“If you’re looking for an easy charmer, this is the novel for you.”—Shondaland When their foster-turned-adoptive mother suddenly dies, four brothers struggle to keep open the doors of her beloved Harlem knitting shop.Jesse Strong is known for two things: his devotion to his adoptive mom, Mama Joy, and his reputation for breaking hearts. When Mama Joy unexpectedly passes away, he and his … passes away, he and his brothers have different plans for what to do with Strong Knits, their neighborhood knitting store. Jesse wants to keep the store open. His brothers want to tie off loose ends and close shop….
Part-time shop employee Kerry Fuller has kept her crush on Jesse a secret. When she overhears his impassioned plea to his brothers to keep the knitting shop open, she volunteers to help. Unlike Jesse, Kerry knows the “knitty-gritty” of the business, and together they make plans to reinvent Strong Knits for a new generation.
But the more time they spend together, the stronger the chemistry builds between them. Kerry, knowing Jesse’s history, doesn’t believe their relationship can last longer than she can knit one, purl two. But Jesse is determined to prove to her that he can be the man for her forever and always. After all, real men knit.
more
very slow
It was an ok story with interesting tidbits about life as a black Persian in modern day Harlem. I now know what box braids and chopped cheese sandwiches are (I looked them up after they were referenced in the book)
I love those Strong brothers! I really hope that this is the beginning of a series about them!
This story is about the youngest Strong brother, Jesse. He is a ladies man, perpetually moving to his next fling. He’s aimless and has a spotty work history and seems like the least motivated of his three brothers. When their adopted mother passes away suddenly, her yarn shop, Strong Knits, is in limbo.
The other brothers want to sell, as they are all busy with their own day jobs and don’t have time to run the shop. Jesse surprises everyone – including himself- when he volunteers to make a go of it. Long time friend and employee Kerry steps in and offers to help keep the shop running.
Kerry has had a long time crush on Jesse, but feels that he has never seen her as more as “Kerry girl” from the shop. The way the romance between the two, working so closely together, develops was sweet and I enjoyed reading about them.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a sweet romance – and as a bonus, it’s also about a knitting shop!
I could easily see this book as a Hallmark movie. Yarn, four broody hot brothers in mourning, and romance. Super cute. What more could you want?
Real Men Knit by Kwana Jackson was such a cute book and I am so glad I decided to read it now. It was funny while also having serious moments, which are two things I love in a romcom. I don’t know where the author got the idea of brothers taking over a knitting shop, but I loved the concept and would have honestly loved to have even more about actual knitting (and I don’t even knit!). However, I loved the chemistry between Jesse and Kerry and there are just so many great characters in this book. I listened to the audiobook which is fantastic and I highly recommend it. The narrator is Keylor Leigh, and she did such a stunning job voicing this book and all of the characters. I wasn’t familiar with her prior to listening to Real Men Knit but I will certainly be seeking out more books she narrates now.
Real Men Knit is an incredibly quick read/listen and I finished it in basically one sitting because I couldn’t tear myself away. It has a tiny bit of steam as well as being a bit of a tear-jerker, and I found my eyes misting up at the end. Goodreads doesn’t call this a series, but that’s what I’m seeing on other websites and I would love to have more about these characters, so I hope it’s true! I really enjoyed the way Jackson’s writing flows, and even though this wasn’t a laugh-out-loud-funny book for me, I still chuckled plenty of times and found it to be very entertaining. I also liked the setting of Harlem since I haven’t read anything set there before. New York sure, but never specifically Harlem, and it was nice to read a book set in a location I’m not very familiar with. Real Men Knit is a wonderful contemporary romance and I recommend it to everyone that likes romcoms!
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Kwana Jackson is a great author that writes funny, romantic stories that will keep you reading for the sheer joy of it.
Kerry has always been a fixture in Mamma Joy’s knitting shop, but sometimes she just feels like a piece of furniture, instead of a woman. Even now, at 27, the Strong Brothers still call her “Kerry Girl,” like she’s some child. But when Mamma Joy passes away and the youngest Strong Brother makes it his duty to keep the knitting shop going, Kerry volunteers to help. Maybe Jesse stops seeing her as Kerry Girl and more of a woman, or maybe he’s always known she was something special…
This book had a reeeeeeaaaaally slow start–nothing really happened until the second half of the book. Overall, it was a nice plot, the pacing was so off it made it difficult to get into. The first half could have been a couple chapters, and the brief ending could have taken up more real estate. I did really enjoy the characters–Kerry, Jesse, Kerry’s friend Val, the rest of the Strong Brothers. They have fun, unique personalities that seem real. The book also had a strange amount of sexual references while being closed door. With the emphasis on sex (Jesse’s sexual history is a plot point), and the author’s seeming comfort in discussing sex (couldn’t go ten pages without a reference), the choice to make the book completely closed door seemed like an odd one. It felt a little bit like something was missing.
I liked the book enough that I plan to continue the series–I’ve got to see which brother Val ends up with–but it’ll probably be a library read instead of a purchase for me, unless there’s a great Kindle deal.
