Round Robin by Jennifer Chiaverini

Round Robin is the 2nd in the Elm Creek Quilt Series.  This one focuses a lot more equally on all the ladies from the first novel but it's just as good as the first...maybe even better.

At the end of The Quilter's Apprentice, Sarah McClure and Sylvia Compson have come together to start a quilting camp at Sylvia's estate.  They enlist the help of their friends as well to help teach classes.  In this novel, the quilters decide to surprise Sylvia with a round robin, and in passing the work-in-progress to one another, their stories unfold. Sarah is struggling with her relationship with her mother and a mid-life crisis her husband Matt seems to be going through. Gwen must accept that her daughter wants to work at the quilt store rather than attend graduate school. Diane is trying to cope with her teen-aged sons, one of whom seems to be on the road to delinquency. Bonnie finds out her husband is about to embark on an affair and she struggles on how to deal with that. Judy is confronted with a family she never knew she had.  Finally, Sylvia, whose health is deteriorating discovers hope in new love.

The Elm Creek Quilt Novels have the potential of being too sweet to stand but the writing is really very good and the characters are - as I've said in my review of the first novel - so real and so flawed that you can't help but love them and root for them despite their trips, falls and mess-ups.  I completely recommend this series but start at the beginning so you don't miss a step.

The Quilter's Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini

Here's another book from an author I've never read.  This author has been recommended to me by my mom forever.  This one is the first in the "Elm Creek Quilts Novels".

From Library Journal: "Sarah McClure and her husband, Matt, have just moved to Waterford, PA. While Matt finds work with a landscape company, Sarah, an accountant, wants to try something new. With no leads and no offers, she is depressed and frustrated. When elderly Sylvia Compson asks Sarah to help prepare her family estate for sale, Sarah finds new friends, and Sylvia, a master craftswoman, agrees to teach Sarah how to quilt. Sarah's new relationship inspires an exchange of confidences; she learns about Sylvia's "family skeletons" while facing her own difficult relationship with her mother. Patiently piecing scraps of material, the quilters explore both women's lives, stitching details and solutions together slowly but with courage and strength."

I really enjoyed this book.  It was a quick, easy read with characters that were well-written and real.  I hate when main characters are perfect and flawless (a flaw in itself) - people with whom you can't identify.  Chiaverini didn't do that with her characters.  They all had issues that they were all trying to deal with and the realness of them made you root for them.  I look forward to reading the rest of this series and see where their lives have taken them.  (Next in the series is Round Robin.)