly but Bell takes time for them to have on page conversations so the pacing feels pretty natural. I liked how this wasn’t a fairy tale romance and it showed the issues of finding out your pregnant and meeting a love interest at the same time. Rhiannon has to decide if she’s ready for an instant family and Poppy has to figure out if she’s ready for motherhood and a romantic relationship, especially with a partner who isn’t sure about the baby aspect. This felt pretty realistic, as there are issues and bumps along the way.
This is a romance and the romance is pretty heavily featured. But I really enjoyed another thing about it as well. To me it really speaks on not accepting other people’s expectations of you. Poppy has struggled with herself and her confidence when she lets her mother get into her head. She second guesses herself a lot and doesn’t trust herself to make the right choice. She grows and comes to learn that her mother’s expectations aren’t hers for herself and she’s quite happy with her life. It was nice seeing her mature and grow from who meet in the beginning.
I recommend this to romance fans, especially new adult romance fans. Also, fans of knitting. From the title and the cover, you may be able to guess knitting is involved!
I received an ARC from NetGalley and Harlequin-Carina Press in exchange for an honest review.
March 11, 2021
A drunken stroll down memory lane with her ex-boyfriend leads Poppy to a Planned Parenthood clinic for help and advice. Escorting her from the cab to the door through the mob of anti-abortion nuts is Rhiannon. The two young women meet again a few days later as Poppy decides to join a knitting group and guess who else loves knitting?
The flirting is extremely cute and lovely, as young love should be. The way Poppy and Rhiannon are when they first meet is really what falling in love should feel like.
The thing with dating when you just found out you’re pregnant and the person you want to date isn’t the child’s parent is you need to get the big and scary questions out of the way very early in the relationship. Or at least decide they’re not going to stand in the way of the relationship. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Poppy sounds very young. She’s twenty-two and feels like a constant disappointment to her family – she’s fat, she’s not successful like her sister – but knows she can count on them to bail her out if she’s in trouble and willing to put her pride aside. She was pretty sheltered until she dropped out of college two years ago. Sheltered but not in a loving way, in a controlling way rather. Right now, she’s totally freaking out about having a baby yet she’s also very sure she wants to have that baby. Except of course when she’s freaking out. There’s a moment when she goes full-on bitch on everyone around her, and whether it’s the hormones or her insecurities speaking, she pushes everyone away and it’s kind of terrible. I didn’t like her much then but it only made me love her more, because yes, she’s in a difficult position and handling difficult situations badly is human. And it made me love Rhiannon and the stitch ‘n bitch crew even more because they get that. As a result, this story almost made me want to take up knitting. Almost. Not so much for the knitting itself but for what it means to Poppy and to her new friends. Bell drew her inspiration from her own experience of knitting groups and came up with wonderful secondary characters of all age groups and walks of life. The Planned Parenthood staff have a lesser role but they have full presence. As for Poppy’s mother and sister, they’re in a very different category, and I rather enjoyed watching that arc unfold.
At twenty-six, Rhiannon is much more settled in her life than Poppy, she loves her job at the café and volunterring at Planned Parenthood. She’s very secure on the surface but getting an insta-family was definitely not her plan and she’s trying to keep her boundaries firm. Which leads to misunderstandings and unwillingly hurtful actions, but I loved Rhiannon’s honesty and how she deals with problems.
The overall feeling I got after I (digitally) closed this novel was that of a charming and not too angsty story, with endearing characters and good writing. I’m looking forward to more from Hettie Bell.
I received a copy from the publisher and I am voluntarily leaving a review.
The flirting is extremely cute and lovely, as young love should be. The way Poppy and Rhiannon are when they first meet is really what falling in love should feel like.
The thing with dating when you just found out you’re pregnant and the person you want to date isn’t the child’s parent is you need to get the big and scary questions out of the way very early in the relationship. Or at least decide they’re not going to stand in the way of the relationship. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Poppy sounds very young. She’s twenty-two and feels like a constant disappointment to her family – she’s fat, she’s not successful like her sister – but knows she can count on them to bail her out if she’s in trouble and willing to put her pride aside. She was pretty sheltered until she dropped out of college two years ago. Sheltered but not in a loving way, in a controlling way rather. Right now, she’s totally freaking out about having a baby yet she’s also very sure she wants to have that baby. Except of course when she’s freaking out. There’s a moment when she goes full-on bitch on everyone around her, and whether it’s the hormones or her insecurities speaking, she pushes everyone away and it’s kind of terrible. I didn’t like her much then but it only made me love her more, because yes, she’s in a difficult position and handling difficult situations badly is human. And it made me love Rhiannon and the stitch ‘n bitch crew even more because they get that. As a result, this story almost made me want to take up knitting. Almost. Not so much for the knitting itself but for what it means to Poppy and to her new friends. Bell drew her inspiration from her own experience of knitting groups and came up with wonderful secondary characters of all age groups and walks of life. The Planned Parenthood staff have a lesser role but they have full presence. As for Poppy’s mother and sister, they’re in a very different category, and I rather enjoyed watching that arc unfold.
At twenty-six, Rhiannon is much more settled in her life than Poppy, she loves her job at the café and volunterring at Planned Parenthood. She’s very secure on the surface but getting an insta-family was definitely not her plan and she’s trying to keep her boundaries firm. Which leads to misunderstandings and unwillingly hurtful actions, but I loved Rhiannon’s honesty and how she deals with problems.
The overall feeling I got after I (digitally) closed this novel was that of a charming and not too angsty story, with endearing characters and good writing. I’m looking forward to more from Hettie Bell.
I received a copy from the publisher and I am voluntarily leaving a review.
March 12, 2021
Decent read about having a baby and finding love.
Repost as something went wrong with my earlier post in Jan 2021.
I mistakenly prejudged this to be a frivolous book by the cover and blurb. I mean, what more can it be if this story is about a young pregnant single woman joining something as passive as a knitting class and finding her love interest there. But there are heavy themes like abortion in there.
The language is humourous and it will make you laugh. But underneath it was a bit of self-depreciating humour from Poppy stemmed from insecurities caused by two decades of toxic parenting. Poppy never failed to remind us in her own way of her failures such as being fat, under-educated, pregnant with no means of raising a child on her own and having no friends, even if its not directly. So since this book is written entirely in Poppy’s POV, it’s coloured. That is why we don’t feel that this love interest Rhiannon was as attracted to Poppy as Poppy was to Rhiannon and yet if we take a closer look at the signs, we can see that she probably was.
Poppy and Rhiannon’s story turned out to be full of uncertainty and a lot of it boiled down to Rhiannon’s reluctance to accept an instant family at the infancy stage of their relationship. This prodded Poppy to consider going ahead with certain practical options for the baby’s sake. So I guess the premise of the book is realistic rather than a feel-good though there were one or two points in the book when it became overly dramaful because of their inability to express their thoughts properly with one another.
This was a pretty decent read that wouldn’t evoke too much emotions. And if anyone is wondering whether the knitting class served any purpose at all, it did.
I received an ARC from Harlequin Carina Press through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Repost as something went wrong with my earlier post in Jan 2021.
I mistakenly prejudged this to be a frivolous book by the cover and blurb. I mean, what more can it be if this story is about a young pregnant single woman joining something as passive as a knitting class and finding her love interest there. But there are heavy themes like abortion in there.
The language is humourous and it will make you laugh. But underneath it was a bit of self-depreciating humour from Poppy stemmed from insecurities caused by two decades of toxic parenting. Poppy never failed to remind us in her own way of her failures such as being fat, under-educated, pregnant with no means of raising a child on her own and having no friends, even if its not directly. So since this book is written entirely in Poppy’s POV, it’s coloured. That is why we don’t feel that this love interest Rhiannon was as attracted to Poppy as Poppy was to Rhiannon and yet if we take a closer look at the signs, we can see that she probably was.
Poppy and Rhiannon’s story turned out to be full of uncertainty and a lot of it boiled down to Rhiannon’s reluctance to accept an instant family at the infancy stage of their relationship. This prodded Poppy to consider going ahead with certain practical options for the baby’s sake. So I guess the premise of the book is realistic rather than a feel-good though there were one or two points in the book when it became overly dramaful because of their inability to express their thoughts properly with one another.
This was a pretty decent read that wouldn’t evoke too much emotions. And if anyone is wondering whether the knitting class served any purpose at all, it did.
I received an ARC from Harlequin Carina Press through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
March 27, 2021
3.5 stars. This is a solid debut from Bell.
Poppy has just found she’s pregnant. Her circumstances tell her she isn’t ready for this to be a part of her life, so she visits her local Planned Parenthood. It’s here she meets Rhiannon, an interesting woman who helps her find her way to and from the clinic through the protestors. Poppy doesn’t think she’ll ever see her again until she decides to join her local knitting group.
Bell has written this in first-person point of view, so we spend the book in Poppy’s thoughts. The writing comes across as light-hearted, with a determination and humour in the prose, however, the narrative actually deals with some pretty complex topics, and for the most part, does this well.
The narrative is mainly about the romance, and it was here I really wanted the opportunity to get more of Rhiannon’s thoughts to understand the decisions she was making. I really liked the idea of her as a character, but as we only see her from Poppy’s point of view, I found it hard to connect with her.
However, at the same time, I enjoyed getting to read Poppy’s thoughts on her pregnancy, her family, and her life in general. I thought Bell did a good job of bringing all of the secondary characters together, both in the family situations and with the knitting group. I felt I could really picture them all, which is impressive for a book with a large number of secondary characters.
