Fun Mystery

Every time I read a book in this series I wish I lived in Excelsior with Betsy and Jill. I love the plot, characters and setting in the series. Which is a good thing for this book. I figured out the who and the why midway through the book. However, I enjoyed listening to the plot unfold. Betsy and her supporting crew are delightful. The ending while predictable, did have a couple of surprises at the end.
This story also gave the audience and Betsy a chance to say a final goodbye to her ex husband. A fun and delightful read for anyone who likes cozy mysteries.

9 people found this helpful

Great series.

This is the third book in the series, and it is just as good as the first two. I love this series.

3 people found this helpful

Enjoyable

Where does A Stitch in Time rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I really enjoy Monica Ferris mystery books because they are not a formulaic as others I have listen to recently. I am now listening to her 4th book in the series.

3 people found this helpful

Enjoyed & I Didn't Drop a Stitch

Enjoyed the story and relaxed as I finished my fiber project. It was fun to be so engaged in a story that I felt a part of the community. Narrator helped too.

2 people found this helpful

Still waiting for something to happen

I purchased A Stitch in Time because it is set in the area my mother's family was from. I was bemused by the woodsy small town feel of the setting, While Excelsior (why don't narrators check for local pronunciations) is a small town, it is on the shore of a large lake surrounded by big houses, waterfront businesses, lots of other small towns or villages, and lots of old money. There is very little open space left between the Lake Minnetonka area and Minneapolis and the intervening suburbs. Actually, this story could be set anywhere. A inside joke about hotdish (casserole to much of the country) was the only Minnesota touch I heard in the four hours I listened.

My biggest complaint was that, after 3.5 hours into the story, nothing mysterious had happened. Actually nothing much had happened at all. The potential (and I think eventual) mystery plot line about a tapestry was dropped almost as soon it was mentioned. Instead the listener was treated to a 10 minute internal monologue about the evolution of how Betsy's cat let Betsy know when it was feeding time and a scene at an overly long Christmas party. Neither did anything to move the story forward. Most of the story took place in a needlework shop Betsy inherited from her late sister. The subplot of Betsy having to economize because the business (Crewel World) was unprofitable at the moment was a laugh because Betsy was due to inherit $3 million in a couple of months.

What I really hate are supposedly smart heroes who do stupid things, and Betsy is so stupid she drove off into a raging blizzard to pick up and deliver a needlepoint pillow. Not only that, when her car went off the road in a whiteout, she actually got out and considered walking down the road. There was excuse for such a stupid action, all for the love of needlework. I don't care if Betsy had been living in San Diego, she was from Wisconsin where she would have learned some winter driving and survival smarts.

I have no idea what the crime or mystery in the story was because I just couldn't listen any more. Nothing happened and the narrator grated on my nerves. The writing is fine, it's just that a story should go somewhere before it ends. Maybe if I had been into needlework, I would have stayed the course. But I doubt it.

8 people found this helpful

Monica Ferris characters are excellantly written

I purchased my first Monica Ferris at a libary book sale. After reading it I purchased all the others she wrote and make sure I have gotten each new one published since.

2 people found this helpful

Sophomoric at best, needs SERIOUS editing

Too much of the book was written as though the author thinks her audience is either unintelligent or very young—or both. Why else would there have been SO much unnecessary dialogue and/or narrative exposition? For instance:

“I’ll bring them to you, if you like.”
“Oh, Mandy, that would be wonderful! Can you come to the shop tomorrow? We’ll be open from ten to five.”
“Yes, I can come in the afternoon. See you then.”

That could have been handled with a simple “I’ll bring them to you tomorrow.” And then on to the next thing. But the whole book is like this: sophomoric at best. This book is in need of some serious editing.

As far as the narrator is concerned:
At first I really couldn’t stand the narrator, but then she kind of grew on me. Not because she’s good, but because I honestly could picture a female librarian in her 60’s with short, wavy hair touched with grey, a floral blouse beneath a light-weight cardigan sweater draped neatly over her shoulders, tortoise-shell glasses with a gold eyeglass chain — reading to a class of 8-year-olds who were sitting on a carpeted floor gazing up at her! I thought, “The next children’s book I write, she MUST be my narrator!”

As to the story itself, the end is WEAK! Without wanting to insert a spoiler, it makes no sense AT ALL that the perpetrator didn’t just steal the tapestry and burn it years ago. And the sorry excuses the perp had for doing what he or she did were just plain silly. And then at the end to say something as stupid as, “I had to do those terrible, horrible things to you—it was harder than you’ll ever know. You’re a very nice woman…” Such drivel!!

I didn’t pay for the book, thank goodness, but I did spend time with it. My advice: don’t even spend your time on this.

1 person found this helpful

Fun story, terrible performance.

This series is a fun set of books but the narrator is terrible. Odd accents on pronouns and very unnatural. It sounds like she’s reading them for the first time instead of telling a story.

1 person found this helpful

Still waiting

Where does A Stitch in Time rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is the third in the series with the same narrator. The stories are great but the narration is horrible. You need to have some variation in voice to help those listening along to know who is talking when there are so many characters and scattered settings for dialog in the story. I'm just about ready to give up on this and just go buy the books to read.

What didn’t you like about Susan Boyce’s performance?

She doesn't make enough variation in her voice for the different characters and it gets confusing. When I am done with this series (if I finish it) I will be making a mental note of her name and hope to never come across another story narrated by her.

1 person found this helpful

I love this whole series! Fun and interesting!

I really enjoyed this book and the others in this series. This book was great to listen to, and the story was fun and engaging.