In the world of small town contemporary romance, there is a LOT of stitchin' going on. Quilt clubs, cookie clubs, cupcake clubs, quilted cookie-cake-pie clubs (WANT NOW). There are MANY.
For example, there's no shortage of quilting mixed with a little (or a lot of) romance:
No, I'm not sure what “Miss Pussy and the Quilting Club” is about, except for quilting and a woman named Miss Pussy. But it's not erotica, I do know that!
There's also plenty of knitting going on in and around romance land – of course!
And cookies! Don't forget the cookies! And the cupcakes! (Seriously, I'm asking, why are there not more cookie-cake-pie romances?)
And of course this has nothing to do with romance, but if I didn't share this book with you, I'd feel like a bad person:
Anyway, as I was saying, we are not short on crafty baking or baking craftiness in romance.
But then Elyse found this book, and, well, I think she's found a whole new world in terms of crafty-type fiction:
Elyse: DUDE.
RedHeadedGirl: The babysitters club has grown up. It was inevitable.
Elyse: The smug look on the Amish lady's face though… OMG the quilts are made from people!!!
RedHeadedGirl: HANNIBAL DOES QUILTING.
Elyse: Is the woman on the left holding a doobie?
Carrie: I would read that. The woman in front left looks like she's ready to drop quilting as a hobby and take up mass murder instead.
Sarah: Yes, that woman front left looks like quilting has done her wrong. Very wrong.
Carrie: I had the same expression when I tried quilting, now that I think of it.
Sarah: So either the plot is “a variety of people joined this quilting club,” or it's about someone with a stock photo obsession. OR BOTH.
What's your craft of choice? (And am I alone in wanting cookie-cake-pie romances or manga cross stitch romances?)
I read one of the reviews for that last quilting-themed book. Assuming it was accurate (so many exclamation points), that cover is actually a pretty good fit. I think I can even identify which character is which. Although you’d think the teen taking quilting lessons in honor of her dead grandmother could manage to look a little less annoyed about the whole thing.
I’m really tempted to read that last one, just to find out about the biker dude and why he seems to be glaring menacingly at that quilt. Are the stitches crooked or does he just not like the pattern?
The very idea of the cookie-cake-pie makes my teeth hurt, and I like to remove the pecans from pecan pie before eating it so it’s pretty much straight karo syrup, so it’s not like I’m some sort of sugar weakling. So I’n going to have to draw the line there. UNLESS you can put it on a stick, of course. (Speaking of which, you totally missed the Cupcake/Cake Pop SERIES by Donna Kauffman, and some of the good knitting ones, not that I can remember the names at the moment. (knit one pearl one?))
I read the hell out of every baking/cooking-themed romance I find. I haven’t found many that have lived up to their potential, but I keep looking, because food and romance novels go together like peanut butter and obvious similes.
Larry the Cable Guy quilts?
*clears throat, raises hand* I have a pie romance (and an ongoing romance with pies, but that’s another story): Down on Love
http://www.amazon.com/Down-Marsden-Novel-Jayne-Denker-ebook/dp/B00D98D0H0/ref=la_B00ENH4PUW_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404755396&sr=1-2
Straight knitting? Hm, I suppose…I much prefer yarn bombing (in the sequel, Picture This)
http://www.amazon.com/Picture-Marsden-Novel-Jayne-Denker-ebook/dp/B00IO3QQYY/ref=la_B00ENH4PUW_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404755545&sr=1-3
Great, I just had to sign up for the Serious Eats newsletter. Apparently the two dozen to which I already subscribe weren’t enough. Baking is my passion and while I think the pie crust is a little much for cookie dough, I can see the need to hit all the gustatory bases. As one does.
I’m a cross-stitcher and occasional quilter. Fall is when I get the yen to knit, but I’ve never really mastered it; I can’t get my tension right. Anyway, Barbara Bretton started a series about a yarn shop where your yarn never tangles, your sleeves always come out the same length, and you always, always get gauge. That’s how you know it’s a fantasy.
I’m obviously a textile nerd, because I looked at that last cover and said “That’s not an Amish quilt. Jeez, get it together people.” (Amish quilts are made out of solid fabrics only, not prints).
I pretty much love all textile related crafts, but I haven’t really liked any of the crafty fiction I’ve read – it tends to be too sweet for my taste. (With the exception of a few queer knitting novellas – more sex and less cancer than mf knitting fiction).
@cleo I was totally laughing at myself because of all the problems with that cover, the quilt is the one that jumps out at me. It’s so nice not to be alone in obsessiveness.
I machine quilt, and feel guilty about it, so I don’t actually do a lot of quilting, although I recently started a log cabin I’m piecing from my dad’s flannel shirts. I never met a craft I didn’t enjoy, but I do more knitting than anything else. Unless baking counts.
Ruthie Knox has a novel with a heroine who’s doing a knitting exhibit at the V&A, that’s the only crafty romance I can recall enjoying. Oh wait, there’s that Tessa Dare with the heroine who’s super into embroidery, that was also great. Undoubtedly others I’m forgetting.
I have read a number of the Cookie Club romances, including Lori Wilde’s, over the past few years. I host a Christmas cookie exchange every year with my neighborhood girlfriends. Our “hot guys” are two middle-aged husbands who just happen to crash the party every year because they are the worst cookie whores. The worst. SMH
My love is baking and I will read a bakery or a good cook’s cookbook like a novel. As for the baking romance novels, like Dread Pirate Rachel said, not many live up to their potential. Over the holiday weekend, I read Christmas in July by Debbie Mason. The heroine is a baker who makes elaborate “sugarplum” cakes and the bakery business is a big part of the story. Second chances, war heroes, and cake. Worked for me.
