Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl

 Title: Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl

Author: Hettie Bell

Imprint: Carina Press (Carina Adores)

Genre: Contemporary Romance, New Adult

Romantic Leads: Female/Female

On-Sale: March 30, 2021

Format: Trade Paperback

Price: $14.99 US

ISBN: 9781335688002

Book Description: Some people can’t wait to have babies. They’re ready for it—with their perfect lives and their pregnancy glow…

Poppy Adams doesn’t have a perfect life, and she wasn’t ready for the positive test. An unexpected baby—Poppy’s unexpected baby—won’t exactly have her family doing cartwheels. But she’s making the right choice.

Right?

Poppy’s totally got this. She just needs a little encouragement, and a knitting group is the perfect place to start. Baby blankets, booties, tiny little hats—small steps toward her new life. But she feels like she’s already dropped a stitch when she discovers the knitting group is led by the charismatic Rhiannon.

It’s not exactly a great time to meet the woman who might just be the love of her life. While the group easily shuffles around to make room for Poppy, it’s not so easy fitting her life and Rhiannon’s together. With the weeks counting down until her baby arrives, Poppy’s going to have to decide for herself what truly makes a family.

Carina Adores is home to highly romantic contemporary love stories featuring beloved romance tropes, where LGBTQ+ characters find their happily-ever-afters.

A new Carina Adores title is available each month in trade paperback, ebook and audiobook formats.

• The Hideaway Inn by Philip William Stover (available now!)
• The Girl Next Door by Chelsea M. Cameron (available now!)
• Just Like That by Cole McCade (available now!)
• Hairpin Curves by Elia Winters (available now!)
• The Love Study by Kris Ripper (available now!)
• The Secret Ingredient by KD Fisher (available now!)
• Just Like This by Cole McCade (available now!)
• Teddy Spenser Isn’t Looking for Love by Kim Fielding (available now!)
• Best Laid Plans by Roan Parrish (available now!)
• The Hate Project by Kris Ripper (coming April 27)
• Hard Sell by Hudson Lin (coming May 25)

Buy Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl by Hettie Bell

Harlequin.com: https://www.harlequin.com/shop/books/9781335688002_knit-purl-a-baby-and-a-girl.html 

IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781335688002 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Knit-Purl-Baby-Carina-Adores/dp/1335688005 

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/knit-purl-a-baby-and-a-girl-hettie-bell/1138272514 

Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/knit-purl-a-baby-and-a-girl/id1530373719 

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Hettie_Bell_Knit_Purl_a_Baby_and_a_Girl?id=jv76DwAAQBAJ 

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/knit-purl-a-baby-and-a-girl 

Read on for an excerpt from Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl.

It doesn’t take long for everybody in the group to set aside their own projects to focus on me and mine.

Grace has my ball of yarn in her hands, twisting the strand between her fingers critically. “If you’re knitting for a baby, you should really consider a nice bamboo…”

Louise is scrutinizing my choice of project. “You know, I started with dishcloths, then graduated to scarves. It’s not as glamorous, but it does let you get the fundamentals down.”

“Oh, my, no.” Mary flips the free pattern card I picked up in the craft store and scans the back with critical eyes. “You don’t want to do this, this is for a completely different weight of yarn than what you’ve got here. Where did you pick this up? They should be putting these patterns next to the suggested yarn. This one calls for fingering. What 

you need to do is get an account on Ravelry and find a pattern that’s been user-rated so you know it’s accurate and suitable for your skill level, and do that. You can search by yarn weight on there, too. This yarn is a DK…” She pulls out her phone, trailing off as she opens her web browser.

Damian, who has been sitting silently so far, takes this chance to finally speak up. “Do you have needles?” he asks plainly, no judgment in his tone. Nobody else has bothered with that crucial detail to this point.

Now those, at least, I do have. I reach into my purse and pull out the needles I scavenged from my last failed scarf project. I hold them up for the group’s inspection proudly.

“Poppy, no!” they say in unison, and even Damian joins in their exclamation of dismay. “These will never work!”

My shoulders slump. “What? Why?”

Louise clucks at me. “Much too big! Too long for a tiny baby pattern and too thick for this yarn. You’re going to end up with stretched out knitting full of gaps and holes.”

The familiar urge to just give up and quit hits me hard and fast, like a gut punch. I gust out a breath, slumping in my seat.

