This is my favourite kind of book, a group of random people coming together because of the one thing they have in common...in this case crochet. It is a reminder that even though we might not want to, or we find it hard to put ourselves out there into the world, when we do make the effort, it can be life affirming.

Thank you NetGalley and Affirm press for a ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was not what I expected. I was originally drawn to the book by the title as I myself am a crafter (embroidery not crochet) and I loved the idea about a group of people meeting to craft.

We did get a lovely array of characters all from different walks of life. However I found the theme of overcoming racism to be much heavier then I expected as well as hoped for a little novel about crafting.

Well written (if at times I found slow) but overall a good read. It just wasn’t what I was looking for at the time.

Tuesday Evenings with the Copeton Craft Resistance by Kate Solly is a delightful, heartwarming book that will make you want to start crocheting (no knitters please!) 😂 While there is a serious message at the heart of the book about community, I enjoyed this as a lighthearted easy read with a fantastic cast of characters who I cared about straight away. 💛

Thanks to Netgalley and Affirm Press for sending this book for honest review. All opinions are my own.

What a delightful book to begin 2023 with. Kate Solly is a new Aussie author and spins a lovely story about a very quirky group of people that come together with the theme of a Crochet Club.
The personalities of each of the members is very different and there were quite a few moments in the book which made me chuckle - including knitters not being allowed and there was also a cryptic crossword puzzle word as well. They all come together when as a group they fight against racism in the town - and tackle it with crochet!!

This is a perfect book to take away on your holiday and you will not stop turning those pages and will finish with a smile on your face.

Congratulations Kate Solly, we have a new author in our midst and I can't wait to see what comes next from her!

Many thanks to Affirm Press for a copy of this book for review purposes.

In this heartwarming debut novel Kate Solly asks us the reader to look inside ourselves, question our own beliefs and prejudices.
When lonely Meredith James starts a crochet (no knitters) club in Copeton she had no idea how much her life was about to change, whether she liked it or not.
Harried mum Claire was just looking for a chance to escape her you family for a couple of hours a week. Lottie was a knitter. Yasmin, a young Muslim woman expecting her first child and missing her deceased mother more than ever hoped that she could get back to craft that she once shared with her.
Harper, newly released from prison went along to help her form some friendships in the community.
Grandmotherly Edith much to Meredith’s consternation brought along her handsome grandson Luke.
When plans emerge to welcome refugees and build a Mosque and in this little suburb cracks open to reveal the ugly side of humanity members of the group decide to push back against the racists in their own unique way.
I absolutely loved this novel and look forward to more by the author.

“When she crocheted, she didn’t have to think. Didn’t have to play scenes from the past on repeat, thinking of what she might have done differently. When Harper was creating, she could just be.”

Tuesday Evenings with the Copeton Craft Resistance is the first novel by Australian author, Kate Solly. Already an accomplished marketing manager, Meredith James decides to apply her organisational skills to starting a crochet group: Copeton Crochet Collective (no knitters please). With a whiteboard, an agenda and lots of hooking experience to pass on, she can’t go wrong.

While Lottie is overly chatty, Meredith manages to keep most attendees following her agenda. But when Edith’s grandson, Luke decides to join in? Well, that wasn’t in the plan, Meredith definitely didn’t want any men in the group, but he’s paid his money and he seems interested and enthusiastic, so how can she turn him away?

Claire is grateful that her husband comes home early on those monthly Tuesday evenings: the break from their five young children is all the more relaxing when she’s crocheting, although she’s not sure how to interact sensitively with the lady in the hijab. “It was the rhythm she loved. Somehow, the steady building of stitches, the predictability of following a timeworn pattern, smoothed her tangled thoughts.”

Yasmin Malak’s mother taught her to crochet, and joining the group takes her anxious mind off her impending motherhood. “..the sight of the rich interplay of colours and the anticipation of the predictable repetition of stitches soothed her”. Omar may be a doctor, but they’re new at this. She so wishes her mother was here…

Meredith’s biggest challenge is a late joiner. Harper is an intense, spiky teenager, tattooed and mouthy, with expletives and objections to Meredith’s right to run things.

When Meredith tells them they need a group project, Lottie suggests welcome blankets for the Muslim refugees who will soon be housed in the vacant units in Copeton Gardens nursing home where she works. But both this Catholic church-funded initiative, and the proposed new mosque, stimulate vociferous objections from a right-wing group calling themselves the Union of Concerned Residents.

This small group of activists mounts a nasty harassment campaign that escalates to violence. What could the Copeton Crochet Collective possibly do about it?

Solly’s characters are appealing for all their very human flaws and insecurities: we’ve all met people like this, or might even be them. Her male characters, though, are the stuff of dreams and wishes: considerate, thoughtful, supportive. Her outer-Melbourne suburb is realistically depicted, and the issues her characters deal with are topical and relevant.

Readers can’t help being charmed by the group’s peaceful response to the harassment, while Luke’s beanie-making venture, Real Men Hook Their Own, is a delight. Claire’s Drawer of Shame will draw a laugh, Yasmin’s office kitchen politics are very amusing and her emails to her mother will tug at the heartstrings.

But most hilarious (and creative) is the group’s strategy in dealing with planned disruption of a peaceful vigil. This is a heart-warming, uplifting debut novel that will have readers eagerly anticipating more from Kate Solly.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Affirm Press.

A charming read with hidden depths.

