A Knitter in His Natural Habitat by Amy Lane

Title: A Knitter in His Natural Habitat (Knitting #3)
Author: Amy Lane
Publisher: Dreamspinner
Length: 51,455 words
Genre: m/m Contemporary Romance
Heat: 3 – Sexy & Mild
Sex Frequency: 2 – Few and Far Between
Keywords/Tags: Series, Knitting/Fiber Arts, Mafia/Mob, Secrets & Lies, Man Sluts!, Funny Guys
Rating: Really Liked It

BLURB

Stanley’s life took a left turn at a knitting shop and hit a dead end. The closest thing he’s had to a relationship breaks things off to date a “nice boy,” and none of the pretty young things in Boulder’s limited gay scene do it for Stanley. He needs to reevaluate whether working as a floor designer for a series of craft stores is really where he wants to be.

Then Stanley does a peculiar thing: he starts to live the life he fell into. Stitch by stitch, he knits his life into something meaningful. Just when he does, Johnny, the store’s new delivery boy, walks in.

Johnny is like no one Stanley has ever met: he doesn’t believe in quickies in the bathroom and has a soft spot for theater and opera. There has to be a catch. When Johnny’s dark past comes back to haunt them, Stanley realizes how much he loves his cushy life in the yarn store—but he’ll give it all up to keep the man who makes his ordinary life extraordinary.

REVIEW

I admit, I was a bit worried to read this book. I loved Stanley in the past books (or at least, I knew I would once we got to know him better), but I loved How to Raise an Honest Rabbit so, so, so much, along with Jeremy, that I wasn’t sure if this book could live up to my feelings about that one. In a way it did, but in some ways it didn’t.

Stanley is an old party boy — or at least, that’s how he feels. Never has he had a real relationship, just quick fucks in clubs and one night stands. His “relationship” with Craw is a perfect example of this. Just sex, no strings. But when Stanley is shoved aside when Craw meets the love of his life, Ben, something changes in Stanley. He’s sad, and suddenly his life doesn’t seem so fabulous anymore. Could it be that he really wants something more?

In a style reminiscent of a How To Guide, Stanley decides to make over his life. First, he has to get rid of the men and focus on himself. And what better way to do that than by learning to knit? He knows, technically, how to knit, but not do anything more than garter stitch. And he’s worked for years at a knitting store! Plus, knitting is permanent, and as the rhythm and care that goes into his projects starts to translate into his own life, he realizes just what hand-knitted items mean. They’re personal, and so by knitting, Stanley finds that he’s not quite as settled in his life as he thought. Knitting brings about new friends, a new life, and a new man — who seems to go against all the rules of his old life.

This story sees the return of Stanley, Craw’s past monthly arrangement in town whom we first met in the first Knitting book, The Winter Mating Rituals of Fur-Bearing Critters. He’s flamboyant and seems carefree, he’s outrageously funny and a self-proclaimed slut who will bend over for just about anyone. He likes sex, it’s just that until now, in his mid-thirties, he hasn’t even considered what life might be like trying to get to know someone before he lets them screw him. It’s a novel idea, and one that takes hold in his brief bout of manless depression just when he meets Johnny, the new deliveryman. It is important to read these stories in order, because of the way the characters are intertwined and how events happen in time. Because of that, we (the reader) know Johnny from the past book as Gianni, the man who saved Jeremy’s life and allowed him to escape the mob. We also know his backstory, and the events that led to him turning state’s evidence and now living in the area under the protection of WITSEC. Stanley, however, is not only blind to “Johnny’s” past, but the whole relationship thing is new to him anyway.

I like Stanley in this book, he has real gumption and we get to see him really surprise himself. The change in his life and then his subsequent new relationship with Johnny teaches him a lot about himself, his past, and what is important to him. Watching him stumble through a series of revelations most go through in their twenties (he’s a late bloomer!), paired with his humor and lack of filter, makes for an almost slapstick like prose. Stanley is almost always inserting his foot into his mouth, either by words or actions. He’s flailing, trying to find solid ground since he jumped in feet first. Not only is that fun to watch, but it is also good because he learns how strong he is, and that was satisfying to read.

The problems I had stemmed mostly from the fact that this book had to be absolutely spectacular to live up to my feelings of the previous book. But, I did find the mob/mafia sub-plot to be somewhat strange. While it all made sense, and didn’t bother me by itself, I found it left a lot less room for Stanley and Johnny to really get to know each other on page, and I missed that.

One thing that I love about this series, and this book carried on with this from the previous ones, was all the detail of knitting, yarn and production. I love reading about that, as a knitter, and reading these stories, this one especially, made me itch to pick up the needles. It is all about the joy of knitting, and what knitting really means. And I’m not sure that a non-knitter really understands, or might even find that sentiment hokey in these books. Watching Stanley in particular learn to knit was fun and carefree and I was always looking forward to what he was knitting next

Fans of this author and this series will definitely want to read this book, and I found it a really worthy addition to the others in the series. It might just make you want to learn to knit! Plus, if you haven’t read any of Amy Lane’s knitting novellas, you should check them out and remember that I said you should read them in the correct order.

Now, I’m off to knit!