The New Year's Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini

The New Year's Quilt

by: Jennifer Chiaverini

*audio version read by Christina Moore

* 6 hours, 7 minutes

I finished listening to this Sat. evening and really enjoyed it. The only Elm Creek Series book that I have listened to/read previously was The Christmas Quilt. I have to say that both The Christmas Quilt and The New Year's Quilt are wonderfully paired books. Never did I feel lost or question who the characters were, since I had not read the previous books in this series. On the contrary, The New Year's Quilt was like visiting an old friend again, with Sylvia being the main focus. It was her story that was told in The Christmas Quilt, also, which I adored. Again, in this story, the author weaves the present with memories of years past. These memories intermingle with and fill in parts that were not told in The Christmas Quilt, much to my delight!

The pictures painted through the author's words are wonderful and vivid; the characters charming and delightful. In The New Year's Quilt, elderly Sylvia Bergstrom Compson once again finds love and marriage with a beloved childhood friend, Andrew Cooper. This is not a matching that pleases Andrew's children, however, and is the main obstacle that Sylvia and Andrew hope to smooth out and make amends to.

It is during the travels to Andrew's daughter, Amy's house, that Sylvia's memories flood back. Memories of good and not so good. The New Year's Quilt is sure to draw readers/listeners within it's folds and bring great enjoyment and enduring thoughts.

*overall rating 4/5

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Product Description:

At the close of THE QUILTER'S LEGACY, the Elm Creek Quilters were all in attendance on Christmas Eve, where they were surprised yet overjoyed to witness the wedding of Sylvia Bergstrom Compson, the Master Quilter, to her beloved Andrew Cooper.

THE NEW YEAR S QUILT tells the story of how the newlyweds celebrate their first holiday season as husband and wife. Not content to rest at home by the fire, they set out on a journey across the snow-covered fields of Pennsylvania.

Their destination is Connecticut, and the home of Andrew's daughter Amy. Unlike the Elm Creek Quilters, Amy has not offered her blessing to the union. Though her father has reminded her that marriage endures in sickness and in health, Amy fears that Andrew and Sylvia have passed the age where marriage remains a prudent choice.

Sylvia hopes to win over her new daughter-in-law through the lessons that quilting reveals about the bonds of love and family. As a gift for Amy, she undertakes a quilt titled New Year s Reflections, whose blocks represent the holiday traditions of Elm Creek Manor. As she stitches the blocks, memories of a lifetime come flooding back, along with words of wisdom meant to celebrate the achievements of generations past and create hope for the future.

Just as Christmas and New Year's Day bookend the joys of the season, THE NEW YEAR S QUILT is the perfect holiday companion volume to THE CHRISTMAS QUILT.