4 stars – 6/10
I’ve been looking forward to this book for so long because honestly – combining heroes with yarn and knitting is probably my favorite trope ever. The Strong brothers *definitely* delivered on that score! They’ll knit you a hat and look gorgeous doing it, people. Just you wait.
Once I got past my swooning about that, though, I was struck by how wonderful everything else about this novel was. I loved the way Kwana Jackson painted the supportive neighborhood surrounding the store, I loved how she developed her characters and made them so real, I loved how she never flinched away from the impact that racism has on the daily lives of Black individuals in the U.S., and more than anything, I loved being able to read a romance that featured people of color in positive roles: caretakers and family, friends, parents, lovers, business owners and pillars of their community. It was such a relief to not have to wade through the kinds of negative stereotypes that often flood TV and movies these days. Her characters actually look and sound like the people you know in real life. (Well, maybe a bit hotter, but you get the drift.)
Ms. Jackson’s characters are normal people, with the same kinds of hopes and dreams and hangups that all of us have, and that makes them very relatable and very loveable. It doesn’t take long to get invested in their happily-ever-afters and to get hooked on this author’s deft way of navigating their lives. You’ll be rooting for them from start to finish, and looking for the next book in the series the second you hit the last page.
Highly recommend this author and series!
I waited six months for a library copy of this book. It was worth the wait.
I like that sorrow is present as a community mourns the loss of a matriarch. I liked that the back stories for key characters are not presented as tragic but as the way the world was for the characters. There’s a redemption aspect. There’s the entering adult-dom aspect. People of color abound. A strong sense of place. There’s the hope to revisit the folks in the book and Strong Knits.
Wish there had been a knitting pattern – either Jesse’s hat or Kerry’s fingerless gloves [nothing too challenging]. Or the carrot cake recipe.
Recommended: yup
For healthy attitudes towards sex, for endless tension, for investigations into family dynamics and systemic societal racial prejudices. And the occasional mention of knitting
Thoughts:
While this was quite different from what I expected, I still really liked it! There was a much stronger focus on how Jesse and Kerry felt about each other than I expected. That was the majority of the story, it seemed: alternating between then thinking about the other. The aspect of the business having to be saved and working to restart it seemed almost like a subplot at most, and not much happened with it until about 70% into the book.
The romance was eh, though the descriptions of their sexual thoughts and actions was excellent. They’re were no descriptions of actual sex, but be aware this is more graphic than *I* expected for a story apparently focused on knitting. In the end, it felt like the same cliche of the bad boy with a rep being tamed. The conflict was entirely due to idiocy and had me rolling my eyes and thinking as I so often do, “and if you would just talk to each other there would be literally no problem.”
Not only was the conflict disappointing (and barely existent), but the way it resolved also felt abrupt and weak. Still, I was rooting for the characters and wanted to see them happy!
This book’s strength is in its racial representation; people of all backgrounds are represented, and it’s a part of their lives, but they’re more than the color of their skin. It doesn’t take over defining them, which I see so often in books.
Thanks to Edelweiss and Penguin for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
Heartwarming story of community and family.
Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2020
After reading the back of this book I put it off to read other books. I don’t know what it was, but it just didn’t catch my interest. But I got it from my local library because it was written by one of the authors in a reading challenge I was participating in. I’m so glad I picked it back up and decided to give it a try. After the first page or two, I was hooked. I loved how the author highlighted how the yarn shop was more than just a place to get yarn and a pattern or two. How Mama Joy had reached out to the community with her love and joy of helping others.
Throughout the book, we see how Mama Joy and Strong Knits impacted the local community and how tragic it would be if the shop didn’t go on. It’s also a story about the four boys, now men, that she had adopted and raised. The learn to work with each other and grow into the men Mama Joy raised them to be.
Then there is Kerry. She is the daughter Mama Joy never had. She grew up hanging around Strong Knits and works there part-time. The guys need her to help keep the store going and to show the guys how to run it. She also has a crush on one of the men, a crush that turns into more, while her confidence in herself grows as well.
I love how everything comes together. The romance is sweet, with a bit of heat, but no so much that I wouldn’t have a problem recommending it to the ladies in my knitting group. The story reads well and flows nicely. The characters are real-to-life and invest your interest. I hope there will be more books in this series so I can see what the other three brothers get into.
I’ve seen this book everywhere and had to see for myself why the hype.
It’s a story full of great characters and life hardships but not so angsty. A story about life, family and the connection between the adopted brothers, their inheritance and the small neighbourhood they lived most of their life.
I would give it more of 3.5 stars because when the description says it’s a romance story, I need all the challenges and character development that comes from their interactions and all the feelings they have to face and accept at the end for that happily ever after, things that unfortunately aren’t explored at its full capacity in this book in my opinion.
If you like a life situation fiction with a romance subplot, then this book is definitely for you.
I got this ARC as a giveaway in return for an honest review. The title and the cover got my attention right away and I had it on my TBR list. The story is set in Harlem (NYC) about four brothers who end up with their adoptive mothers yarn store when she passed away. There is also a bit of romance thrown in between one of the brothers Jesse and the employee of the store Kerry which adds another flavor in the story. Its a feel good book about love family and community. I would recommend this book to people who love simple sweet reads. Thank you Berkley and Kwana Jackson for the giveaway which I truly enjoyed.
