How to Knit a Love Song

November 23, 2009
Herron steps briskly into formula in her debut about knitting and a mismatched couple who hate to love each other. When knitting book author Abigail is bequeathed a cottage and a small piece of land on a ranch owned by her best friend and mentor, Eliza Carpenter, she decides to give it a go in sleepy Northern California. Instead of her idealized version of a quaint abode, she arrives to find a decrepit, junk-filled shack and an irascible rancher, Cade—nephew of Eliza—who, despite his anger at Abigail having anything to do with his ranch, allows her to stay in his house until she gets the cottage in order. The two gorgeous strangers quickly realize an attraction they swear to fend off, but, of course, they don't, though there's a lot of fussing along the way. Herron, a popular knitting blogger, weaves in her love of the art throughout the rote romance. It has sweet moments, but the uninspired plot gets tiresome.

Narrator Carrington MacDuffie captures the escalating tension between Abigail and Cade, who are thrown together in a California beach town after the death of Eliza Carpenter, who was Abigail's mentor and Cade's aunt. MacDuffie's accent and range of inflections successfully evoke Abigail, a former city dweller, as well as many of the town's residents. However, in the portrayal of Cade--who plays the cowboy to Abigail's city slicker persona--MacDuffie's Western accent sometimes sounds overdone. As hints of Abigail's past reveal themselves, MacDuffie's deft timing keeps the listener in suspense and the pace of the story moving quickly. M.F. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine