Editorial Content for The Weekend Crashers

Jamie Brenner, the bestselling author of BLUSH, GILT and A NOVEL SUMMER, invites readers to pick up their needles and join her at the New Hope Inn for a knitting retreat in THE WEEKEND CRASHERS. 

For the past 25 years, Belinda Yarrow and her husband, Max, have turned their historic inn into a destination by organizing weekend-long knitting retreats. Fully planned, run and styled by Belinda, they have hosted scores of women looking to swap stashes, learn new patterns, and immerse themselves in all things yarn and stitching. But this year, the retreat has a different edge. The Yarrows have been approached by a local businessman who wants to buy the inn, and the sum he’s offering could ensure their retirement and even open the door to new adventures. Max is eager for a fresh start, but the thought of selling has reminded Belinda just how at home she feels in New Hope, Pennsylvania, and in the life they’ve (pardon the pun) crafted together. Stakes and tensions are high, but they’re about to get even higher.

Whether by accident or on purpose, Max has double-booked the weekend. Now, the New Hope Inn will host not just a bunch of knitters and crocheters, but also a boozy, bushcraft bachelor party. To say that the mix is catastrophic is putting it mildly. Belinda boasts a fully immersive weekend during which the women are encouraged to cozy up in the inn’s lounge to knit and swap, and that certainly won’t be possible with a bunch of belligerent men running around. But, as Max reminds her, it will be a chance for them to really weigh the success of their business and make a final decision on the sale. Whether Belinda is ready or not, the inn is about to host its knottiest, nuttiest weekend retreat ever.

"The perfect book for the crafter, parent or adult child in your life, THE WEEKEND CRASHERS is Jamie Brenner at her best: knitting one lesson, purling two characters, and always expertly blocked."

A few hours northeast of the New Hope Inn, single mother Maggie Hodges is in need of a boost. Although Maggie's daughter, Piper, is only 23 (three years older than Maggie was when she had her), her career as a model has taken off, right alongside her romance with Ethan. Maggie has never once regretted having a child, and for years she has delighted in their “Gilmore Girls”-esque relationship. But with the arrival of a career and Ethan, she can feel her daughter slipping away. It’s one thing if it’s because of a wildly successful career that takes her everywhere from the Bowery to Milan, but it’s another thing entirely if she and Ethan are already thinking about marriage. Maggie doesn't want Piper to limit herself while she’s so young...and is secretly terrified of becoming an afterthought in her life.

Piper has started to feel stifled by both Maggie's concen and her career, which she chose partly because it was available to her --- thanks to her deadbeat dad, she has the bone structure and coloring of an icy snow queen --- but mostly because it would make her mother proud. But when Piper faints on the runway at the biggest show of her career, she realizes that it’s time to take a break. The weekend knitting retreat Maggie mentions seems like the perfect opportunity to disconnect, recharge and consider her future, both in terms of her life with Ethan and the runway. And besides, they both really love to knit.

When the pair arrives in New Hope, they’re almost as disappointed as Belinda is to see a group of rowdy men there. Maggie fears that the distraction will prevent her from really bonding with Piper, and Piper isn’t ready to be around men when she fears her own relationship is on the rocks. What the women don’t know is that the bachelor party is experiencing their own dysfunctional drama.

Hosted by Barclay Cavanaugh, a beloved local patriarch, the party is in honor of his grandson, Ritchie. Aside from the usual bros and coworkers, the getaway is attended by Barclay’s son-in-law, Aidan, owner of a grocery store chain that he is currently priming his son, Cole, to take over. A single parent just like Maggie, Aidan is eager to spend the weekend with Cole and is even grateful for the time with his father-in-law, who he doesn’t quite know how to be around now that his wife has been dead for so many years. But amid the bushcraft lessons, camping excursions and beer, Aidan notices that his son, who is notoriously private, is more standoffish than ever, and that some drama seems to be brewing between Cole and his cousin, the groom.

Single parents, adult children testing their limits, and a cozy inn: Just how tangled can all this get?

The answer comes when Maggie and Aidan meet over a drink at the inn’s bar and enter into a bet. Each believes that his or her craft is harder than the other, and each has agreed to shadow the other for a day to determine which is tougher. Sensing a Parent Trap-like diversion from their own drama, Piper and Cole quickly become involved, leading to both retreats uniting for the ultimate man vs. woman, nature vs. nurture, knitting vs. bushcraft weekend extravaganza. But as tensions rise, the stakes get higher, and each protagonist is faced with an impossible choice, the novel becomes a propulsive, riveting race to fulfillment, love and evolving relationships.

As long as there are mothers and daughters, it is my supreme hope that Jamie Brenner keeps writing about them. THE WEEKEND CRASHERS is cozy and lighthearted, but thanks to her keen, compassionate gaze, the characters become as real-life, bold and unforgettable as those of the most complex dramas. She presents two generations of characters: on one side, two single parents desperate to support their children, but also unwilling to let go; on the other, their adult children, each of them at a crossroads and forced to consider their next steps, which feel permanent and life-changing. It’s a lot to juggle, but she handles it all with the confidence and assuredness of an Estonian lacemaker (per the book, one of the most notoriously difficult and delicate crafts to master).

Knitters will love the frequent mentions of weights, styles and patterns, but even for the uninitiated, Brenner dovetails knitting lessons with hard-hitting themes in a way that will delight even the most unskilled crafters. As Maggie reminds herself when thinking of teaching Piper how to knit, “many knitting ‘mistakes’ are actually just advanced stitches that the beginner accidentally stumbles into.” As Brenner affirms, the same is often true of life. Whether it’s an unplanned pregnancy, a worldly new career, or a love that seems too good to be true, there are no mistakes in life --- just a technique you haven’t learned yet.

The perfect book for the crafter, parent or adult child in your life, THE WEEKEND CRASHERS is Jamie Brenner at her best: knitting one lesson, purling two characters, and always expertly blocked.