Real Men Knit by Kwana Jackson

Hey Booklovers,


I spent the better part of this lazy weekend reading a slow burn romance. And I must admit I'm a sucker for an easy to read romance. And a romance with a cute cover and a Black heroine always catches my eye. I was lucky enough to get my hands on an arc to read and review. But Real Men Knit gave me real mixed feelings.

So we start this story off with a loss. Mama Joy Strong has passed away recently and her adopted sons are struggling to keep it all together. The Strong Men are a mixed crew of all different ethnic backgrounds who were lucky enough to have Mama Joy come into their lives when they needed it most. I love a pro-adoption story. And with 4 fine brothers comes the potential of 4 different romantic plots to span a series.

This story follows Jesse who is the youngest of the Strong brothers. He's got the looks with tanned skin, green eyes, and sandy brown locs which fit his whole biracial bohemian aesthetic. Unlike the rest of the brothers he feels he owes it to Mama Joy to keep her legacy alive but keeping up the knit shop. Plus he's the best knitter of the group and he's between jobs at the moment so he needs to get his act together and build something for himself. He enlists the only regular worker at the shop, his long time childhood friend Kerry to help him. 

The Harlem setting is unique and I liked how this book touched on gentrification and the changing of the neighborhood. And the close knit community was a bonus for this story. The relationship with the brothers was the strongest point in this book which I found led a little more family focused than romance focused. I wanted to see a little bit more of Harlem though.

The knit shop was also a location you don't normally see in stories. I would've liked to see more knitting . I felt like there was not a lot of knitting in the first half while we finally saw more knitting in the second half. I know it was summer so they couldn't knit too many hats or sweaters but Kerry owned a few tanks she knit herself. It would've been interesting to see more of her knit fashions incorporated like knit swimsuits and skirts. It would've also been a great way to showcase how essential she is to the business because while there was a lot of talk about how essential she was her biggest asset seemed to be that she knew the people in the neighborhood from having worked there so long. 

I did feel like they was a lot of telling stuff in the heads of Jesse and Kerry versus actually showing things/making it a conversation with dialogue between them. For example I like descriptions of characters because I like to know how everyone looks. I did not need those paragraphs about Jesse reflecting on their biracial backgrounds and why each of the brothers have the features they do before I even met the brothers. There was quite a lot of inner monologue or focusing on details that did not need to be explored in depth.

And slow burn is fine but it took a long time for them to admit their feelings and then felt a little rushed from there. In their heads we found out they both had been pining for each for years but there wasn't that dialogue there where to back up why these crushes lasted so long. The forced proximity trope was there to add all the lust but I wanted dialogue to back up a new found closeness. It was like a switch just flipped and Kerry went from being the shy mousy woman with a crush to sexy alpha female taking charge. There were also a few things with Jesse that were not mentioned until the second half of the story which could've been explored in the first. 

And where were the cute dates? Eating sandwiches from the bodega together does not count despite what Kerry's friend Val said about her at least being fed. And one awkward encounter at a local spot does not count. Harlem has so much culture and flavor I would've liked to see a little bit more of it. Was waiting for when they'd have a friendly night on the town. 

There's also a recurring friend with benefits of Jesse who only exists to be rude to Kerry, make her jealous, and contrast that she's different from all the other girls. There's also a throwaway male character who is only around to make Jesse jealous. I hate those types of characters and the inclusion of those two did nothing to strengthen Kerry and Jesse's relationship. Plus it was really shoehorned that Jesse seemed to sleep with all single women in the neighborhood.  Let's let go of Madonna-Whore dichotomy in 2020. 

I think Kwana Jackson is a good writer and I enjoyed her book Too Sweet to Be Good and I actually want to do a reread of that to give a long review.  She's a great writer but to me this book could've gone through another few rounds of editing to add a little more depth and make it less like it's just the set up to a larger series.