Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl

With this standalone contemporary, Bell (the Bluewater Bay series, written as Heidi Belleau) delivers a sweet but meandering and occasionally saccharine queer love story. Fat, fashionable, 22-year-old Poppy Adams feels lost and alone after a drunken hookup with her ex, Jake, leads to an unplanned pregnancy. Deciding to keep the baby—partly in hopes that motherhood will transform her into a full-fledged adult—Poppy joins a Yonkers, N.Y., knitting group to learn how to make infant booties. She isn’t expecting to meet and fall head-over-heels for Rhiannon, a hot, butch fellow member. Together, they navigate the complex dynamics of dating while pregnant, and as Poppy learns to knit, she also learns how to both set boundaries and ask for help. Though the premise is charming, Poppy’s coming-of-age is not always grounded in reality, and readers will have a hard time believing there’s talk of co-parenting before even a first date and marriage soon thereafter. Poppy, meanwhile, offers a lively point-of-view, but occasionally her quirky narration slips into twee. Still, she’s a heroine worth rooting for as she takes the first steps of motherhood. With crafting references sprinkled throughout, this uneven but dynamic rom-com may hook romance-loving knitters. [em](Apr.) [/em]