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A review by nell1120
The Master Quilter by Jennifer Chiaverini
2.0
This is the 8th Elm Creek Quilts novel I've read (I'm reading them in chronological order). I discovered the first one back in 2019. While I haven't done reviews on the others, I felt compelled to write on this one. Clearly, I enjoy the series enough to continue reading them, but this has been my least favorite to date.
At the beginning of the second chapter, it took me a minute to realize we were going to cover the same timeline from a different character's point of view. In the 3rd chapter, I realized we were going to see this for all the main characters. While somewhat interesting for the first few chapters, it got tiresome after a while.
Additionally, I felt that many of the characters were acting, well, out of character as we've come to know them through the previous novels. They are a group of close women who usually confide in each other, celebrating successes, commiserating when things aren't so great. So to see them all harboring secrets and not confiding in each other just seemed off. And worse, making assumptions as to how they felt the others would react to their situations.
Lastly, Craig was despicable. Admittedly, it's been some time since I read one of the books where he was more prominently featured (and he wasn't so great back then either), but compared to what I recall of that book, the character presented this time around was like a completely different person, with no real explanation as to how he devolved into this horrible person, so mean and conniving. (Definitely not looking to defend him in any way, more just confused as to how he was written this time around....or maybe I'm just misremembering how he was before and it's not so far of a stretch?)
Having said all that, I don't intend to stop reading the books (and in fact, have the next 2 from the library right here next to me), but I do hope they get better.
At the beginning of the second chapter, it took me a minute to realize we were going to cover the same timeline from a different character's point of view. In the 3rd chapter, I realized we were going to see this for all the main characters. While somewhat interesting for the first few chapters, it got tiresome after a while.
Additionally, I felt that many of the characters were acting, well, out of character as we've come to know them through the previous novels. They are a group of close women who usually confide in each other, celebrating successes, commiserating when things aren't so great. So to see them all harboring secrets and not confiding in each other just seemed off. And worse, making assumptions as to how they felt the others would react to their situations.
Lastly, Craig was despicable. Admittedly, it's been some time since I read one of the books where he was more prominently featured (and he wasn't so great back then either), but compared to what I recall of that book, the character presented this time around was like a completely different person, with no real explanation as to how he devolved into this horrible person, so mean and conniving. (Definitely not looking to defend him in any way, more just confused as to how he was written this time around....or maybe I'm just misremembering how he was before and it's not so far of a stretch?)
Having said all that, I don't intend to stop reading the books (and in fact, have the next 2 from the library right here next to me), but I do hope they get better.