Like most debut books it has its bumps, but they soon even out. There were some moments I didn’t like personally, and I did nearly put this down after the sex scene, but I think they were more a question of personal taste, and suspect others would read this and not feel the same way.
Whilst the topics are relatively common in sapphic fiction, I thought Bell did a good job of keeping it fresh and I’m looking forward to seeing what Bell does next.
I received an e-ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Poppy has just found she’s pregnant. Her circumstances tell her she isn’t ready for this to be a part of her life, so she visits her local Planned Parenthood. It’s here she meets Rhiannon, an interesting woman who helps her find her way to and from the clinic through the protestors. Poppy doesn’t think she’ll ever see her again until she decides to join her local knitting group.
Bell has written this in first-person point of view, so we spend the book in Poppy’s thoughts. The writing comes across as light-hearted, with a determination and humour in the prose, however, the narrative actually deals with some pretty complex topics, and for the most part, does this well.
The narrative is mainly about the romance, and it was here I really wanted the opportunity to get more of Rhiannon’s thoughts to understand the decisions she was making. I really liked the idea of her as a character, but as we only see her from Poppy’s point of view, I found it hard to connect with her.
However, at the same time, I enjoyed getting to read Poppy’s thoughts on her pregnancy, her family, and her life in general. I thought Bell did a good job of bringing all of the secondary characters together, both in the family situations and with the knitting group. I felt I could really picture them all, which is impressive for a book with a large number of secondary characters.
Like most debut books it has its bumps, but they soon even out. There were some moments I didn’t like personally, and I did nearly put this down after the sex scene, but I think they were more a question of personal taste, and suspect others would read this and not feel the same way.
Whilst the topics are relatively common in sapphic fiction, I thought Bell did a good job of keeping it fresh and I’m looking forward to seeing what Bell does next.
I received an e-ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
April 2, 2021
3.8 stars
Enjoyed reading this book with a new adult feel. The story was a bit different from the usual romantic storyline because Poppy discovered that she was pregnant from her loser ex and that brings a lot of decisions and growing up with it. Poppy and Rhiannon the other main character each have their own issues that they have to deal with. This book is about how they do that. It’s well written and kept my attention.
Enjoyed reading this book with a new adult feel. The story was a bit different from the usual romantic storyline because Poppy discovered that she was pregnant from her loser ex and that brings a lot of decisions and growing up with it. Poppy and Rhiannon the other main character each have their own issues that they have to deal with. This book is about how they do that. It’s well written and kept my attention.
October 10, 2023
A queer rom-com about a bisexual young woman with an unexpected pregnancy joining a knitting group and finding love at the most inconvenient time possible!
This might be a little heavy on pregnancy and childbirth content for some readers, and some related drama, but I really enjoyed this book. I love how thoughtfully it navigates the importance of bodily autonomy and choice when it comes to pregnancy- even though Poppy ultimately decides to continue with her pregnancy, this is really nuanced in how that won't be the right choice for everyone and people should have the right to choose without pressure what's right for them.
There is a lot of managing past trauma for both members of the relationship, and Poppy has a controlling mother who nitpicks her appearance and choices, and thinks her sexuality is a phase. Which she has to learn to confront and I liked how that was handled. Poppy is also fat and actively working to love herself as she is and push back on fatphobia and diet culture she encounters. Love that too! This was a great romance with lots of knitting and normalizing sex for pregnant people. I received a copy of this book for review from the publisher, all opinions are my own.
This might be a little heavy on pregnancy and childbirth content for some readers, and some related drama, but I really enjoyed this book. I love how thoughtfully it navigates the importance of bodily autonomy and choice when it comes to pregnancy- even though Poppy ultimately decides to continue with her pregnancy, this is really nuanced in how that won't be the right choice for everyone and people should have the right to choose without pressure what's right for them.
There is a lot of managing past trauma for both members of the relationship, and Poppy has a controlling mother who nitpicks her appearance and choices, and thinks her sexuality is a phase. Which she has to learn to confront and I liked how that was handled. Poppy is also fat and actively working to love herself as she is and push back on fatphobia and diet culture she encounters. Love that too! This was a great romance with lots of knitting and normalizing sex for pregnant people. I received a copy of this book for review from the publisher, all opinions are my own.
April 6, 2021
Wow! What a refreshing read! This story is so different from your usual romance novel. Poppy, the main character, is so lovely, so perfectly imperfect. I can relate so much with her...
April 16, 2021
On my blog.
Rep: bi mc, lesbian li
CWs: mentions of abortion, fatphobia, biphobia, homophobia
Galley provided by publisher
Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl is a sweet, relatively low-angst sapphic romance between a woman who finds herself pregnant after a drunken one-night-stand with her ex and another member of the knitting group she joins. It was enjoyable enough, without really standing out for me.
This review will probably end up sounding like a list of all the negative things, so I would like to stress first that I do have positive feelings about this book overall. I did like it. Compared to some of the sapphic romances I’ve read, it was great. Compared to some of the recent contemporary romances I’ve read, it was amazing. But compared in general to everything I’ve read? It was good and that’s about it.
The book opens with Poppy arriving at a Planned Parenthood, having discovered that she’s pregnant, and unsure whether she wants to keep the baby. There, she meets, very briefly, Rhiannon, who acts as her escort through the crowds picketing the place. Skip forward a bit, and Poppy decides she’s going to keep the baby and also join a stitch n’ bitch knitting group. Which just so happens to also involve Rhiannon.
I think one of the problems I had here — and we’ll get this one out the way first of all, with the caveat that it’s entirely personal even if it did impact on my reading — is that I have zero desire to ever be pregnant. So half of what Poppy was going through just didn’t resonate with me. Okay, so I could sympathise with it, but not much more, which meant that none of what she was going through really… interested me, I guess? But like I said, this is entirely personal. I just wanted to note it because it did have an effect on my enjoyment.
Perhaps less personal was how I felt about the pacing. For all that this book spans about 8 months, there’s no feeling of the passing of time. It probably doesn’t help that Poppy and Rhiannon met about twice before deciding they were going to start something. I know u-haul lesbians is the joke (although Poppy is bi so it doesn’t really work the same), but come on. In this book, I just wanted a bit more time for them to get to know each other before getting together. Because the problem was, when the angst came up later on, it just felt a bit stupid given that, when it came down to it, they didn’t really know each other. Not that I am entirely opposed to books moving a little faster, given the boring-as-anything slowburns I have had the misfortune of reading before. But I just felt this went too far in the other direction.
Which is an odd situation to be in, given that the book spans almost the entirety of Poppy’s pregnancy. You would think that that’s plenty of time to fully develop a relationship, but somehow it wasn’t. I think there’s a balance to be struck — some authors are really good at making you believe a relationship that develops over a week and that doesn’t feel too short, while others somewhat struggle with relationships over a longer period, and that was the case here. It’s like, in an effort to get the entire pregnancy in (for a single reason alone, it seems), a lot of the relationship development itself was skipped over. And, yeah, I know that there’s time passing because of Poppy’s comments about how big her foetus is, but I didn’t feel that. So in the end it seemed like Poppy and Rhiannon’s relationship developed over something like two days.
This is one of those books that I think could have done with cutting down the timeline. Having it span less of Poppy’s pregnancy because, in all honesty, there was no real reason any of the events had to happen at those particular points in her pregnancy. The only reason it seemed to have to take 8 months was so that there could be a reunion scene where Rhiannon comes running while Poppy’s in labour. In all, it was a whistle-stop tour of 8 months of a relationship that rested solely on a few scenes to show they were in a relationship and none of the development to convince you.
Yes, this sounds harsh, which is why I started the review pointing out I did rate this as ‘I liked it’. It was well-written, and Poppy and Rhiannon were sweet (if a little frustrating at times). It’s just that these were the things that meant I couldn’t like it more than I did.
Rep: bi mc, lesbian li
CWs: mentions of abortion, fatphobia, biphobia, homophobia
Galley provided by publisher
Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl is a sweet, relatively low-angst sapphic romance between a woman who finds herself pregnant after a drunken one-night-stand with her ex and another member of the knitting group she joins. It was enjoyable enough, without really standing out for me.
This review will probably end up sounding like a list of all the negative things, so I would like to stress first that I do have positive feelings about this book overall. I did like it. Compared to some of the sapphic romances I’ve read, it was great. Compared to some of the recent contemporary romances I’ve read, it was amazing. But compared in general to everything I’ve read? It was good and that’s about it.
The book opens with Poppy arriving at a Planned Parenthood, having discovered that she’s pregnant, and unsure whether she wants to keep the baby. There, she meets, very briefly, Rhiannon, who acts as her escort through the crowds picketing the place. Skip forward a bit, and Poppy decides she’s going to keep the baby and also join a stitch n’ bitch knitting group. Which just so happens to also involve Rhiannon.
I think one of the problems I had here — and we’ll get this one out the way first of all, with the caveat that it’s entirely personal even if it did impact on my reading — is that I have zero desire to ever be pregnant. So half of what Poppy was going through just didn’t resonate with me. Okay, so I could sympathise with it, but not much more, which meant that none of what she was going through really… interested me, I guess? But like I said, this is entirely personal. I just wanted to note it because it did have an effect on my enjoyment.
Perhaps less personal was how I felt about the pacing. For all that this book spans about 8 months, there’s no feeling of the passing of time. It probably doesn’t help that Poppy and Rhiannon met about twice before deciding they were going to start something. I know u-haul lesbians is the joke (although Poppy is bi so it doesn’t really work the same), but come on. In this book, I just wanted a bit more time for them to get to know each other before getting together. Because the problem was, when the angst came up later on, it just felt a bit stupid given that, when it came down to it, they didn’t really know each other. Not that I am entirely opposed to books moving a little faster, given the boring-as-anything slowburns I have had the misfortune of reading before. But I just felt this went too far in the other direction.
