Today I have another book review from one of my favorite series I got addicted to last year: The Vampire Knitting Club by Nancy Warren. Cozy mysteries featuring vampires and knitting? Sign me up! These fun genre blends is why I love fantasy so much. ❤
Summary:
What if the fortune teller at the local village fair is a witch? And all her fortunes come true—even when she foresees a death…
When Lucy Swift’s cousin Violet decides to take over as the fortune teller at Moreton-under-Wychwood’s annual summer fête, Lucy thinks being her assistant will be a fun way to spend a Saturday. That is, until someone’s murdered, and the locals turn on Violet who foresaw the death.
To save her, Lucy and her band of undead amateur sleuths have to find out what’s really going on in this charming Cotswolds village. What better way than to offer knitting classes? No one has to know that the teacher is a vampire.
But uncovering the dark secrets under the postcard-prettiness will bring great danger to Lucy and those she loves.
Fair Isle and Fortunes can be read as a stand-alone mystery in this best-selling series. There’s no violence or gore, just a good, clean mystery, with a lot of fun, a crazy-smart cat, tangled knitting, and a few laughs.
Thoughts:
This series continues to be super fun. In this adventure, we find Lucy and her cousin running a fortune telling booth at the local fair. Of course, a mysterious death occurs (poor Lucy, death seems to always happen around her, just like Jessica Fletcher) and soon the town turns against her cousin, accusing her of being a witch. (Of course she IS a witch, but she’s not a bad one!) So of course Lucy puts her new found investigating skills to use to figure out who the real culprit is. With a little help from her vampire friends, of course.
The mystery in this one was fine, if a little bit convoluted in my mind. There were plenty of red herrings though, so things weren’t so easily solved this time around. On the one hand I appreciated that it wasn’t a smooth case, but on the other hand, how many terrible people live in that town? Hahaha. I couldn’t help thinking about Hot Fuzz and chuckling while reading this one. Either way, despite all the obstacles, Lucy’s investigative skills are really improving! She’s definitely getting a lot better at observing things and trying to suss out people’s behavior.
Another thing I really loved about this one is that some of the vampires were back and involved in helping her solve the case. I love it when the vampires get involved, they’re each so funny in their own ways and are actually really great at helping Lucy out. There was also PLENTY of knitting in this one, for folks who enjoy the knitting aspect of the series.
As for the overarching elements, I love that Lucy seems to be getting a better sense of who she is and what she wants out of life. She’s working on her witch studies and trying to be a good business owner within the local community. She’s also extremely practical when it comes to her love life, hesitant to fall for a guy who is older, undead, and will be around long after she’s gone (Lucy has no plans on joining the ranks of the vampires any time soon). And Rafe, even though he’s more than a bit of an alpha, is not an alphahole and doesn’t push Lucy to do anything she doesn’t want to do. He is a bit over protective of her, but Lucy gives as good as she gets and is very capable of taking care of herself for the most part. Anyway, the relationships are slow moving, which I appreciate, even if I am firmly on Team Rafe, despite the issues involved in vampire / human witch relationship.
Overall, I continue to love this series. The next book comes out at the end of July and I’m already looking forward to it. If you enjoy cozy mysteries, knitting, or vampires and witches and also like quick and fun reads, I’d say check this series out. 4.5/5 stars.
Way Too Fantasy 
I like the sound of this!
I’ve been loving the series, it’s a lot of fun.
This seems like a bunch of elements that shouldn’t work together, but apparently they do! Awesome review, I’ll need to consider this series at some point😁
They’re super quick and fun reads so perfect for in between heavier reads.
So much about this series fascinates me!! Is it the vampires who hold the knitting classes? Or the witches? It sounds like such a fun read!
Well, the witch inherited the knitting shop from her grandmother, the vampires are the knitters, sometimes they teach classes (in this one they did) but most of the time they just have their club, not all of them are able to be up during the day because, you know, vampires lol. They’re very fun books!
Vampires, witches and fun – what’s not to love really. Its great when you have a firm favourite and it just keeps on giving.
Lynn 😀