Book Review: The Aloha Quilt

The Aloha Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini is the sixteenth book in the Elm Creek Quilts series. I think I'm tiring a bit. If you love quilting, love Hawaii, or have endured the pain of divorce, this book might appeal to you. In The Aloha Quilt, Bonnie is reeling from the recent infidelity and spite of her husband. The man is thoroughly despicable. It is not enough that he takes up with someone else; he does everything he can to keep Bonnie's share of the assets away from her and even threatens to seize partial control of her shares in the Elm Creek Quilts business. To get Bonnie away from all this chaos, her friend Claire invites her to Hawaii to help set up a new quilt retreat, Aloha Quilt Camp.

My biggest challenge stems from my dislike of the main character, Bonnie. Even her new relationship with an interested ukulele player is caustic and difficult to applaud. She never gets around to any personal soul-searching in how she may have contributed to the pending divorce. Instead, she only rethinks what a milk-toast door-mat she has been in her marriage. I am running out of audio books for this series (available at my local library) and I'm not feeling too disappointed. While they provide a clean read, sometimes my lack of interest in quilting cannot carry me through unpleasant characters and less appealing storylines.