Real Men Knit is the first book about the Strong brothers in what I hope is the first book in a series. Real Men Knits centers around the Strong Knits neighborhood knitting store which was run by the Strong brothers’ adoptive mom Mama Joy, and around the youngest of the 4 brothers, Jesse. Jesse is a bit of a playboy and hasn’t ever really shown that he is on the path to settling down or even really having a career in mind. So when Mama Joy unexpectedly passes away, the brothers are all surprised when Jesse wants to make a go of keeping the store open.
Enter Kerry Fuller, who has worked part-time in the knitting shop for years and doesn’t want to see it close any more than Jesse, and offers up her assistance to help Jesse get the store back up and running. Kerry has had a crush of Jesse since they were kids, even though each of the Strong brothers has always seen her as more of a little sister. I loved that Jesse finally started seeing Kerry as an attractive woman the more time they spent together. I loved the slow burn of this relationship, and the fact they really became real friends first. I got the feeling while they had always been in each other’s lives, they hadn’t really been friends until they started working to save Strong Knits. Jesse seemed to be so laid back when we first meet him, so I understood his brothers all questioning his dedication to getting the shop up and running and back in the black. I loved how much he grew over the course of the story from basically a playboy to a real business man. He had such wonderful ideas for the store, and I loved that Kerry not only believed in him, but helped him make them a reality. I also loved that Kerry didn’t lose herself in helping out Jesse. She stayed true to herself and her own goals, yet made the adjustments needed to have Jesse in her life.
I really loved the relationship between the 4 brothers. Damian is a total control freak, Lucas seems to need some measure of control, yet not as much as Damian. I felt like Noah and Jesse were more the laid back of the 4 brothers. I loved how they picked on each other as all siblings do, yet had each other’s backs when needed. I also felt like them coming together to save Strong Knits helped them to grow closer to one another.
Real Men Knits was a very enjoyable story. I will say that I ended up loving Kerry and Jesse as a couple, and feel like they were on a good path to their very own HEA. I loved while Strong Knits is in Harlem, yet the entire area felt almost like a small town. I loved how everyone in the neighborhood seemed to take care of their own, and that especially included keeping Strong Knits going. Real Men Knits was filled with humor, love, and redemption, and I really can’t wait to read more books about all the Strong brothers.
Rating: 4 Stars (B)
Review copy provided by publisher
I wish there was a book about Mama Joy. There is so much of her in the book, I fell in love with her without ever getting to see her. Kerry was awesome, and strong, and caring, and so good. Jesse….Jesse annoyed me. He was really thoughtless for a lot of the book, and while he did some growing up, it wasn’t enough to make me love him by the end. I did love the men who knit and how they mentored the boys and weren’t afraid to show their emotions (at least when it comes to loving their mama).
Here come the Strong brothers! Four men, fostered by Mama Joy who leaves them her Harlem knitting shop, and teaches them to be not only be good men, but good men who knit. And of course, good men, who are just that little bit of trouble and irresistible to women.
This book is as much a fun read as I expected it to be.
This book hits all the feels! I loved Jesse Strong and Kerry Fuller. Their story, set against the backdrop of a knitting shop which becomes like its own character, and Harlem, NY was delightful to read. There are family dynamics and rich secondary characters that help the entire novel come to life. I would have loved to read even more of their story, and I can’t wait for the next books in the series where I hope Jesse and Kerry will both show up as recurring characters.
Slow burn at its finest! Overall, the story is on the sweet side until Jesse and Kerry finally connect. I loved this friends-so-close-they’re-almost-family-and-therefore-off-limits to lovers story. Another big plus: watching Jesse, the former playboy screw-up, devote himself totally to keeping his late mother’s knit shop open and keeping his adopted brothers together. Great dialogue, loveable characters, believable plot, and great community. Just the right amount of angst to keep the characters apart, satisfying resolution that made me sorry to reach “The End.” Highly recommend!
Excellent start to a new series!
Strong Knits and Mama Joy was the home that four foster brothers desperately needed but now she’s gone and they aren’t sure how to carry one. Jesse is sure he’s the most lost of them all but also knows he can’t let Strong Knits go without a fight. Kerry has been in his life and at the shop since they were teens but she’s a good girl, too good for him. Except, as much as she loved Mama Joy and OKG ladies, it was Jesse that really stole her heart and kept her coming back.
I loved that while the focus was on Jesse seeing in himself what Mama Joy and Kerry always have and Kerry realizing she’s what Jesse has been waiting for, we also got to meet and get to know each of the brothers. World building a new series can sometimes cause a book to drag or feel too heavy but Real Men Knit did a fabulous of job of balancing the world of Strong Knits and the love story of Jesse and Kerry.
Real Men Knit is my first book my Kwana Jackson/K.M. Jackson but it won’t be my last!
This book is exactly what a romance should be. A friends to lovers story, Real Men Knit is witty, engaging, and filled with wonderful characters. I love the development of the relationship and chemistry between Kerry and Jesse. This will be a re-read again and again. Absolutely recommend this book.