Which is an odd situation to be in, given that the book spans almost the entirety of Poppy’s pregnancy. You would think that that’s plenty of time to fully develop a relationship, but somehow it wasn’t. I think there’s a balance to be struck — some authors are really good at making you believe a relationship that develops over a week and that doesn’t feel too short, while others somewhat struggle with relationships over a longer period, and that was the case here. It’s like, in an effort to get the entire pregnancy in (for a single reason alone, it seems), a lot of the relationship development itself was skipped over. And, yeah, I know that there’s time passing because of Poppy’s comments about how big her foetus is, but I didn’t feel that. So in the end it seemed like Poppy and Rhiannon’s relationship developed over something like two days.
This is one of those books that I think could have done with cutting down the timeline. Having it span less of Poppy’s pregnancy because, in all honesty, there was no real reason any of the events had to happen at those particular points in her pregnancy. The only reason it seemed to have to take 8 months was so that there could be a reunion scene where Rhiannon comes running while Poppy’s in labour. In all, it was a whistle-stop tour of 8 months of a relationship that rested solely on a few scenes to show they were in a relationship and none of the development to convince you.
Yes, this sounds harsh, which is why I started the review pointing out I did rate this as ‘I liked it’. It was well-written, and Poppy and Rhiannon were sweet (if a little frustrating at times). It’s just that these were the things that meant I couldn’t like it more than I did.
August 13, 2021
You know a book is good when the main character makes choices you wouldn't make yet you're still with her all the way. I wasn't sure if I was going to like this book because honestly, pregnancy scares me and I would never want it for myself, so I wasn't sure if I'd be comfortable reading about it. And I definitely made sure I was in the right headspace for it, but then I really really enjoyed this book! It was mostly a really cosy book, what with all the knitting, yet it still has its serious moments. The relationship starts quite early on, which had me worried a lot for what was still to come, but I loved the relationship between Poppy and Rhiannon, and I think they went through a lot of growth together. I also appreciated that there was a lot of growth Poppy had to go through on her own and with her sister, and I was glad to see she got the space for that as well. I also really liked the fat rep!
February 12, 2021
This a cute romance but I didn’t click with it.
This book is written in Poppy’s first-person POV and I just don’t click with her. She is bisexual, fat and a college dropout. I have no issues with any of those things, but the way she struggles with on one hand accepting herself, which she mostly does, and on the other hand living up to her family’s expectations is infuriating. Especially because she keeps undermining herself, discrediting her accomplishments and doesn’t appreciate her friends.
Poppy meets Rhiannon at Planned Parenthood, there seems to be an instant connection, however fleeting their contact. When Poppy decides to keep the baby she joins a knitting group on a whim, to discover Rhiannon is part of the group as well. Their romance or friends with benefits situations starts pretty quickly, but the author gives them lots of conversations on page (and off) that makes it feel rather natural when things progress. Rhiannon is not really up for an instant family and Poppy accepts it she says, but her actions don’t align. The big drama you see coming and sadly happens somewhere between the 80%-90% mark. It’s redeemed by how the story picks up after the drama, it’s natural and believable.
While I didn’t click with Poppy I did feel for Rhiannon, but as this story is written from Poppy’s POV it’s pretty hard to get a good read on her. It’s also hard for me to process how their relationship progresses and how fine they are with all of it. The story is truly sweet and endearing, Poppy does a lot of growing up throughout the book as well, which is much appreciated. The knitting group is hilarious as well, I missed much of the references as I am anything but a knitter, but they are a lovely bunch.
If you are a romance fan this sure will be a book for you. Also if you are into knitting, but you would have gotten that from the title...
*ARC received in exchange for a voluntary and honest review*
This book is written in Poppy’s first-person POV and I just don’t click with her. She is bisexual, fat and a college dropout. I have no issues with any of those things, but the way she struggles with on one hand accepting herself, which she mostly does, and on the other hand living up to her family’s expectations is infuriating. Especially because she keeps undermining herself, discrediting her accomplishments and doesn’t appreciate her friends.
Poppy meets Rhiannon at Planned Parenthood, there seems to be an instant connection, however fleeting their contact. When Poppy decides to keep the baby she joins a knitting group on a whim, to discover Rhiannon is part of the group as well. Their romance or friends with benefits situations starts pretty quickly, but the author gives them lots of conversations on page (and off) that makes it feel rather natural when things progress. Rhiannon is not really up for an instant family and Poppy accepts it she says, but her actions don’t align. The big drama you see coming and sadly happens somewhere between the 80%-90% mark. It’s redeemed by how the story picks up after the drama, it’s natural and believable.
While I didn’t click with Poppy I did feel for Rhiannon, but as this story is written from Poppy’s POV it’s pretty hard to get a good read on her. It’s also hard for me to process how their relationship progresses and how fine they are with all of it. The story is truly sweet and endearing, Poppy does a lot of growing up throughout the book as well, which is much appreciated. The knitting group is hilarious as well, I missed much of the references as I am anything but a knitter, but they are a lovely bunch.
If you are a romance fan this sure will be a book for you. Also if you are into knitting, but you would have gotten that from the title...
*ARC received in exchange for a voluntary and honest review*
March 30, 2021
I really enjoyed this one. The main character Poppy was so relatable, even for non-pregnant people. She's trying to figure out her life while her family puts her down which causes her to have self-esteem issues. Yet for everything she thought she was failing at she was actually handling it pretty damn well in my opinion. I loved so much about this book. Poppy's determination and the love she had for her unborn baby. The whole crew of the stitch & B*tch! I think the only thing holding me back from 5 stars is Rhiannons character. While I liked her, I felt that I could have connected much more if we had been given her point of view but at the same time I didn't miss it if that makes sense because Poppy was such a strong voice. I did love the intimacy scenes between them and the way Rhiannon appreciated all Poppy's curves. In the end I was left with a smile on my face and I will definitely keep Hattie Bell on radar, so I don't miss out on her next release.
March 27, 2021
I received an advance copy from the publisher for review purposes. This in no way influences my review; all words, thoughts, and opinions are my own.
Content notes:
This book was wonderful. Full review closer to release, but suffice to say I stayed up until 2a finishing it!
Full review:
This book was wonderful~
When Poppy has a drunken night with her ex boyfriend, she ends up pregnant and has to make a decision about her future. She initially meets Rhiannon as her escort into Planned Parenthood, and then again as a member of Stitch n Bitch where Poppy goes to find support, community, and learn to knit before her baby comes. Despite some awkwardness, with open communication they become friends, friends with benefits, and eventually girlfriends.
I loved this book for all the open communication and establishing boundaries, and then having those boundaries respected. Poppy’s mother is abusive and controlling, so watching Poppy have space to make her own choices, and have those choices respected was wonderful. I also loved the development of found family with the Stitch n Bitch group. This also does some very lovely on-page challenging of gender reveal parties and gender essentialism, as well as priority on autonomy and the power of choice.
I had been looking forward to this book from the time I saw the author talking about it on Twitter, and getting to finally read it was so good. I definitely recommend this book for a queer romance with pregnancy and chosen family.
Content notes:
This book was wonderful. Full review closer to release, but suffice to say I stayed up until 2a finishing it!
Full review:
This book was wonderful~
When Poppy has a drunken night with her ex boyfriend, she ends up pregnant and has to make a decision about her future. She initially meets Rhiannon as her escort into Planned Parenthood, and then again as a member of Stitch n Bitch where Poppy goes to find support, community, and learn to knit before her baby comes. Despite some awkwardness, with open communication they become friends, friends with benefits, and eventually girlfriends.
I loved this book for all the open communication and establishing boundaries, and then having those boundaries respected. Poppy’s mother is abusive and controlling, so watching Poppy have space to make her own choices, and have those choices respected was wonderful. I also loved the development of found family with the Stitch n Bitch group. This also does some very lovely on-page challenging of gender reveal parties and gender essentialism, as well as priority on autonomy and the power of choice.
I had been looking forward to this book from the time I saw the author talking about it on Twitter, and getting to finally read it was so good. I definitely recommend this book for a queer romance with pregnancy and chosen family.
March 30, 2021
Knit Purl A Baby And A Girl offers readers a sweet and very poignant 'oopsie' romance in general.
With the fact that Poppy that Poppy awkwards her way into a relationship with her Planned Parenthood escort turned girlfriend, Rhiannon. As well as the best group of friends that a young single expectant mother, who is trying to find herself, and make life make sense in the process can have.
A.K.A. Stitch And Bitch at the local coffee shop.
Also headed up by none other than Rhiannon.
Though it would be very easy to lose one's self in the fact that Poppy is just Poppy. And as such, is subject to have every obstacle known to man, woman, or beast.
Let's face it.
a. She is a flighty twenty-something
b. Has an over achieving helicopter mom. Who still hasn't come to terms with the fact that her younger daughter will never be a clone of her 'most perfect self'.
c. Has an older sister, who is a clone of afore mentioned over achieving mom. Minus the hovering tendencies.
d. Has just broken up with her under achieving, couch potato, pot smoker, boy friend/baby daddy.
e. Is trying to navigate her way through life with the unexpected addition of the pregnancy that she may or may not keep.
All in addition to her having to make the choice to come out as a lesbian. And work out whether or not her relationship with Rhiannon is one that she and or Rhiannon can and want to nurture. Given the game of musical chairs that is Poppy's life at present.
If this review makes the plot of this book seem like a lot.
It is!!!!
And believe it or not.
There are things that have been omitted here.
