Series continues with ‘Knit the Season’

The holidays always bring along a good amount of anxiety, but for Dakota Walker, this year’s celebratory season has one stress-filled event after another piled on top of each other.

Not only is Dakota struggling to keep her mother’s legacy at the Walker and Daughter knitting shop and the Friday Night Knitting Club intact, but she is also helping her 80-year-old surrogate grandmother Anita prepare for her wedding, as well as taking on a cooking internship at one of the hottest hotels in New York City. With so much to do and prepare for, Dakota’s family and friends urge her to slow down before everything implodes.

With “Knit the Season,” author Kate Jacobs continues her series featuring the strong, fascinating women of the Friday Night Knitting Club. The group, first organized by Dakota’s mother, the late Georgia Walker, is still going strong, supporting each other in their various adventures, romances and crises. Jacobs’ imaginative storytelling skills give life to each of the female characters, and it’s intriguing and heartwarming to read of their development through the three books, beginning with “The Friday Night Knitting Club.”

Matriarch of the group Anita Lowenstein is again planning her oft-postponed nuptials to her beloved Marty, this time to take place on New Year’s Eve — whether her oldest son Nathan likes it or not. Sophisticated antique shop owner (and Georgia’s best friend) Catherine is eagerly anticipating the arrival of her Italian lover Marco and hoping maybe he’ll be inspired by all the wedding preparations to pop the question. Peri, the manager of the knitting shop and a pocketbook designer, has an offer that will make her dreams come true, if she dares accept it. Darwin is busy raising her twin babies while Lucie is juggling her elderly mother and her lively daughter. And KC is bemoaning it all, when she secretly desires to have a piece of the happiness pie herself.

But the main story revolves around Dakota as she matures into a talented and sought-after chef-in-training. She struggles to please everyone, including her father who has surprised her with a Christmas trip to see her beloved great-grandmother in Scotland. But when she is offered a chance to intern over Christmas in one of the snazziest restaurants in town, Dakota is conflicted — should she choose family or career? Her choice will surprise and delight readers.

Fans of Jacobs’ books will be charmed with this continuation of a beloved series. Here’s hoping for more stories of the Friday Night Knitting Group down the road!