Comforting and enjoyable, if sometimes annoying, women's fiction: (2010-07-06) 
A limited time freebie from the Kindle store; I read this on my Kindle app for iPhone. And this is the perfect book to be read on a portable device - easy to put down, easy to pick up the story days or weeks later.

As a knitter, I'm a sucker for books with yarn and needles on the cover. However, unlike other books that seek to capitalize on the current popularity and community aspects of knitting, there's little stitching going on. While the heroine, Sydney, does open a yarn shop and creates a side business spinning pet hair into yarn, knitting is not a theme nor even much of a metaphor.

Instead, Spinning Forward is about starting over in your fifties. As the book opens, Sydney has led a comfortable life as an upper middle class housewife to a doctor - a doctor who has an unfortunate gambling habit which bankrupts Sydney after his sudden death in an accident. Sydney leaves Boston behind and moves to Crystal Key, Florida, where her best friend runs a B & B. As Sydney struggles to start over again, her past - in the form of the birth mother who gave her up as a newborn for adoption - also begins to find her. And then there's Noah Hale, the handsome local artist who rubs Sydney the wrong way - while also causing sparks to fly.

Author DuLong does a nice job depicting a small town that rallies around its own, even if some of the characters come straight out of kooky Southern stereotype central casting. Her use of dialect is a bit distracting - it's always "ya" instead of "you" - but I've also read worse. For a large part of the time, the book is like a warm bath; nothing too original or thought-provoking, but comforting and enjoyable.

However, the book takes some wrong turns. Sydney is mostly likable, but occasionally she acts like a spoiled, insecure teenager. If it would be possible to slap a fictional character, Sydney would have very red cheeks. The book also teases revelations that are obvious from page one; while I admire the author for getting one reveal over rather promptly, allowing the story to advance, the second reveal felt ridiculous. There are also only so many coincidences a reader will swallow before throwing the book against the wall, but since I was reading on my iPhone this book avoided that fate.

I did love the book for its celebration of women after the childbearing years are over. And for that, Spinning Forward gets three stars.

More than just a story: (2010-05-11) 
Every woman who has been faced with drastic changes in a comfortable life will feel a connection with this story. On the surface is the thread of a satisfying love story that makes every romantic sigh. The real story is the struggle to find the person submerged in a too comfortable life. The devastation of loss of husband and home, the conflict between mother and daughter, the angst of adoption and abandonment and the search for a way to not only support herself, but make herself whole again, to find her "feminine self" tugged at my heart and brought me to tears through much of the book. Not because it was sad, but because I have experienced so much of what she was going through to find herself. The importance of woman friends to support, nurture and kick your behind when necessary is clear as is the need for family either chosen or blood. The characters were real to me and I grieved at the losses and warmed at the discovery of love and acceptance. This book makes your heart warm and grow and I look forward to Terri's coming book.

Another Knitlit Book: (2010-05-05) 
This is another entry in the burgeoning genre of knitlit; fiction featuring knitters, crocheters, and spinners. If you enjoy Debbie Macomber, this may be a good choice for you. I wasn't especially impressed, but I'm not generally a romance/women's fiction reader.

A New Favorite Author: (2010-04-27) 
I borrowed this book from my local library and liked it so much I am going to buy it for my collection. I have read some of the reviews and was puzzled by some opinions. I can't tell you if this book has all the "right" literary necessities, but I can tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I work with numbers all day and then knit at night(more numbers) and I found this book very entertaining.
My friend told me about this book and she loved the book too. My advice is, buy the book and enjoy it for what it is. A nice story with realistic characters. I am looking forwar to Terri's next book!!

Happy Knitting (oh and of course reading too)!!

poorly written and utterly predictable: (2010-04-20) 
...that about sums it up. It's easy to predict what's going to happen light years ahead of the characters. And prose like this had me gagging (from the narrator's description of her friend's lover):

"Five years older than Ali and about four inches taller, silver streaked his dark hair and provided a nice contrast to his smiling blue eyes. His sense of humor had kept us laughing, and he seemed to be one of those men who were at ease in their own body."

Should be "one of those men who is at ease in his own body"--"one" is the subject, not "men." I could forgive grammatical infelicities like this, especially as "they/their" is used as singular all the time in speech, but I just can't get over the cliche-ridden descriptions and the tendency to info dump, especially in the opening passages. It's all telling, no showing. And, unlike the _Friday Night Knitting Club_, which I liked, spinning and knitting doesn't really influence the plot of this novel very much.

Save your money and get it from the library if you must.