Just chalk it up to art imitating life.
It is!!!!
Because if you are a person who wants to believe that...
The underdog will one day win.
There is someone for everyone.
That families are made as well as born into.
This is the book for you!!!
With the fact that Poppy that Poppy awkwards her way into a relationship with her Planned Parenthood escort turned girlfriend, Rhiannon. As well as the best group of friends that a young single expectant mother, who is trying to find herself, and make life make sense in the process can have.
A.K.A. Stitch And Bitch at the local coffee shop.
Also headed up by none other than Rhiannon.
Though it would be very easy to lose one's self in the fact that Poppy is just Poppy. And as such, is subject to have every obstacle known to man, woman, or beast.
Let's face it.
a. She is a flighty twenty-something
b. Has an over achieving helicopter mom. Who still hasn't come to terms with the fact that her younger daughter will never be a clone of her 'most perfect self'.
c. Has an older sister, who is a clone of afore mentioned over achieving mom. Minus the hovering tendencies.
d. Has just broken up with her under achieving, couch potato, pot smoker, boy friend/baby daddy.
e. Is trying to navigate her way through life with the unexpected addition of the pregnancy that she may or may not keep.
All in addition to her having to make the choice to come out as a lesbian. And work out whether or not her relationship with Rhiannon is one that she and or Rhiannon can and want to nurture. Given the game of musical chairs that is Poppy's life at present.
If this review makes the plot of this book seem like a lot.
It is!!!!
And believe it or not.
There are things that have been omitted here.
Just chalk it up to art imitating life.
It is!!!!
Because if you are a person who wants to believe that...
The underdog will one day win.
There is someone for everyone.
That families are made as well as born into.
This is the book for you!!!
April 21, 2021
WOMEN'S FIC VS. ROMANCE: EXPLAINED
I had a blinding moment of self-unawareness when I picked up Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl. “Oh, f/f romance!!!” I said excitedly as I one-clicked on the library website—completely forgetting that (a) I don’t knit and (b) I strongly dislike reading about pregnancy/childbirth/babies. Genius, Renae. Pure genius.
It was only about one-fourth of the way into the book, when I was getting rather irritated by the constant focus on protagonist Poppy’s pregnancy that I realized what I’d done. Duh. Don’t go to the waterpark and complain that you’re wet. Likewise: don’t read a romance novel about a surprise pregnancy and complain that…there’s a surprise pregnancy.
In my defense, I got really excited about reading an f/f romance!
Luckily for me, I enjoyed Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl quite a lot. Taken for what it is, this is a strongly written, introspective novel about a millennial woman’s delayed coming of age and reckoning with her toxic, gaslighty family—with a side-helping of romance. For reasons to be discussed below, I consider this book to be more in the line of a women’s fiction novel than a romance novel, but I wasn’t necessarily disappointed because of that.
Author Hettie Bell writes in first person, solely from the perspective of Poppy, our accidentally pregnant main character. I think Poppy’s voice was well-done, particularly considering her crippling lack of self-confidence and toxic self-narrative. There’s a lot going on in this book, but a big component is Poppy’s relationship with her manipulative, emotionally abusive mother and how that’s affected her ability to live independently as an adult. Not gonna lie, at times Poppy’s anxiety spirals and derogatory thoughts about herself were almost too much to swallow, simply because of how strong they were, but as someone who has experienced very similar mother/daughter dynamics as Poppy, I admit I was a tad bit triggered. Basically, Poppy’s internal monologue hurt, but in the way it was meant to.
Most of Knit, Purl, a Baby and Girl is about Poppy reclaiming control—control over her life and her future, but also control over her conception of herself. Her mother has told her she’s a lazy, useless person who has failed to achieve the American Dream (husband, house, 6-figure salary) only because of her lack of application. But over the course of the book, Poppy comes to understand not only that she isn’t a disappointing underachiever, but that maybe her mother’s idea of who she should be isn’t even the end goal. Case in point: at the beginning of the novel, Poppy is dead-set on getting an abortion, but after speaking with the providers at Planned Parenthood, she realizes that she’d rather keep the baby, and it was only her mother’s voice in her head that convinced her she wasn’t equipped to be a parent. After all: she has a stable job, health insurance, and a studio in New York. The idea that she needs a swanky doula and 50k in savings before having kids is her mother’s hang-up, not hers.
Everything with respect to Poppy’s character and her internal growth was incredibly well done. Even when she was acting poorly and letting her trauma get the best of her, I was right there with her, and I was sympathetic to even her worst decisions. I cannot emphasize enough what a fantastically written character Hettie Bell created here.
Yet you’ll notice that amid all this discussion…I haven’t once mentioned Poppy’s love interest, the butch lesbian barista / knitting aficionado, Rhiannon. You know why? Because this isn’t Rhiannon’s story. And it’s not Poppy and Rhiannon’s love story, either. This is a book about Poppy, and Poppy alone. Yes, Rhiannon is there, and yes, the budding romance with Rhiannon is a major element of the plot…but it’s not really the focus. Particularly: we only see Rhiannon through Poppy’s eyes, because she’s the narrator. Bell doesn’t set Rhiannon up as a second protagonist, or even as someone who exists independently from Poppy. Although she’s a fully developed character, the only information we get about Rhiannon is filtered through Poppy’s thoughts. Most of her backstory, her feelings, and her hang-ups are left blank. And that’s why I don’t think you can properly characterize this as a romance novel—not only is the romantic arc not the main focus of the text, only one-half of the couple is given sufficient page-time to be fully understood by readers.
I would like to say that I think it’s possible to write a successful romance novel where the entire story is told in first person from a single character’s perspective (Thirsty by Mia Hopkins comes to mind), but that’s not the case with Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl. Poppy’s pregnancy, self-confidence issues, and family relationships were the driving force behind most of the action, and those are all issues that are personal to Poppy (even when they affect Rhiannon as well). For understandable reasons, Poppy’s narration is self-centered and heavily internalized. This is good! It’s just not conducive for writing a capital-R Romance Novel.
So, I think this book has been badly marketed, and I don’t think it should have been put out as part of the Carina Adores line, which is focused on releasing tropey category-length romance novels with LGBTQ leads. I truly think this is a good book! But it would have found a better audience if it had been put out in trade format under a general fiction imprint instead.
Good book, misleading marketing; ultimately, not a romance.
📌 . Blog | Review Database | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads
I had a blinding moment of self-unawareness when I picked up Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl. “Oh, f/f romance!!!” I said excitedly as I one-clicked on the library website—completely forgetting that (a) I don’t knit and (b) I strongly dislike reading about pregnancy/childbirth/babies. Genius, Renae. Pure genius.
It was only about one-fourth of the way into the book, when I was getting rather irritated by the constant focus on protagonist Poppy’s pregnancy that I realized what I’d done. Duh. Don’t go to the waterpark and complain that you’re wet. Likewise: don’t read a romance novel about a surprise pregnancy and complain that…there’s a surprise pregnancy.
In my defense, I got really excited about reading an f/f romance!
Luckily for me, I enjoyed Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl quite a lot. Taken for what it is, this is a strongly written, introspective novel about a millennial woman’s delayed coming of age and reckoning with her toxic, gaslighty family—with a side-helping of romance. For reasons to be discussed below, I consider this book to be more in the line of a women’s fiction novel than a romance novel, but I wasn’t necessarily disappointed because of that.
Author Hettie Bell writes in first person, solely from the perspective of Poppy, our accidentally pregnant main character. I think Poppy’s voice was well-done, particularly considering her crippling lack of self-confidence and toxic self-narrative. There’s a lot going on in this book, but a big component is Poppy’s relationship with her manipulative, emotionally abusive mother and how that’s affected her ability to live independently as an adult. Not gonna lie, at times Poppy’s anxiety spirals and derogatory thoughts about herself were almost too much to swallow, simply because of how strong they were, but as someone who has experienced very similar mother/daughter dynamics as Poppy, I admit I was a tad bit triggered. Basically, Poppy’s internal monologue hurt, but in the way it was meant to.
Most of Knit, Purl, a Baby and Girl is about Poppy reclaiming control—control over her life and her future, but also control over her conception of herself. Her mother has told her she’s a lazy, useless person who has failed to achieve the American Dream (husband, house, 6-figure salary) only because of her lack of application. But over the course of the book, Poppy comes to understand not only that she isn’t a disappointing underachiever, but that maybe her mother’s idea of who she should be isn’t even the end goal. Case in point: at the beginning of the novel, Poppy is dead-set on getting an abortion, but after speaking with the providers at Planned Parenthood, she realizes that she’d rather keep the baby, and it was only her mother’s voice in her head that convinced her she wasn’t equipped to be a parent. After all: she has a stable job, health insurance, and a studio in New York. The idea that she needs a swanky doula and 50k in savings before having kids is her mother’s hang-up, not hers.
Everything with respect to Poppy’s character and her internal growth was incredibly well done. Even when she was acting poorly and letting her trauma get the best of her, I was right there with her, and I was sympathetic to even her worst decisions. I cannot emphasize enough what a fantastically written character Hettie Bell created here.
Yet you’ll notice that amid all this discussion…I haven’t once mentioned Poppy’s love interest, the butch lesbian barista / knitting aficionado, Rhiannon. You know why? Because this isn’t Rhiannon’s story. And it’s not Poppy and Rhiannon’s love story, either. This is a book about Poppy, and Poppy alone. Yes, Rhiannon is there, and yes, the budding romance with Rhiannon is a major element of the plot…but it’s not really the focus. Particularly: we only see Rhiannon through Poppy’s eyes, because she’s the narrator. Bell doesn’t set Rhiannon up as a second protagonist, or even as someone who exists independently from Poppy. Although she’s a fully developed character, the only information we get about Rhiannon is filtered through Poppy’s thoughts. Most of her backstory, her feelings, and her hang-ups are left blank. And that’s why I don’t think you can properly characterize this as a romance novel—not only is the romantic arc not the main focus of the text, only one-half of the couple is given sufficient page-time to be fully understood by readers.
I would like to say that I think it’s possible to write a successful romance novel where the entire story is told in first person from a single character’s perspective (Thirsty by Mia Hopkins comes to mind), but that’s not the case with Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl. Poppy’s pregnancy, self-confidence issues, and family relationships were the driving force behind most of the action, and those are all issues that are personal to Poppy (even when they affect Rhiannon as well). For understandable reasons, Poppy’s narration is self-centered and heavily internalized. This is good! It’s just not conducive for writing a capital-R Romance Novel.
So, I think this book has been badly marketed, and I don’t think it should have been put out as part of the Carina Adores line, which is focused on releasing tropey category-length romance novels with LGBTQ leads. I truly think this is a good book! But it would have found a better audience if it had been put out in trade format under a general fiction imprint instead.
Good book, misleading marketing; ultimately, not a romance.
📌 . Blog | Review Database | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads
March 4, 2021
There was a lot I loved about Hettie Bell’s Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl. It deals so graciously with surprise pregnancy, abortion and choice in reproductive rights, friendship, growing up and new relationships. Bell also does something that is one of my big pet peeves, which I will discuss behind a spoiler tag. This is a “your mileage may vary” book from an author I want to see more of.
Poppy and Rhiannon meet when Poppy goes to Planned Parenthood to confirm her surprise pregnancy and Rhiannon is her clinic escort. They meet again at the knitting group Poppy joins because knitters probably know something about motherhood. The first half of the book is so great and I was completely invested in Poppy figuring out he wasn’t as much of a mess as she thought she was and Rhiannon figuring out she did want to be a part of Poppy’s baby’s life. The two of them are so lovely together, but also there were completely believable conflicts between them. The story is told entirely from Poppy’s POV.
One of the conflicts was Rhiannon’s completely understandable fear of making too big a commitment too soon. It’s a completely normal and understandable concern when you start a relationship with someone who is going through a life altering change. On top of that Poppy does not have a good emotional support network. For a good chunk of the book, Bell approaches all of that with empathy and grace for her characters.
I have some pet peeves as a reader and I fully recognize that not every reader shares my sore spots and every writer should write the story they want to write. With those caveats, here is what I didn’t like. I’m spoiler tagging it because it is a bunch of spoilers. SPOILERS: END SPOILERS. Epiphanies are great, but they don’t mean much unless you do the work to make the changes.
Again, there was a lot to like in Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl. Bell wrote some interesting people I would want to spend more time with. I didn’t love the way she handled the back half of the story, but that reflects my biases as a reader. I would definitely read more from Hettie Bell and hope I get the opportunity to do so.
I received this as an arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Poppy and Rhiannon meet when Poppy goes to Planned Parenthood to confirm her surprise pregnancy and Rhiannon is her clinic escort. They meet again at the knitting group Poppy joins because knitters probably know something about motherhood. The first half of the book is so great and I was completely invested in Poppy figuring out he wasn’t as much of a mess as she thought she was and Rhiannon figuring out she did want to be a part of Poppy’s baby’s life. The two of them are so lovely together, but also there were completely believable conflicts between them. The story is told entirely from Poppy’s POV.
One of the conflicts was Rhiannon’s completely understandable fear of making too big a commitment too soon. It’s a completely normal and understandable concern when you start a relationship with someone who is going through a life altering change. On top of that Poppy does not have a good emotional support network. For a good chunk of the book, Bell approaches all of that with empathy and grace for her characters.
I have some pet peeves as a reader and I fully recognize that not every reader shares my sore spots and every writer should write the story they want to write. With those caveats, here is what I didn’t like. I’m spoiler tagging it because it is a bunch of spoilers. SPOILERS: END SPOILERS. Epiphanies are great, but they don’t mean much unless you do the work to make the changes.
Again, there was a lot to like in Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl. Bell wrote some interesting people I would want to spend more time with. I didn’t love the way she handled the back half of the story, but that reflects my biases as a reader. I would definitely read more from Hettie Bell and hope I get the opportunity to do so.
I received this as an arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
April 17, 2021
I really really loved this one - Fat bi girl figuring out what she actually wants! Clinic escort love interest! Sexy knitting lessons! Great found family!
July 6, 2021
This book is an absolute riot, it’s so funny and it has a bisexual main character ! . It is so much more than a romance, it deals with issues such as abortion and sexuality and without patronising the reader (which I find happens a lot even if unintended). Poppy's story as she decides to keep and raise her baby is enthralling and keeps you hooked as she navigates tough choices, growing up and fighting your own battles, whilst learning you always have friends to lean on. Absolutely fantastic
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion
July 4, 2021
This is not a perfect book, in parts it's preachy but it's got a lot going for it and I found it wholesome to read. For the first six or seven chapters I think I actually was in awe of how excellent this book it. I didn't relate to the insta-sex thing, I'm not wired that way and I would have prefered them to get to know each other first- but I seem to be a minority with that. I wasn't judging just kind of bored and turned off at that point...but it was not the whole book and there were complications- real complications not contrived ones.
The book does some things that not enough books do, that many of us are hungry for:
1. It has a fat character. She reads fat positivity blogs but still carries around the weight of other people's expectations (which frankly is the heaviest part of being fat). Her girlfriend is neither blind to her fatness nor does she make a big deal (positive or negative) about it. It's just a thing. Fat people can be in loving relationships. Body policing can hurt them but not everyone is like that. More books need to get this right
2. The skinny girl was "beautiful" in an original way not an airbrushed way. She had all these moles on her back at one point. She wore odd socks and had an interestingly clashing wardrobe at times. She's "beautiful" to her girlfriend not glamorous to the reader. More books need to do this please.
3. The problematic family (father and BIL were weirdly peripheral and I think not even named). The mum who bullies and pressures her doesn't turn out to "just have her best interests at heart" and to really, really care for her but be misunderstood. No she is actually selfish and controlling. She is given a chance to do better at the end but it's not a free pass to keep being horrendous. Rhiannon does some truth-telling about this that I found refreshing and real. I am sick of books doing apologetics for really toxic parenting because family automatically means love. Nope. Mind you I think Poppy needs therapy and possibly meds but seeing as this is set in the US where they have to pay through the nose for that, it might not be possible.
4. There's another thing that initially made me really angry and I nearly threw the book at the wall at that point. I felt full on betrayed. Saying too much about that would be a spoiler but I think Rhiannon felt the same way that I did about it, and that brings me to something I loved about the book. It was very self-aware. Many places something was said or happened that was problematic and in most cases the thread of the book caught that later (like someone learning to knit I guess LOL) and commented on it or fixed it or faced it. At times this came off a tad preachy (some of the pro-choice stuff...but it's hard to write ambivalence well on such a controversial topic) but even that you feel like this book and author would turn around and go "ah yeah sorry about that" not get defensive.
So yeah so without loving every single thing or relating to every single thing I feel pretty happy to have read something about a fat, insecure, working a crap job, bisexual, single-mother with a seems-too-good-to-be-true-but-is-also-a-bit-broken girlfriend and a weird community (a bit like a Greek chorus in some scenes) of knitters.
I'll be seeing what else this author comes up with.
The book does some things that not enough books do, that many of us are hungry for:
1. It has a fat character. She reads fat positivity blogs but still carries around the weight of other people's expectations (which frankly is the heaviest part of being fat). Her girlfriend is neither blind to her fatness nor does she make a big deal (positive or negative) about it. It's just a thing. Fat people can be in loving relationships. Body policing can hurt them but not everyone is like that. More books need to get this right
2. The skinny girl was "beautiful" in an original way not an airbrushed way. She had all these moles on her back at one point. She wore odd socks and had an interestingly clashing wardrobe at times. She's "beautiful" to her girlfriend not glamorous to the reader. More books need to do this please.
3. The problematic family (father and BIL were weirdly peripheral and I think not even named). The mum who bullies and pressures her doesn't turn out to "just have her best interests at heart" and to really, really care for her but be misunderstood. No she is actually selfish and controlling. She is given a chance to do better at the end but it's not a free pass to keep being horrendous. Rhiannon does some truth-telling about this that I found refreshing and real. I am sick of books doing apologetics for really toxic parenting because family automatically means love. Nope. Mind you I think Poppy needs therapy and possibly meds but seeing as this is set in the US where they have to pay through the nose for that, it might not be possible.
4. There's another thing that initially made me really angry and I nearly threw the book at the wall at that point. I felt full on betrayed. Saying too much about that would be a spoiler but I think Rhiannon felt the same way that I did about it, and that brings me to something I loved about the book. It was very self-aware. Many places something was said or happened that was problematic and in most cases the thread of the book caught that later (like someone learning to knit I guess LOL) and commented on it or fixed it or faced it. At times this came off a tad preachy (some of the pro-choice stuff...but it's hard to write ambivalence well on such a controversial topic) but even that you feel like this book and author would turn around and go "ah yeah sorry about that" not get defensive.
So yeah so without loving every single thing or relating to every single thing I feel pretty happy to have read something about a fat, insecure, working a crap job, bisexual, single-mother with a seems-too-good-to-be-true-but-is-also-a-bit-broken girlfriend and a weird community (a bit like a Greek chorus in some scenes) of knitters.
I'll be seeing what else this author comes up with.
