Published: 10-29-2024 2:00 PM |
Author: Jenny Colgan
Title: Close Knit
Date: 2024
Pages: 318
Genre: Fiction
Gertie Moonie is a shy young woman who lives on a tiny, remote island, one in a string of islands in the North Sea of Scotland. Gertie is surrounded by women. She lives in a small cottage with her mother Jean, her grandmother Elspeth. The cottage is stuffed full with many packages of wool. The women are all knitters, and their Knitting Circle meets regularly at the cottage. They like to gossip and give Gertie advice about her love life (which is nonexistent). Gertie feels stuck. She is a cashier at the small grocery store. She meant to do more with her life. But the pandemic happened, she was hired at the store, and her life went into a routine. And it is very hard to find a place of her own in the little village.
She is persuaded to lease an apartment with Morag, a “cool girl” that Gertie remembers from school. Morag is a fearless young woman who flies planes for the small local airline. Stuart owns the apartment, and Gertie had a huge crush on him when she was 11. Now Stuart is a musician and a teacher at the village school. Gertie is also persuaded to take a job checking in people at the airline, even though Gertie has never been up in a plane. Gertie develops a crush on rich young Calum Frost who owns the airline. But she thinks that she is just dreaming again. Why would Calum be interested in her? she thinks.
Stuart, another teacher Mrs. McGinty, and a group twelve ten-year old students go on an adventurous trip to the remote Mermaid’s Spyglass island by plane. It’s spring, and the weather is just supposed to be rainy. But a freak storm comes up and traps the party. And the Knitting Circle, Jean, and Gertie all respond to the emergency, gathering food, warm blankets and knitted gloves and hats. And as the emergency continues Gertie travels to the island to bring food and to help with the children. The situation worsens, and she finds strengths that she never knew she possessed. It’s obvious that Gertie loves the island and its people, and you will be rooting for them to all find a way home safely.
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Reading Jenny Colgan’s stories is like chatting with an old friend. Her characters are charming, quirky and funny. I’m not a knitter, but I loved this book. I got wound up in it. (Sorry!). And if you like this book, Jenny has written more. There’s a series about a bookshop, one about an island, and one about a school by the sea.
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Robbin Bailey
Concord Public Library