Book Round-Up: Quilty Edition

The Wedding Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini: Like her last few Elm Creek Quilts books, Chiaverini uses a framing device -- here, the wedding of Sarah's daughter, set in the future -- to tell the stories of different characters. It's a structure Chiaverini has used a lot, and I did not find it as effective. Some of the stories were perfunctory and expositiony; others were engaging, to the point that I think they would have worked better fleshed out into proper novels. I wonder if Chiaverini intended this to be the last one; by setting it in the future, and "recapping" the lives of the major characters, it had the feel of a finale. But it wasn't!

The Giving Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini: This appears to be the final novel, and again Chiaverini used an event -- a week-long charity quilting retreat -- to tell the stories of various women (this time new characters). This worked better than the previous one, more akin to a collection of short stories, although I didn't find the characters all that interesting. What's more interesting is the negative reviews on Goodreads, complaining about Chiaverini injecting politics into the narrative. While she did use the stories as soapboxes, I'm both amused and troubled that her opinions (Greed bad! Libraries good!) are considered controversial by some.

Wild Goose Chase by Terri Thayer: The first novel in a quilty mystery series, this novel was overall entertaining and well-written, although I wasn't thrilled with the rivalry between the heroine, Dewey, and her sister-in-law, Kim. Kim engaged in objectively awful behavior, but Dewey also has a huge chip on her shoulder regarding women who are traditionally feminine. Perhaps as Dewey begins to understand the art of quilting, she will mature over the course of the series.

Apart at the Seams by Marie Bostwick: Normally I like to read a series in order, but having been in a reading emergency (I finished my book before my commute home and needed to download something quickly from the library's website) I skipped over books 2-5 and read this one. Which isn't a big deal, in this series: while the books center around a quilt store in a small town in Connecticut, each novel focuses on different characters with only minimal continuity to worry about. Bostwick's novels are your standard women-dealing-with-marriage/career/family-problems stories, but the characters are smarter and more insightful than usual.