@kkw – I’m glad I’m not the only one.
@cleo and kkw, thank you for saving me from being the first one to point that out. I’m a picker of nits and often feel bad for it! At least it’s a change from us complaining about the dress on the cover being from the wrong period…..
The ladies in my guild are fond of Jennifer Chiaverini’s Elm Creek Quilts series, but it’s more “women’s” fiction than romance. Honestly, I’m not a fan. On the other hand, I just searched Wanda Brunstetter @ the GBPL website and there are 117!! listings under her name, now granted that’s for multiple copies and multiple formats, but only la Nora has a longer file. Luckily, The Half Stitched Amish Quilting Club is one of them. Score!
@Jayne Dekker, me oh my, I like pie! I am in.
I’m actually not one to read crafty romances because in real life I’m more likely to be found making spreadsheets or organizing metadata than I am baking or sewing. BUT I think we can meet in the middle here because I’m all for seeing a growth in romance novels about couponing or hoarder helping. I’m thinking the hero is an uber nerd with a vast collection of [insert something nerdy here] that’s eating up his house so he hires a nice young lady to help him catalog it…and…the rest will be history!
Also – seriously love the cover. It may even be awesome enough to get me to read it.
I am a quilter so, thank you for more books to read! 😉
I also crochet, can knit, & used to cross-stitch. My baking is pretty good too. Mom also taught me to macramé back in the 70’s.
I’ve been resisting picking up textile crafts just because I don’t have time for all the things I want to make as is. Seriously, I have dabbled in practically every other medium. but I have a soft spot for the concept of quilting. I still have this beautiful quilt that was made for me as a baby by a friend of the family, and another I got as a wedding present with a border made out of fabric with bright red lips all over it.
I choose to believe the above cover belongs to a book about a romance between the amish lady and the guy in the leather vest. You can see the way he looks at her, that smoldering discontent waiting to explode into PASSION.
I was intrigued by this cake-cookie-pie hulabaloo, but…but…the fruit filling in pie is the best part! How can you leave that out? As is, it’s just a combination of three different textures of sweet bready stuff. Ok, I guess that’s kind of fascinating to. But I would happily ditch the cake/frosting part for pie filling.
Cleo—can I interest you in a most decidedly not sweet romance with a quilt shop owner/quilting theme?
(yes, this is my own book) Rocky Mountain Desire. It’s part of a series, but it stands alone.
http://www.vivianarend.com/books/six-pack-ranch/rocky-mountain-desire/
Love to knit and quilt. And I read a fair number of books with those themes. But somehow, I much prefer them in cozy mysteries than in romances. For one thing, in all the groups I’ve knit or quilted with, I’ve only encountered one guy, and that was an elderly gay bookseller. Hard to start a romance when you are hanging around with the gals all the time.
And I find it much more likely that my stitching efforts could lead to homicide than to true love. :=)
@Alexandra: I just read a Jessica Clare novel where the MC’s mother was a horder. And for that matter, the first Josie Marcus Mystery Shopper novel, her mother was having horder tendencies in it. So it’s a sure thing that there are horder romances out there.
Spreadsheets, on the other hand…
Just finished Wallbanger by Alice Clayton.
It is not billed as a baking or quilting book (in fact, I don’t think there is any sewing at all) BUT she bakes to relax. And it’s not that he loves her for her bread, but her baking does appear in several scenes….
So, back to pie, h/h are in the middle of a very messy kitchen encounter and then:
“Apple? Oh boy, I love apples,” he groaned……
“I know you do, with cinnamon? I could bake you a pie, Simon. Your very own apple pie”…..
“You really want to talk about this now? Because if you keep this up, I’m going to be forced to get really dirty myself.”
“Dirtier than apple pie talk?”
ha ha ha ha ha. This book kept making me laugh. I eventually had to go read in my living room because the hubs was trying to sleep. Of course, I didn’t type the entire scene, just the pie highlights 🙂
@Alexandra – Josephine Myles has an mm called Junk, about a hoarder and his counselor. I haven’t read it (counselors sleeping with their clients is a deal breaker for me) but it got good reviews.
@Celia Marsh – The Mystery Shopper series looks like it’s right up my alley.
@cleo – This is exactly the type of thing I’m looking for, and I really love the cover.
Thanks for the awesome suggestions!
I like to bake—All The Things, really, but mostly bread, partly because I’m really bad at the decorating part of cookies & cakes & my lemon meringue & key lime pies always seem to end up runny & I’m not sure why…
And I also crochet a bit & dabble in cross stitch. I can sew a hem by hand, but I’m bewildered by sewing machines. AND I found a free pattern that I really love that I really really want to make now but it’s knitting and my last attempt to learn that was…well, not completely *disastrous* exactly, but… not exactly successful (unless by successful you mean, I eventually managed to untangle myself).
And I’m kind of wanting to learn to tat, for no particular reason than because I do (and also, up until I changed my name after marriage, my initials were T.A.T., so…)
I used to do a lot of stitchery, but now am totally absorbed in making wire-wrapped jewelry. Who knew you could make a nice-looking ring out of a length of wire? After a long hiatus from crafts, I’m happy to find something where the supplies don’t cost the earth, it’s easy to do, and the finished product looks good right from the get-go. I used to do bead work, but I spent more time crawling around on the floor picking up beads than actually making anything. It’s easy to pick up a piece of jewelry in progress, so no more crawling. I’m amazed that at my age (67) I still have the eyesight and manual dexterity to pick up a new craft.
Miss Pussy made me think of a book for early readers called Pussy and the Birds (which I refuse to use with my class). I kid you not, one page has the birds chanting ‘Naughty Pussy! Naughty Pussy! Naughty Pussy!’