A Thread Of Truth [Paperback]

Ivy Peterman left an abusive marriage to insure her children six years old Bethany and eighteen months old Bobby are safe from their father Hodge. She relocated with her kids in historic New Bern, Connecticut hiding their destination from her raging husband back in Pennsylvania. At a shelter there, women's shelter philanthropist Abigail Burgess Wynne arranges with Cobbled Court Quilts owner Evelyn Dixon to hire her to work part-time at the shop.

However, her idyllic world crashes when a TV show Quilt Pink Day is filmed at the popular store. Her former spouse Hodge sees Ivy on TV and is coming to beat the snot out of his wife and make her and the kids go home with him. His anger is fueled by eighteen months of her not being his punching dummy. He may be a tough bully, but he is unprepared for the knitting sisterhood protecting his former frightened family and kicking him to the curb.

The second New Bern England quilters' tale series (see A Single Thread) is a wonderful story that looks at the impact of abuse on the victims as Marie Bostwick makes a case that it takes a community of caring people to stop the violence. Readers will enjoy learning how the knitting circle is doing especially Evelyn who battled breast cancer with the support of her friends. However, this is Ivy's saga as she chose flight twice before (from her stepfather and her spouse), but with the support of the Cobbled Court crew she chooses fight this time to the cheering of readers.

Harriet Klausner

Reading this book is like coming home to a very familiar place with cheerful faces smiling at you as you walk into the door. Ever since her first book in the series, "A Single Thread," I have come to love her cozy books about women, friendship and quilting. I am not a quilter but I hope to eventually make a quilt of my own someday. Reading again about Evelyn, the owner of the Cobbled Courts Quilt Shop and breast cancer survivor; Abigail, New Bern's richest woman and her lawyer boyfriend, Franklin; Margot, the peppy former marketing advertiser who now works for Evelyn; Liza, Abigail's niece and artist-in-training and Garrett's (Evelyn's son) girlfriend; all are beloved characters back into the fold again. This time, Bostwick adds another character, one who struggles with domestic violence, being displaced and having to fight for her children's safety and custody; Ivy. Ivy is a young woman living on the lam when a wrong turn landed her in New Bern. Slowly beginning to heal from the injuries inflicted upon her by her husband, Hodge, both physical and mental, Ivy begins to hope that perhaps there is a life for her after all. Then it all comes crashing down when inadvertently, she was featured in a short video advertisement for Evelyn's special project she is spearheading with Mary Dell, on the issues of breast cancer. Hodge found her and Ivy began to wonder if her life would ever be hers to claim again.

This book takes a different turn from the attention being so focused on breast cancer. This time, Bostwick studies the issue of domestic violence and how it wrecks havoc not only into the victim's life, but also in the lives of her children. The dangers are real, the issue is frustrating especially when there is no proof that he was abusing her and she was afraid that he would charge her with kidnapping. However, this book shows a strength of character that one would hope to see, when Ivy finally realizes that she does not have to take that kind of abuse anymore and she finds the strength within to withstand any more abuse from her husband. That was when he really lost the battle to control her. That is the most basic of all domestic violence issue ... the desire to control another human being to its fullest. Bostwick did a great job of providing the insight in a domestic violence case.

As an avid reader and fan of Bostwick's writing, it is a pleasure to see how much her writing has matured and developed over the years. While different from her earlier books (which are so well-written, and so interesting ... I hope to see more of them in the future too!), the Cobbled Courts Quilting Shop series are just wonderful, full of familiar faces and conversation that one almost feels as if she's right there with them, listening to the gossip, holding each other's hand during tribulations and drinking (and eating a lot of food) tea. It is a rare gift when an author brings the warmth of the characters into a reader's life like this. Most series tend to wane after awhile, but not this one. Ok, it's only the second book, but just seeing how much more developed the characters are (even in a more minor role in this book), it gives this reader hope that the other books will show the same maturation as well.

If you like to read contemporary fiction about women's friendships, this book is definitely for you. It does not matter if you're a quilter or not (the quilting theme is there, but not as forefront as in the first book), because I am not a quilter and I still love this book. It is a warm-hearted book about friendship, life and love. So grab a cup of hot tea and sit in the cozy armchair and be prepared for a lovely adventure into someone else's world. Let Bostwick's story take you somewhere else for awhile.

5/24/09

Let me start by saying that I enjoyed this book for what it is. It's the kind of book that snares you into a group of friends and makes you feel empathy and sympathy for the characters.

If I didn't have a caveat to this praise, though, I would probably not have decided to write a review. The "but" in this review is that the book is very poorly edited. It seems as if someone took a first draft and printed it. There are words left out of sentences, words left in that appear to not belong there, and at least one inconsistency in a character's name. What is a very simple, summertime read is slowed when the reader has to stop and figure out what words are missing or what ones need to be omitted or rearranged to make sense of the sentence.

All in all, the story is a nice, typical group-of-women-friends-taking-on-the-world story. I'm sure that I'll read another of the author's books as a summer diversion. However, someone at the publishing house needs to find another career.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 27 reviews  3.9 out of 5 stars