June 26, 2021
This story is one of Harlequin's newish "Carina Adores" line of lgbt+ romances. The book is about Poppy, a 22 year old woman who gets pregnant from a one night stand and then ends up falling for a girl named Rhiannon in her knitting club. Rhiannon also happens to be the Planned Parenthood volunteer who walked Poppy to her appointment, so it's a little awkward.
This was more intense than I was expecting from the cute cover and title. The very first scene involves a protest at the Planned Parenthood and Poppy's thought process about what to do with her pregnancy so content warning for that. It also goes more detail than I've seen in other romances about what being pregnant is like, descriptions of exam procedures, and a fairly realistic birth scene. That's cool but not what I want to read.
I didn't like Rhiannon--I had a hard time getting a read on her. Poppy makes jokes about u-haul lesbians but then that's basically what happens? They get serious after 2 dates. But then Rhiannon leaves Poppy alone at a medical appointment. I didn't feel the closeness between them through the story. I was more interested in the friendship/mentoring aspect of the knitting club.
I did appreciate Poppy's representation of bisexuality, as well as her comments on fatphobia. She's a humorous narrator and that was probably why I kept reading despite my issues with the book. She also comes off as immature, or maybe I'm just old because I kept getting worried about these 22 year olds jumping into serious relationships and making impulsive life decisions. IF you like the baby trope in romance and want a more detailed yet still light take on that, I would recommend this, otherwise it wasn't a great read for me.
This was more intense than I was expecting from the cute cover and title. The very first scene involves a protest at the Planned Parenthood and Poppy's thought process about what to do with her pregnancy so content warning for that. It also goes more detail than I've seen in other romances about what being pregnant is like, descriptions of exam procedures, and a fairly realistic birth scene. That's cool but not what I want to read.
I didn't like Rhiannon--I had a hard time getting a read on her. Poppy makes jokes about u-haul lesbians but then that's basically what happens? They get serious after 2 dates. But then Rhiannon leaves Poppy alone at a medical appointment. I didn't feel the closeness between them through the story. I was more interested in the friendship/mentoring aspect of the knitting club.
I did appreciate Poppy's representation of bisexuality, as well as her comments on fatphobia. She's a humorous narrator and that was probably why I kept reading despite my issues with the book. She also comes off as immature, or maybe I'm just old because I kept getting worried about these 22 year olds jumping into serious relationships and making impulsive life decisions. IF you like the baby trope in romance and want a more detailed yet still light take on that, I would recommend this, otherwise it wasn't a great read for me.
January 20, 2021
This was really cute, with a great first-person POV voice and charming, quick banter. I felt that Poppy and Rhiannon's relationship moved incredibly quickly with not a lot of grounding in it--as much as I wanted to know why they were so into each other, I think this quickness worked with the uncertainty both of them (but especially Poppy) had about the relationship, though it could have been foregrounded more. I really like that Poppy's issues with her mother were not wrapped up in a nice bow for the sake of family unity--there are consequences for her mother's lifelong terrible behaviour towards her and she doesn't just get a pass to continue to look down on Poppy's choices and relationship and sexuality.
There were three separate threads running through the novel--Poppy's insecurity, the knitting group, and her relationship with Rhiannon--and I would have like to have seen them woven together more seamlessly. A lot of the time, they felt like they were running parallel rather than integrated together. But I'd definitely read more from Hettie Bell in the future!
There were three separate threads running through the novel--Poppy's insecurity, the knitting group, and her relationship with Rhiannon--and I would have like to have seen them woven together more seamlessly. A lot of the time, they felt like they were running parallel rather than integrated together. But I'd definitely read more from Hettie Bell in the future!
August 17, 2021
This is the gooiest book I've read in a while, and I mean that as a compliment. It's sentimental, grounded in modern language and dynamics around boundaries and healthy relationships, and unabashedly nerdy about knitting. I think that the single point of view might work against it, in some ways, and there was a lot I felt like I didn't *get* about the central relationship. Poppy and Rhiannon obviously had physical chemistry from the beginning but they both seemed to catch strong feelings really quickly, and I didn't necessarily fully understand Rhiannon's journey there. Not that Poppy's not cool - I love her as a protagonist! - I just didn't necessarily get a sense of what it was about her that made her special *from Rhiannon's perspective*.
Still, this is a sweet, loving, and comforting book, and it tackled a lot of issues along the way - fatphobia, single parenthood, pregnancy bias, toxic family dynamics - in a way that I really appreciated. I also liked that both Poppy and Rhiannon be pretty messy and let each other down a few times, but still deserve love.
Still, this is a sweet, loving, and comforting book, and it tackled a lot of issues along the way - fatphobia, single parenthood, pregnancy bias, toxic family dynamics - in a way that I really appreciated. I also liked that both Poppy and Rhiannon be pretty messy and let each other down a few times, but still deserve love.
August 16, 2021
It’s hard for me to choose my favourite element, because there’s so much I enjoyed about it. That said, I was most impressed by the way Poppy goes about deciding what to do with her pregnancy.
I was especially happy that every option is presented as entirely valid, whether it’s the one Poppy chooses (keeping her baby) or not. This story is truly pro-choice in every way, no matter what that choice is.
Full review: https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/r...
I was especially happy that every option is presented as entirely valid, whether it’s the one Poppy chooses (keeping her baby) or not. This story is truly pro-choice in every way, no matter what that choice is.
Full review: https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/r...
November 4, 2021
This is frikkin adorable.
July 10, 2021
A small review, in closing:
[7-10-2021 @ 3pm]
This book was fine, if it was your first foray into any type of queer representation. But when you're on the look-out for astonishing Authors who tell compelling stories that keep you yearning for more and wishing for a happy ending, in some manner, for your couple...this is something of a miss-the-mark.
It's a little too, uh...INSTA-on everything. Rhiannon and Poppy meet at a Planned Parenthood clinic where Poppy is making a choice on whether to keep her baby or not, and then when she makes her choice and she goes to a Knit Club, finding that Rhiannon's part of the club...their couple moments fall into INSTA-[not ready] territory which kept causing me to clench my teeth because I knew one or BOTH would flake out.
I had no idea that Rhiannon would be the type of unreliable person that she was. You cannot even trust what she is telling, or feeding to, Poppy...because she will do something completely batty that is 180-degrees a different answer than what she told Poppy.
This is why I wanted a dual perspective because...from a Poppy-only POV, Rhiannon becomes this untrustworthy girlfriend. Because, yes, after an incredible night of FIRST SEX...they INSTA-hook-up as each cannot help but call the other "their girlfriend". So their relationship becomes super-serious way too fast, especially as Rhiannon is so uncertain whether she wants to co-parent Poppy's baby--?? This is a major failing on Poppy's end because she keeps passive aggressively allowing people to walk all over her. Yes, even Rhiannon. And those moments when Poppy...tries to put her foot down and take a stand, setting boundaries? feel empty and pointless. A little too late, it seems. She will often look like a petulant child, more than anything.
Rhiannon's tendency to "ghost" Poppy...especially as she has no other proper support, until she has to return back to her Mom...and man, the yanking between YOUR MOM IS A BITCH! to then outright telling Poppy she needs to move back home with her Mom??-the same Mom who is a bitch and is phobic about Poppy's weight and sexuality...???
The -phobic rhetoric was majorly self-inflicted and then when Poppy's circumstances became clear she would need help...and Rhiannon had bailed--they broke up... living with Mom, back in her childhood home was just...it became Mom=Bad [no questions asked, nor any reasoning why]...she became this caricature I simply could not find believable
But for a good majority of the book...no real outright -phobic comments are said.
Mom is often simply... pitting ONE PERFECT DAUGHTER over another...and there is no unjust comments directed toward Poppy. We never had any outright fat shaming nor bisexuality shaming told through Mom right to Poppy's face. Nor much behind her back, expect to pit one daughter over another. I was expecting something completely different.
At 60% into the book, the Author writes a baby shower party scene for Poppy's sister, Iris, [...because OF COURSE, when Poppy is pregnant, so is her PERFECT Sister]... where Poppy is going to put her foot down and BRING HER GIRLFRIEND. Also parade her pregnant belly around so that the scene devolves into a really bad Lifetime movie moment...and just...**heavy sigh**...the heavily manufactured "feel" of this made it even more implausible to me...
Each time we meet-and re-meet Mom...and Iris...it's tougher and tougher to wonder if this is all in Poppy's head...is it REAL PHOBIC talk...or is the Author simply creating a Drama/Angst argument that is not really there.
I find it really telling that A MAJORITY of the male rep in this story is piss-poor. From Jake... Poppy's EX whom she slept with one drunken night and became pregnant by. To uh... Poppy's non-existent Dad...who seems to float in and out of scenes, in the background or NOT AT ALL, running out of rooms and away from his wife/Poppy's Mom...and allows whatever to happen...happen...
And then there is a weird moment when Poppy and her older sister, Iris, who seem to have been AT ODDS [because of their Mom] for decades...are now suddenly Sisters in Power...and rebelling against DEVIL MOM...and Iris takes her sister into her home for the last few months of Poppy's needed bed-rest before she reaches her Due Date...uh, Iris's husband is NON-EXISTENT, as well. Not only that, but he makes a blink-and-you-will-miss-it appearance helping bring Poppy to the hospital and, "makes himself scarce" like he has this entire story...
The only bright shining male rep is Damian, the single father who is part of Poppy's Knit Club. But having 1 vs 3 is a poor rep, for me.
