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lezreviewbooks's review
4.0
School teacher Anna finds herself stressed and bored so she decides to take on crochet classes with Ollie, an army veteran and the owner of the craft shop 'Darn that yarn'. As Ollie teaches Anna how to crochet, both women soon become friends and slowly discover their mutual attraction. But a jealous ex-boyfriend, their wary offspring and their own self-doubts get in the way. Will they have a happily ever after?
This is a debut novel by British author Jenn Matthews featuring main characters in their 50s, both divorced, one a lesbian and the other allegedly straight. As the reader can tell by the cover and the title, crochet is at the center of this story and it's the facilitator of the relationship between the leads. You don't need to love crochet to read this book (I personally don't) but an interest in arts and crafts would be beneficial.
As an avid crocheter herself, Ms. Matthews knows what she's talking about and the novel is filled with descriptions of techniques and materials for the craft. Personally, I think that the book goes into too many details (crochet or otherwise) that could have been removed to make the pace of the book slightly faster. Having said that, the slow burn suits this type of story and I was pleased to see that the author took her time to develop the mains relationship and the subplots.
The crochet classes environment works well to present the good number of secondary characters and to build the leads relationship. I liked how the author gave hints of their attraction through their body language and the natural sounding dialogues. The author is very cinematographic in her descriptions, she makes it easy for the reader to create a mental picture of the scenes. All the characters, mains or secondary, feel multi-layered and authentic, including the Anna's autistic son. The sex scene is well written and this book also features an excellent self-pleasuring scene. One of the best that I've read in non-erotica lesfic.
Through and through, this novel has a distinct British feel not only in the use of the language but also in many British references such as the use of tea as a conversation enabler or alcohol as a social lubricant. This helps to establish the tone and setting of the novel, providing authenticity and a credibility to the story.
Overall, a good slow-burn romance between a couple in their 50s with the unusual setting of a crochet class and an authentic British feel. 4 stars.
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
See all my reviews at www.lezreviewbooks.com
This is a debut novel by British author Jenn Matthews featuring main characters in their 50s, both divorced, one a lesbian and the other allegedly straight. As the reader can tell by the cover and the title, crochet is at the center of this story and it's the facilitator of the relationship between the leads. You don't need to love crochet to read this book (I personally don't) but an interest in arts and crafts would be beneficial.
As an avid crocheter herself, Ms. Matthews knows what she's talking about and the novel is filled with descriptions of techniques and materials for the craft. Personally, I think that the book goes into too many details (crochet or otherwise) that could have been removed to make the pace of the book slightly faster. Having said that, the slow burn suits this type of story and I was pleased to see that the author took her time to develop the mains relationship and the subplots.
The crochet classes environment works well to present the good number of secondary characters and to build the leads relationship. I liked how the author gave hints of their attraction through their body language and the natural sounding dialogues. The author is very cinematographic in her descriptions, she makes it easy for the reader to create a mental picture of the scenes. All the characters, mains or secondary, feel multi-layered and authentic, including the Anna's autistic son. The sex scene is well written and this book also features an excellent self-pleasuring scene. One of the best that I've read in non-erotica lesfic.
Through and through, this novel has a distinct British feel not only in the use of the language but also in many British references such as the use of tea as a conversation enabler or alcohol as a social lubricant. This helps to establish the tone and setting of the novel, providing authenticity and a credibility to the story.
Overall, a good slow-burn romance between a couple in their 50s with the unusual setting of a crochet class and an authentic British feel. 4 stars.
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
See all my reviews at www.lezreviewbooks.com
corrie's review
4.0
Hooked on You is the debut novel from British author Jen Matthews.
It’s a slow burn, slow paced and basically drama free romance story about war veteran Ollie, now owner of a small craft store and English teacher Anna. Both women are middle aged, have grown kids (Anna’s adopted son is on the spectrum). Anna is dating a health and safety inspector (Liam) who proves to be quite an asshole. Her kids don’t like him anyway.
When Anna takes up crochet lessons at Ollies, we pretty much follow her progress from week to week as she takes on more and more advanced projects. Their mutual attraction grows steadily and I find the slow burn approach believable (don’t forget Anna is still dating Liam and not really thinking of women in that way). We get a real in-depth character study of both women (we alternate between their pov’s), a bit à la Susan X. Meagher.
You have to be very patient with these two. There is a lot of baggage to navigate through plus Liam plus Anna's kids plus Ollie’s estranged kids but like I said there is no overt drama. If you don’t like crafting at least a bit I suggest you don’t even start because it is the backbone of this almost 400-page novel (on Scribd anyway). Also, even though there’s sweet cuddles and kissing a plenty (once they have crossed that bridge) the single money shot scene will not happen until the last 50 pages.