A hand closes around my shoulder. Rhiannon. “Hey, don’t feel bad. First time I tried to knit, I got my needles secondhand from the thrift store and accidentally bought two different sizes.” She laughs and shakes her head. “Here. If you don’t mind that they’re not high-tech Addi Turbos, you can borrow some needles from me.”

“She needs a pattern first,” Mary puts in. “And personally I think she should start by knitting mittens before she graduates to booties.”

“I guess that sounds all right.” I know they’re just trying to help, but I feel overwhelmed and outnumbered. But what would the alternative be? For them to sit there focused on their own projects, socializing with each other and ignoring me as I struggle?

It’s Rhiannon, once again, who calms the chaos, both the stuff going on around us and the stuff in my head. “Okay, okay, give the girl some space, now. Mary, can you search Ravelry for a pattern for a set of mittens and booties? And Grace and Louise, can you wind Poppy’s skein real quick so she doesn’t get stuck untangling yarn barf on her very first project?” My fellow stitch n’ bitch members nod, immediately turning to their tasks. She turns to me. “I left my straight needles with the rest of my stuff back at my place. It’s just a short walk from here. You wanna come and keep me company?”

“You’ll need a size five needle by the looks,” Mary calls, eyes glued to her phone.

Rhiannon looks at me expectantly, awaiting my answer. I get the sense that if I said no to her invitation, she’d be totally cool about it. But I don’t want to say no.

“Sure, yeah. Can I leave my stuff here?”

“We’re not leaving any time soon,” Damian flaps a hand. “Go, go. Sooner you go the sooner you get back, sooner you get back the sooner you can get started, and the sooner you get started the more time you have knitting with people who can pick up your dropped stitches.”

“Gotcha.” I nod. “Thanks.”

“Ready?” Rhiannon asks. She grabs a cookie for the road, stuffing it halfway into her mouth and holding it there comically.

I fight down the sudden image of myself biting that half a cookie right out from under her nose.

Wow, do I need some air. And some semblance of hormonal balance.

Instead, I’m getting alone time with Rhiannon.

Crash and burn time, here I come.

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Liza's Review:

Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl is the first book I've ready by Hettie Bell, though from my search on Goodreads I know she has written under another name. As with any book I pick up by a new to me author, I always go in hoping for the best, and I really was very happy I gave Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl a chance. I really loved Ms. Bell's voice in this first person POV story, as the entire book is from the main character, Poppy's point of view.

Poppy Adams finds herself pregnant after one night with her ex-boyfriend, and heads to Planned Parenthood to find out all her options and meets Rhiannon when she escorts Poppy in to the building. Poppy notices a flyer for the stitch n' bitch knitting group and decides that she can totally learn to knit and make her new baby all sorts of cute booties, hats, and blankets. The fact that Rhiannon is part of this knitting group only makes it better in Poppy's eyes. 

I liked the connection between Poppy and Rhiannon from the beginning. They had really wonderful chemistry and I liked that Rhiannon accepted Poppy just as she was, which is something her family really has never done. I did have issue with what I felt like was a lack of true communication between Poppy and Rhiannon, but as that can be an issue at times with any romance, I just figured they were trying to figure out things as they went along. 

I love the stitch n' bitch knitting group. Seriously had mad love for all the members and loved how they were so supportive of one another and any relationship the members were in. I loved that Poppy truly had real friends with this group, for sadly what seemed like the first time in her life.

I have to say Poppy's mother angered me repeatedly as I read this story. As in, I really wanted to smack this woman on the back of the head and tell her to get a clue about her child. Honestly, her sister wasn't really my favorite character for the longest time. I will say as Poppy and her sister spent more time together, I love they seemed to finally talk and have a real relationship finally.

Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl was a pretty funny story overall, even with some pretty dramatic subject matter at times. I love both Poppy and Rhiannon's humor, and especially enjoyed seeing Poppy grow so much over the course of this story. I really enjoyed Ms. Bell's voice in this story and look forward to reading more books from her in the future.

Rating: 4 Stars (B)

Review copy provided by publisher

About Hettie Bell

Hettie Bell grew up in small towns in New Brunswick and British Columbia, and now lives outside Edmonton Alberta with her family. She first fell for Highland historicals as a preteen, and that love deepened as the romance genre grew more diverse and queer. A proud bisexual woman, she’s honored to write all the happy endings she never thought she’d get to read. When she’s not writing, she's knitting one of the at least three projects she has on her needles at any given time.

Connect with Hettie Bell

Website: https://www.hettiebell.com/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HettieBellAuthor 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HettieBelleau 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5365291.Heidi_Belleau