OK Kate Solly - you had me at crochet! Being a member of a community-based crochet group myself, I couldn't resist dipping into this debut novel, and I wasn't disappointed. With a nicely diverse cast of characters, some surprising plot directions and just enough crochet terminology to establish credibility as a genuine hooker (crochet hooker, that is), Kate Solly has written a book that made me smile in recognition, frown with empathy and have a good deep think about multiculturalism in our society.

Young, attractive and professionally successful, the one area that Meredith has always struggled with is social interactions. As a kind of substitute for friendship, she starts a crochet group (absolutely no knitters or men!) at her local Scout Hall. They will meet once per month, and if she can get everyone to stick to the agenda, they will benefit from her wealth of crochet knowledge and work on a group project.

Yasmin works for the local council. She's expecting her first child and missing her mum. She's also a bit sick of being expected to speak on behalf of all Muslims in a town where the new Mosque is causing division. She hasn't crocheted for a while, but thinks that making some baby clothes will help her prepare mentally for the new arrival.

Relatively new to Copeton, Claire is the mother of 5 young kids. She's struggling to fit in with the other school mums and feels guilty about all the unfinished crochet projects stashed away at home. Her husband brings home a flier about the new crochet group and she thinks this might be her chance to do something for herself and meet people with similar interests.

Lottie and Edith are also founding members of the group, but their characters are not quite so well-drawn as those first three. Then a little later, along comes Harper, a young, scowling, tattooed woman, to join the group. She doesn't seem to want to be there, and to be fair the others don't understand why she is there either.

The novel covers a lot - loneliness, extended grief, judgement - but by far the strongest thread is about racism, which comes from two directions. There is the Mosque, which I mentioned before, but also the proposed resettlement of refugees. I have to admit, some of this made me feel uncomfortable, but that's because I recognise the truth in it. Luckily Copeton has people like Yasmin and her husband Omar (born in Bendigo you know!) to be the voice of reason, even if they don't always want to.

There's also a little bit of romance and treachery along the way, just to keep things interesting.

This is a good, fun (mostly) read, that I'm happy to recommend.

This book is so much more than it appears to be on the surface. The characters are believable and sympathetic and by the end of the book you want the best for everyone.

As a keen crocheter when I saw the cover and read the first line of the synopsis I had to have this book and I wasn’t disappointed. Whilst there are some crochet in-jokes theres’s definitely plenty for everyone else. A heart warming story of the value of craft, it also explores a number of other topics- celebrating people’s differences, friendship, grief, motherhood, mental health, discrimination against those who have been to jail, refugees and Islamophobia in a thoughtful manner.

Set in the suburb of Copeton we get to know a cast of well-fleshed out and interesting characters. I particularly related to Claire, the mother of small children and found both Meredith and Yasmin’s story fascinating. I enjoyed getting to know all the characters, seeing their interactions and learning that things may not be what the seem on the surface.

A solid debut novel that manages to mix hum pie and tough subject matters. I look forward to seeing what Kate Solly comes up with next. If you’re a fan of Sophie Green I’d definitely recommend checking this one out.

Tuesday Evenings with the Copeton Craft Resistance is a seriously good, entertaining read once you get past the first chapter, which appears to be a little muddled, but really is not as it establishes the flow of the story and the range of interesting and intriguing people to be met, as somehow or other by about chapter 5 you find yourself joining the Copeton Crochet Collective (no knitters please) umm, and no men.
Meredith decides she needs more in her life other than work and makes what will be a monumental decision, to establish a crochet group in Copeton on a Tuesday evening. She has little, if any social skills, no friends and a desire to make sure everything goes according to carefully drawn up plans.
Claire is drowning under the weight of a family of five small children and domestic bliss is certainly not her forte. She needs an outlet – perhaps this will be the perfect answer as she has huge amounts of wool, crochet hooks and unfinished ‘projects‘ filling the spare spaces in her house.
Yasmin, expecting her first child, missing her mother terribly and terrified of her forthcoming role as a mother, works at the Copeton Council. She is also a proud Australian born Muslim woman and would like to create a lovely outfit for the new babe.
Harper is angry; she is angry at everything; Young, just out of gaol and resentful of life in general, she is asked to join the group by her support worker as she is brilliant with crochet.
Luke brings along his grandmother and decides to stay, much to Meredith’s chagrin, and a clandestine knitter also joins the group. Poor Meredith, as things somehow never seem to go to her schedule which she finds very frustrating.
There is talk of a Mosque being built and refugees being encouraged to settle in the town. It attracts the attention of a group of rather ugly anti-muslim protesters whom it would appear, will stop at very little to get their point across.
When it come to the point that one of the members of the Collective is threatened and things begin to get out of control, the Copeton Craft Collective becomes the Copeton Craft Resistance, fighting back by some very clever yarn bombing, wonderful photography and some very sneaky tactics.
Kate Solley has created a delightful, feel-good, binge worthy as they say, and don’t feel guilty, story that is a real pleasure from the first to the last page. Her characters become very real, the threat to all they hold dear is one sadly we can all relate to and their solution is superb!
Tuesday Evenings with the Copeton Craft Resistance is a definite must read over the summer season as you to join the ladies, and one man, of the Copeton Crochet Collective.

When I saw the title of this book I thought it sounded like a cosy, feel good type of read. When I read the blurb I thought it sounded like so much more and I was excited to read it.

And it is heart-warming, full of friendship, life struggles, good times and community. the story brings all the people on this book together and gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling. It makes you think about all the things that happen in our world and our communities.

It is a charming read with some humour to lighten the mood. The perfect length for a book like this and one to sit down and enjoy with a cuppa or a glass of wine.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, from Affirm Press and #NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity to preview and review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Feel-good, heartwarming story perfect for book clubs.