Happy Friday Friends :)
I pray today finds you all doing well, and I want to thank you all for joining me for another book review here on The Preppy Book Princess.
Do you have any fun plans for this weekend? I'm going to be working quite a bit of it, but I also hope to get some more cleaning done around my house, play a board game with my husband, and curl up with some really great books.
If you've been reading my blog for awhile, then you'd probably know that Allie Pleiter is one of my all time favorite Love Inspired authors. So when I heard that she was writing a cozy mystery series, I couldn't have been more excited.
However, when I read the first book, it wasn't quite what I was expecting. Still enjoyable, but not a new favorite.
You can check out that review below:
However, I really did enjoy a lot of the characters and the setting, so I was looking forward to giving another one of the titles in the series a try. Keep reading below to see what I ended up thinking about her upcoming release.
Knit or Dye Trying by Allie Pleiter:
Source: Publisher via NetGalley (as part of Allie's review team)
Publisher: Berkley Books
Publication Date: April 5th, 2022
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Series: Riverbank Knitting Mystery
Synopsis:
Business is booming for Libby Beckett and her fabulous Maryland shop, aptly named Y.A.R.N., but when a town festival brings a fatality with it, Libby gets all tangled up in murder.
As spring comes to Collinstown, the village launches a food festival to draw a new group of tourists. Libby, proud owner of Y.A.R.N., has planned a yarn event to provide an alternative option to a foodie weekend. Artisan fiber dyer Julie Wilson--known for her work with animal-friendly, plant-based knitting fibers such as bamboo and hemp as well as her brilliant use of color--will hopefully draw a crowd with a special dyeing workshop.
The festival begins, but it draws more than crowds. First a flock of sheep parades down the street, herded by farmers protesting Julie's antiwool stance. Then Julie's celebrity chef sister appears, and the siblings resume a long-standing rivalry. Despite all this, Julie's workshop has sold out. Libby is thrilled, and they're preparing for a full house. But the night before the event, Julie is found alone in the warehouse event space--dead. The witty "Watch Julie Wilson Dye" workshop title now has a terrible new meaning--and it's up to Libby to catch a crafty killer.
(synopsis from goodreads)
My Review:
Knit or Dye Trying is the second release in Allie Pleiter's Riverbank Knitting Mystery series, and it's one that I wholeheartedly ended up enjoying. I've read a lot of cozy mystery series over the years, but this is the first one I've ever personally read that has a yarn shop as the focal point, and I loved how that made the story stand out as something different. I had enjoyed the characters, the town, and the shop that were all introduced in the first book, and I loved how each is more developed and matured in this particular title.
When Libby Beckett hears about the town's newest festival centered around sharing a love for food other than seafood, she's determined to find a way to have her beloved Y.A.R.N shop play a part. Her ingenuity results in inviting an entrepreneur from the knitting world who is making a name for herself dyeing plant based yarns through a secret process that no one else knows. However, things go wrong right from the start. Julie is a lot more to deal with than Libby was expecting, and soon she's caught up in familial tensions, sheep protests, and "accidental" kitchen fires. However, everything changes drastically when Julie is killed during one of her yarn dyeing processes, and evidence points at the fact that it was no accident. Soon Libby once again finds herself (and her beloved shop) caught up in a murder investigation, and she'll stop at nothing to see justice served.
From start to finish, Knit or Dye Trying was a well developed mystery that held my attention, and kept me guessing right until the end. I loved how more of the relationships are highlighted throughout the story, and it was interesting to read about the varying changing dynamics between Libby, Gavin, Jillian and Rhonda. I loved getting to see more of Libby's friendships with both Margo and Caroline, and I'm happy that someone finally decided to take on "King George," to hopefully knock him down a peg or two. In the first title in this series, I found the mystery was a tad too predictable, and I had actually picked out the culprit pretty early on. That wasn't the case with this one, and the ending and reveal actually left me completely surprised, and also saddened at the level of hurt that led to such a tragic circumstance.
If you're a fan of cleanish cozy mysteries, then Knit or Dye Trying is definitely a book you want to take a chance on. I'm looking forward to reading more from this series in the future, and I'll definitely be recommending this one!
Final Rating: 4/5.
Thanks so much to Berkely Publishing and Allie Pleiter for allowing me to advance read and review this one!
I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary advance reader copy of this novel from the publisher (Berkley) and the author via NetGalley as part of the author's review team in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to give a positive review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Thanks so much for reading guys! Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and God Bless!
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