Author: T.S. Easton

I received this book for free from Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Knitting is a man’s game.

After an incident regarding a crossing guard and a bottle of Martini & Rossi (and his bonehead friends), 17-year-old worrier Ben Fletcher must develop his sense of social alignment, take up a hobby, and do some community service to avoid any further probation.

He takes a knitting class (it was that or his father’s mechanic class) under the impression that it's taught by the hot teacher all the boys like. Turns out, it’s not. Perfect.

Regardless, he sticks with it and comes to find that he’s a natural knitter, maybe even great. It even helps ease his anxiety and worrying. The only challenge now is to keep it hidden from his friends, his crush, and his soccer-obsessed father. What a tangled web Ben has weaved . . . or knitted.

You know when you read a book and it’s pleasant and you enjoy it, but have no feeling towards either way? This is one of those. It was a good read, but it didn’t really do much for me. It didn’t bring out my emotions, and I didn’t really feel connected to the character or the story, but it was still enjoyable to read. I have to say though, it did make me want to try my hand at knitting again, but I know it’s a lost cause. Anyways, I did enjoy Ben’s obsession with knitting, and what led him to it in the first place. It was an interesting story for sure, but a little too neat and tidy for me for the most part.

Ben is a good kid. For the most part. He has some troublesome friends that tend to get him into trouble, and that is how he ends up on probation for a year. Of course with probation comes all sorts of rules and things he must do to not violate it. One of the things happens to be taking a class at the college. The reason he chooses knitting is actually because one of his teachers that he thinks is hot is teaching it, but it turns out that it was an error. Either way, he is a natural and finds himself actually enjoying it. The only thing is, he wants to keep it secret. What will people think about him knitting? Especially his dad and his friends. We don’t get to know Ben very much. At least I didn’t feel like we did. I know that he is a good kid who isn’t out to make trouble, his family is a bit weird, and he has found something he enjoys doing that pretty much consumes him. He does learn to let go a bit, but I didn’t feel like we really knew him.

I liked the idea that Ben was good at knitting and that this book pushed the point that it’s not a girl thing. Kind of. Of course he is the only boy knitter, but it goes through the whole thing of not being ashamed and all that. I mean yes, he is trying to hide it, but he does have a lot of support, and when it comes out that he is a knitter for the most part things are fine. Of course there had to be a bit of drama with some mean kids who want to pick fun at him, but in the end he ends up happy and good. It was like everything all worked out and his circumstances with the probation, and slight embarrassment over the knitting was just a speck in the past. He gets his happy ending and everything is all good. I’ve realized that a book like this is hard to review since I am in the middle with my rating, but I do think that it is an enjoyable read, but nothing that I will remember months down the road.

3 Hot Espressos