Look, I get it. This is a F/F romance. But let's not make male characters mean nothing. Or have them and not dare to flesh them out to some modicum of sense. Damian was a gem, but he was 1 out of 4 men in this story--?? When Jake is found to still be just as flakey/unreliable as his pot-smoking ways have often made him for Poppy, all these years...having him not just flake-out on Poppy but then to erase him for the rest of the book, and then have him continue to be termed THE SPERM DONOR for some scenes was just... disrespectful and tacky. We barely get to know Jake...and we only get-to-understand him from Poppy...and I have already said how immature and 22yrs old she is...I just...**heavy sigh**
Of course there is an HEA... but not without some really tough questions being forgotten or easily glossed over, in that same INSTA-feel the book allows to come across.
BOTH women have baggage they need to deal with and quick fixes to decades of outright and then internalized pain...and sometimes speaking out to "take a stand" and rebelling against DEVIL MOM... does not heal. It might make one feel great and proud for a single solitary moment, but for overall, life-long healing and being at peace...Poppy and Rhiannon need a shit-ton of work.
And simply becoming an INSTA-family with baby Oliver...only burdens his poor little spirit with BOTH of his Mothers woes, if they never seek out personal growths and healing processes. Or at least try to do this TOGETHER.
I cannot have faith in either woman's "word" because I never felt they took anything between them seriously or as genuine long-term future-making possibilities.
timestamp::
[7/06/2021 @ 12:15pm]
**at this point, where I am in the story, I am fully aware, and profoundly cognizant, of what I am going to come up against. {TW/CW: fat-phobia, abortion, pregnancy loss, bi-phobia}...but the thing is when you are so desperate at times to finally read a sapphic romance that doesn't follow regular romantic guidelines, tropes, and idiosyncrasies...and simply goes for broke on its own? I have yet to come across an f/f romance that blows my mind and surpasses mediocre expectations.
Or ones that don't find new ways in which to irk me or sometimes piss me off...
You would think with a literal start of this book at Planned Parenthood, amid Anti-Abortion Protesters and Evangelical Zealots screaming...and our heroine on her way in with an escort...that this book would find its path, or journey, in a unique space.
But even amidst the quandary our Protagonist finds herself...to keep her baby or not [by this time she HAS made a definitive choice on her own], sadly, this story has hit the Wall of Uniqueness it once had and is now falling into formulaic territory.
Already, I am kinda exhausted from being in Poppy's POV/headspace...because her "phobias" are really self-inflicted...very little Phobic measures are coming from outside contact...as of yet. I do understand one of her 'fatphobia' instances is with her own mother...so, haven't got there, but I know when I do it could be my breaking point. This might end up being a DNF.
Poppy is 22yrs old...and yet again, I have to train my reading brain to not make easy, grandiose I-Am-48-yrs-old sweeping assumptions that she should just let things go or figure her shit out. Know WHO SHE IS already and forget those who wanna pound or step on however she wants to find her Happy Place.
I think this story suffers immensely from not having dual POVs, because Poppy is exhaustive and, frankly, it would be awesome to take a break, once and awhile and find out how the other heroine, Rhiannon is doing, what she is thinking and where the fuck her own head is at. Especially once their relationship goes deeper and begins to develop. I dislike being stuck and sucked into Poppy's, literal, immaturity 24/7.
By the title, a reader will soon find out that Poppy enters a local Knitting Club...so, uhm, here is some heartbreaking honesty...the Knitting 411 is so heavy-handed it is going over my head and at so many points I skimmed through a Knitting Club scene because the Info-dumping and the verbiage/language being spoken is NOT VERY INTERESTING... nor is it easily explainable w/o some helpful definition of what is being talked about or discussed. The only thing I know is... Poppy bought the WRONG SIZE Knitting needles for her first day in the club and went out to go purchase new, correct-sized ones.
Look, in my growing up years... my childhood and teenage years, I was often lost in so much vague, empty time doing certain Crafting projects. My Mom was a knitter, a crochet-er [heck, I think she even made tiny cross-stitches in dinner napkins at one point in my life], macrame...and she would often get into flash-in-the-pan craft do-jobbers... like Tri-Chem and Latch-hooking...she did so much sewing and hemming of clothing...yeah, she had a sewing kit [a wooden box that had, like tiered-levels and stuff] that was often part of the Living Room furniture, right next to wherever she sat most of the time.
So, I am not-dumb to Knitting... but there is a level of Pro-Knitting here where the Author is assuming readers will... JUST KNOW... and does not bother to explain...even when Poppy lets us know this is her first day of Knit Club...and she has a "past" of knowing how to knit already but it has been a few years since she has knitted on a constant daily basis.
The thing is...never assume what YOU love and know the most of...at a Pro-level or at some level where you know all the proper jargon and do-hickie routines...everyone else who reads will know too. This feels like when Authors just throw in random foreign dialogue, then never bother to translate.
Ugh...this bit of gruff mumbling from me means...I am taking a small break and going to read another book, then come back later...possibly...
[7-10-2021 @ 3pm]
This book was fine, if it was your first foray into any type of queer representation. But when you're on the look-out for astonishing Authors who tell compelling stories that keep you yearning for more and wishing for a happy ending, in some manner, for your couple...this is something of a miss-the-mark.
It's a little too, uh...INSTA-on everything. Rhiannon and Poppy meet at a Planned Parenthood clinic where Poppy is making a choice on whether to keep her baby or not, and then when she makes her choice and she goes to a Knit Club, finding that Rhiannon's part of the club...their couple moments fall into INSTA-[not ready] territory which kept causing me to clench my teeth because I knew one or BOTH would flake out.
I had no idea that Rhiannon would be the type of unreliable person that she was. You cannot even trust what she is telling, or feeding to, Poppy...because she will do something completely batty that is 180-degrees a different answer than what she told Poppy.
This is why I wanted a dual perspective because...from a Poppy-only POV, Rhiannon becomes this untrustworthy girlfriend. Because, yes, after an incredible night of FIRST SEX...they INSTA-hook-up as each cannot help but call the other "their girlfriend". So their relationship becomes super-serious way too fast, especially as Rhiannon is so uncertain whether she wants to co-parent Poppy's baby--?? This is a major failing on Poppy's end because she keeps passive aggressively allowing people to walk all over her. Yes, even Rhiannon. And those moments when Poppy...tries to put her foot down and take a stand, setting boundaries? feel empty and pointless. A little too late, it seems. She will often look like a petulant child, more than anything.
Rhiannon's tendency to "ghost" Poppy...especially as she has no other proper support, until she has to return back to her Mom...and man, the yanking between YOUR MOM IS A BITCH! to then outright telling Poppy she needs to move back home with her Mom??-the same Mom who is a bitch and is phobic about Poppy's weight and sexuality...???
The -phobic rhetoric was majorly self-inflicted and then when Poppy's circumstances became clear she would need help...and Rhiannon had bailed--they broke up... living with Mom, back in her childhood home was just...it became Mom=Bad [no questions asked, nor any reasoning why]...she became this caricature I simply could not find believable
But for a good majority of the book...no real outright -phobic comments are said.
Mom is often simply... pitting ONE PERFECT DAUGHTER over another...and there is no unjust comments directed toward Poppy. We never had any outright fat shaming nor bisexuality shaming told through Mom right to Poppy's face. Nor much behind her back, expect to pit one daughter over another. I was expecting something completely different.
At 60% into the book, the Author writes a baby shower party scene for Poppy's sister, Iris, [...because OF COURSE, when Poppy is pregnant, so is her PERFECT Sister]... where Poppy is going to put her foot down and BRING HER GIRLFRIEND. Also parade her pregnant belly around so that the scene devolves into a really bad Lifetime movie moment...and just...**heavy sigh**...the heavily manufactured "feel" of this made it even more implausible to me...
Each time we meet-and re-meet Mom...and Iris...it's tougher and tougher to wonder if this is all in Poppy's head...is it REAL PHOBIC talk...or is the Author simply creating a Drama/Angst argument that is not really there.
I find it really telling that A MAJORITY of the male rep in this story is piss-poor. From Jake... Poppy's EX whom she slept with one drunken night and became pregnant by. To uh... Poppy's non-existent Dad...who seems to float in and out of scenes, in the background or NOT AT ALL, running out of rooms and away from his wife/Poppy's Mom...and allows whatever to happen...happen...
And then there is a weird moment when Poppy and her older sister, Iris, who seem to have been AT ODDS [because of their Mom] for decades...are now suddenly Sisters in Power...and rebelling against DEVIL MOM...and Iris takes her sister into her home for the last few months of Poppy's needed bed-rest before she reaches her Due Date...uh, Iris's husband is NON-EXISTENT, as well. Not only that, but he makes a blink-and-you-will-miss-it appearance helping bring Poppy to the hospital and, "makes himself scarce" like he has this entire story...
The only bright shining male rep is Damian, the single father who is part of Poppy's Knit Club. But having 1 vs 3 is a poor rep, for me.
Look, I get it. This is a F/F romance. But let's not make male characters mean nothing. Or have them and not dare to flesh them out to some modicum of sense. Damian was a gem, but he was 1 out of 4 men in this story--?? When Jake is found to still be just as flakey/unreliable as his pot-smoking ways have often made him for Poppy, all these years...having him not just flake-out on Poppy but then to erase him for the rest of the book, and then have him continue to be termed THE SPERM DONOR for some scenes was just... disrespectful and tacky. We barely get to know Jake...and we only get-to-understand him from Poppy...and I have already said how immature and 22yrs old she is...I just...**heavy sigh**
Of course there is an HEA... but not without some really tough questions being forgotten or easily glossed over, in that same INSTA-feel the book allows to come across.
