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A review by symbioticalgae
Dating-ish by Penny Reid
3.0
I love Penny Reid and her writing style. Neanderthal Meets Human was my first true "gateway" romance. The first romance that I read proudly and told everyone about, the first time I didn't read in a romance in secrecy. Beauty and the Moustache and the spin off Winston Bros series are go to rereads when I'm in a book rut.
I always wait impatiently for her newest releases my excitement growing like Christmas morning each day that I'm closer to getting my grubby little hands on a copy of whatever she's written.
Dating-ish is Marie’s story and the 6th book in the Knitting in the City series but could be read as a standalone without too much difficulty.
Based on early buzz and comments from Penny herself online I was expecting a weird and whacky, non-traditional love story. Since Penny’s books are already so different and smart with lots of weird but endearing characters I was bracing myself for something REALLY different. For me, the weirdness didn’t materialize. It didn’t seem that strange at all. All the hype made me think of this book as the person who reminds everyone how weird she is all the time, but ACTUALLY isn’t weird at all.
The book got off to a great start with Marie and Matt’s first meeting, it was funny and unique. Unfortunately for me, the first half of the book continued on way too slowly.
I liked Marie, but she was almost too perfect. She was beautiful but didn’t know it and when she wasn’t busy being a hard-working journalist who was her bosses favorite she was looking out for everyone else and showering everyone with her kindness and generosity.
Matt is a socially-awkward, hot nerd scientist. Normally that is my favorite type of guy (in books AND in real life) but Matt didn’t seem that socially awkward but instead came across as downright mean. He didn’t really struggle with other relationships- he had a solid friendship with Fiona and Greg, was once married and has a great friendship with his ex and her new partner and doesn’t struggle with meeting women, he just chooses not have long-term relationships them. So, when his difficult childhood became the explanation for why he wasn’t good at letting anyone in I had a hard time buying it. It seemed like a lame excuse to explain away his wishy-washy, asshole-y behaviors.
Matt and Marie were both intellectually smart people but most of the story was dumb book drama, hiding shared feelings and “friend-zoning” each other. This portion of the story went on far too long for me, to the point where I was getting annoyed that two such smart people couldn’t figure out basic communication.
It was when they finally got together that this book become different from a typical Penny story. Usually they feature very little sex and have more fade to black but the sex in Dating-ish were hot. And detailed. And frequent. So much dirty talking and I LOVED it.
Overall, this book was just “okay” for me. Penny Reid is still a must-read author for me, Dating-ish gave a great peak into Kat and Dan’s story and now I’m even more impatient for their book!
I always wait impatiently for her newest releases my excitement growing like Christmas morning each day that I'm closer to getting my grubby little hands on a copy of whatever she's written.
Dating-ish is Marie’s story and the 6th book in the Knitting in the City series but could be read as a standalone without too much difficulty.
Based on early buzz and comments from Penny herself online I was expecting a weird and whacky, non-traditional love story. Since Penny’s books are already so different and smart with lots of weird but endearing characters I was bracing myself for something REALLY different. For me, the weirdness didn’t materialize. It didn’t seem that strange at all. All the hype made me think of this book as the person who reminds everyone how weird she is all the time, but ACTUALLY isn’t weird at all.
The book got off to a great start with Marie and Matt’s first meeting, it was funny and unique. Unfortunately for me, the first half of the book continued on way too slowly.
I liked Marie, but she was almost too perfect. She was beautiful but didn’t know it and when she wasn’t busy being a hard-working journalist who was her bosses favorite she was looking out for everyone else and showering everyone with her kindness and generosity.
Matt is a socially-awkward, hot nerd scientist. Normally that is my favorite type of guy (in books AND in real life) but Matt didn’t seem that socially awkward but instead came across as downright mean. He didn’t really struggle with other relationships- he had a solid friendship with Fiona and Greg, was once married and has a great friendship with his ex and her new partner and doesn’t struggle with meeting women, he just chooses not have long-term relationships them. So, when his difficult childhood became the explanation for why he wasn’t good at letting anyone in I had a hard time buying it. It seemed like a lame excuse to explain away his wishy-washy, asshole-y behaviors.
Matt and Marie were both intellectually smart people but most of the story was dumb book drama, hiding shared feelings and “friend-zoning” each other. This portion of the story went on far too long for me, to the point where I was getting annoyed that two such smart people couldn’t figure out basic communication.
It was when they finally got together that this book become different from a typical Penny story. Usually they feature very little sex and have more fade to black but the sex in Dating-ish were hot. And detailed. And frequent. So much dirty talking and I LOVED it.
Overall, this book was just “okay” for me. Penny Reid is still a must-read author for me, Dating-ish gave a great peak into Kat and Dan’s story and now I’m even more impatient for their book!