I was surprised that it kept me going like it did. I read the whole book in two days, so that’s a good thing. Sure, Ylva could have maybe culled it a bit, but it was still a very enjoyable read and a good debut.
f/f explicit
Themes: London, past time infidelity, war veteran, busted knee, craft shop, crochet lessons, lots of tea and granny squares, workaholics, Liam is a narrow-minded ass hat, the holiday season.
4 stars
It’s a slow burn, slow paced and basically drama free romance story about war veteran Ollie, now owner of a small craft store and English teacher Anna. Both women are middle aged, have grown kids (Anna’s adopted son is on the spectrum). Anna is dating a health and safety inspector (Liam) who proves to be quite an asshole. Her kids don’t like him anyway.
When Anna takes up crochet lessons at Ollies, we pretty much follow her progress from week to week as she takes on more and more advanced projects. Their mutual attraction grows steadily and I find the slow burn approach believable (don’t forget Anna is still dating Liam and not really thinking of women in that way). We get a real in-depth character study of both women (we alternate between their pov’s), a bit à la Susan X. Meagher.
You have to be very patient with these two. There is a lot of baggage to navigate through plus Liam plus Anna's kids plus Ollie’s estranged kids but like I said there is no overt drama. If you don’t like crafting at least a bit I suggest you don’t even start because it is the backbone of this almost 400-page novel (on Scribd anyway). Also, even though there’s sweet cuddles and kissing a plenty (once they have crossed that bridge) the single money shot scene will not happen until the last 50 pages.
I was surprised that it kept me going like it did. I read the whole book in two days, so that’s a good thing. Sure, Ylva could have maybe culled it a bit, but it was still a very enjoyable read and a good debut.
f/f explicit
Themes: London, past time infidelity, war veteran, busted knee, craft shop, crochet lessons, lots of tea and granny squares, workaholics, Liam is a narrow-minded ass hat, the holiday season.
4 stars
pers's review
4.0
A delightful story about two older women who fall in love. Ollie runs a craft shop and has a crochet group twice a week. Anna's daughter thinks she needs to do more than work (she's a teacher) and garden, and go on the occasional date with her casual 'boyfriend', Liam, so Anna decides to take up crocheting after visiting Ollie's shop. Ollie is a lesbian, although she finds it hard to admit to after decades of repression, and Anna's never fallen for a woman before, but slowly they realise their feelings for each other.
synth's review
2.0
Quite a few things I disliked, like the army thing, but it's overall a gentle and soft romance, which a lot of people seem to find boring for its slowness, but that was something in its favor for me. It's all a bit too easy, with mostly zero homophobia or any difficulties between the two main characters, so they end up not having any real character development. But they are very sweet and respectful to each other, and I specifically enjoyed that they didn't have the usual dramatic breakup needed for them to realize their the love of each other's life. Some people said they didn't have any chemistry but to me it seems that they are mixing up dramatic and objectifying "passion" with chemistry. Anyway, this was a pleasant surprise, and I am disappointed but not surprised that a lot of people found it boring because I found it less boring than the usual lesfics that are praised for the "passion" and chemistry but are all too formulaic imo.
mimit's review
4.0
I received this book as part of a monthly read for sapphicbookclub.tumblr.com.
The protagonists in this were both in their early 50s which I really appreciated because I rarely get to read romances with older protagonists in them. So score one for older WLW! It's very slow paced and easy to read which I also liked a lot. I didn't like the protagonists much when I started out, but they really ended up growing on me! I loved how their romance was developed and how it progressed through the book. The intimacy was sweet and gentle and it felt natural.
The main issue I had with the book was with the beginning mostly. There was a sort of a prologue that I didn't realise was a prologue till the next section jumped to the future. The earlier chapters were a bit here and there in the sense that there seemed to be too many characters coming in at once and I couldn't really make sense of what was going on, but it came together quite nicely towards the middle and onwards. Overall I thought it was a sweet story despite the hiccups in the beginning, and I also appreciated the inclusion of characters of differing abilities. That was one of the book's strong suits in my opinion, because it was all incorporated quite nicely.
The protagonists in this were both in their early 50s which I really appreciated because I rarely get to read romances with older protagonists in them. So score one for older WLW! It's very slow paced and easy to read which I also liked a lot. I didn't like the protagonists much when I started out, but they really ended up growing on me! I loved how their romance was developed and how it progressed through the book. The intimacy was sweet and gentle and it felt natural.
The main issue I had with the book was with the beginning mostly. There was a sort of a prologue that I didn't realise was a prologue till the next section jumped to the future. The earlier chapters were a bit here and there in the sense that there seemed to be too many characters coming in at once and I couldn't really make sense of what was going on, but it came together quite nicely towards the middle and onwards. Overall I thought it was a sweet story despite the hiccups in the beginning, and I also appreciated the inclusion of characters of differing abilities. That was one of the book's strong suits in my opinion, because it was all incorporated quite nicely.
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