BOTH women have baggage they need to deal with and quick fixes to decades of outright and then internalized pain...and sometimes speaking out to "take a stand" and rebelling against DEVIL MOM... does not heal. It might make one feel great and proud for a single solitary moment, but for overall, life-long healing and being at peace...Poppy and Rhiannon need a shit-ton of work.
And simply becoming an INSTA-family with baby Oliver...only burdens his poor little spirit with BOTH of his Mothers woes, if they never seek out personal growths and healing processes. Or at least try to do this TOGETHER.
I cannot have faith in either woman's "word" because I never felt they took anything between them seriously or as genuine long-term future-making possibilities.
timestamp::
[7/06/2021 @ 12:15pm]
**at this point, where I am in the story, I am fully aware, and profoundly cognizant, of what I am going to come up against. {TW/CW: fat-phobia, abortion, pregnancy loss, bi-phobia}...but the thing is when you are so desperate at times to finally read a sapphic romance that doesn't follow regular romantic guidelines, tropes, and idiosyncrasies...and simply goes for broke on its own? I have yet to come across an f/f romance that blows my mind and surpasses mediocre expectations.
Or ones that don't find new ways in which to irk me or sometimes piss me off...
You would think with a literal start of this book at Planned Parenthood, amid Anti-Abortion Protesters and Evangelical Zealots screaming...and our heroine on her way in with an escort...that this book would find its path, or journey, in a unique space.
But even amidst the quandary our Protagonist finds herself...to keep her baby or not [by this time she HAS made a definitive choice on her own], sadly, this story has hit the Wall of Uniqueness it once had and is now falling into formulaic territory.
Already, I am kinda exhausted from being in Poppy's POV/headspace...because her "phobias" are really self-inflicted...very little Phobic measures are coming from outside contact...as of yet. I do understand one of her 'fatphobia' instances is with her own mother...so, haven't got there, but I know when I do it could be my breaking point. This might end up being a DNF.
Poppy is 22yrs old...and yet again, I have to train my reading brain to not make easy, grandiose I-Am-48-yrs-old sweeping assumptions that she should just let things go or figure her shit out. Know WHO SHE IS already and forget those who wanna pound or step on however she wants to find her Happy Place.
I think this story suffers immensely from not having dual POVs, because Poppy is exhaustive and, frankly, it would be awesome to take a break, once and awhile and find out how the other heroine, Rhiannon is doing, what she is thinking and where the fuck her own head is at. Especially once their relationship goes deeper and begins to develop. I dislike being stuck and sucked into Poppy's, literal, immaturity 24/7.
By the title, a reader will soon find out that Poppy enters a local Knitting Club...so, uhm, here is some heartbreaking honesty...the Knitting 411 is so heavy-handed it is going over my head and at so many points I skimmed through a Knitting Club scene because the Info-dumping and the verbiage/language being spoken is NOT VERY INTERESTING... nor is it easily explainable w/o some helpful definition of what is being talked about or discussed. The only thing I know is... Poppy bought the WRONG SIZE Knitting needles for her first day in the club and went out to go purchase new, correct-sized ones.
Look, in my growing up years... my childhood and teenage years, I was often lost in so much vague, empty time doing certain Crafting projects. My Mom was a knitter, a crochet-er [heck, I think she even made tiny cross-stitches in dinner napkins at one point in my life], macrame...and she would often get into flash-in-the-pan craft do-jobbers... like Tri-Chem and Latch-hooking...she did so much sewing and hemming of clothing...yeah, she had a sewing kit [a wooden box that had, like tiered-levels and stuff] that was often part of the Living Room furniture, right next to wherever she sat most of the time.
So, I am not-dumb to Knitting... but there is a level of Pro-Knitting here where the Author is assuming readers will... JUST KNOW... and does not bother to explain...even when Poppy lets us know this is her first day of Knit Club...and she has a "past" of knowing how to knit already but it has been a few years since she has knitted on a constant daily basis.
The thing is...never assume what YOU love and know the most of...at a Pro-level or at some level where you know all the proper jargon and do-hickie routines...everyone else who reads will know too. This feels like when Authors just throw in random foreign dialogue, then never bother to translate.
Ugh...this bit of gruff mumbling from me means...I am taking a small break and going to read another book, then come back later...possibly...
January 24, 2021
I was lucky enough to snag an e-ARC of this book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found the tone refreshing yet believable for how someone Poppy's age would react to the situation they found themselves in. I also appreciated the inclusion of the internal debate she went through in deciding whether or not she was going to keep the baby and how it was portrayed in a way that it is ultimately up to the person carrying the baby what they wish to do.
I agree with the other reviews that the romance between Rhiannon and Poppy seemed a bit rushed and, in some ways, to come out of nowhere. We knew the attraction was there, at least on Poppy's side, but besides the casual flirting there was no indicator that Rhiannon felt the same way. That said, there were also multiple conflicts in the story, which I felt was more believable especially given how fast paced their romantic relationship was.
Also Poppy's internal struggle, while believable, also seemed to become a bit of a crutch to add more unnecessary drama to the story. She also had a bad habit of lashing out at all the wrong people and the pregnancy hormone excuse can only be used for so many before it's gets a bit tedious. She always apologized because she recognized that it wasn't fair but it still happened a lot. The only one she never apologized too (rightfully) was her mom who...whew that woman was a piece of work. For someone who thought she knew everything about everything, she was sure quick to add more stressors to her pregnant daughter's life which anyone who has every had a baby will tell you is a big effing no-no.
Overall, this was a sweet romance about learning to be comfortable with your own choices, realizing your family can be found and not the one you're born into, but also realizing that sometimes you can forgive family for past hurts (not her mom btw that was still unresolved at the end). I would highly recommend this book for anyone who wants a quick sweet romance read.
I agree with the other reviews that the romance between Rhiannon and Poppy seemed a bit rushed and, in some ways, to come out of nowhere. We knew the attraction was there, at least on Poppy's side, but besides the casual flirting there was no indicator that Rhiannon felt the same way. That said, there were also multiple conflicts in the story, which I felt was more believable especially given how fast paced their romantic relationship was.
Also Poppy's internal struggle, while believable, also seemed to become a bit of a crutch to add more unnecessary drama to the story. She also had a bad habit of lashing out at all the wrong people and the pregnancy hormone excuse can only be used for so many before it's gets a bit tedious. She always apologized because she recognized that it wasn't fair but it still happened a lot. The only one she never apologized too (rightfully) was her mom who...whew that woman was a piece of work. For someone who thought she knew everything about everything, she was sure quick to add more stressors to her pregnant daughter's life which anyone who has every had a baby will tell you is a big effing no-no.
Overall, this was a sweet romance about learning to be comfortable with your own choices, realizing your family can be found and not the one you're born into, but also realizing that sometimes you can forgive family for past hurts (not her mom btw that was still unresolved at the end). I would highly recommend this book for anyone who wants a quick sweet romance read.
January 28, 2021
A nice read about love, an unexpected baby and knitting. Packed in a book told from Poppy's pov who's 22 years old, pregnant from her loser boyfriend and joining a knitting group after deciding to keep the baby. Here she meets Rhiannon and now it will be the question if the stable life Poppy is after for her baby will include Rhiannon or not.
The downside of first person POV is that you get a mostly one sided story when it comes to feelings and thoughts of the main character and it makes it difficult to connect with the person not telling this story. Some writers are able to show you (at least a glimpse) of those feelings through their writing but I felt this was lacking in this book.
On the plus side the internal dialogue made me chuckle at times, the interactions between people were realistic and it was a good call to not completely resolve all the issues Poppy had.
Overall a book that's a good fit for anyone who is looking for a not too drama-filled romance with an interesting storyline and main character.
*** An ARC was provided by Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. ***
The downside of first person POV is that you get a mostly one sided story when it comes to feelings and thoughts of the main character and it makes it difficult to connect with the person not telling this story. Some writers are able to show you (at least a glimpse) of those feelings through their writing but I felt this was lacking in this book.
On the plus side the internal dialogue made me chuckle at times, the interactions between people were realistic and it was a good call to not completely resolve all the issues Poppy had.
Overall a book that's a good fit for anyone who is looking for a not too drama-filled romance with an interesting storyline and main character.
*** An ARC was provided by Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. ***
March 30, 2021
I really enjoyed this. Cute, with a killer first person voice, and lots of found-family goodness. I also really loved the fat leading lady aspect and the way Poppy was presented. A little angsty in places but pretty low stakes in a good way.
The relationship between Poppy and both Rhiannon and the Stitch ‘n’ Bitch crew developed awfully fast but other than that my only complaint is that for two rational people who seem to be fairly good at communicating Poppy and Rhiannon sure got in their own way sometimes, and sometimes in cringey ways.
But for anybody who crafts and has been part of a knitting group this book will feel like a hug after coming home.
The relationship between Poppy and both Rhiannon and the Stitch ‘n’ Bitch crew developed awfully fast but other than that my only complaint is that for two rational people who seem to be fairly good at communicating Poppy and Rhiannon sure got in their own way sometimes, and sometimes in cringey ways.
But for anybody who crafts and has been part of a knitting group this book will feel like a hug after coming home.
May 20, 2021
I was really in to the beginning of this book, particularly about the second heroine being an abortion care facility volunteer. I liked how Poppy really went through the consideration of whether to keep or terminate the pregnancy. It felt very authentic. But then I realized Poppy is like 22 and the story took a turn for me. She felt really immature and I needed to move on with my life.
I am a knitter but I felt the knitting angle was really heavy handed and possibly could leave many readers out of the loop.
I am a knitter but I felt the knitting angle was really heavy handed and possibly could leave many readers out of the loop.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 116 reviews