Now a USA TODAY BESTSELLER‘Dating-ish’ can be read as a standalone, is a full length 100k word novel, and is book #6 in the Knitting in the City Series.There are three things you need to know about Marie Harris: 1) She’s fed up with online dating, 2) She’s so fed up, she’s willing to forego the annoyance and consider more creative alternatives, and 3) She knows how to knit.After the most bizarre … knit.
After the most bizarre and irritating first date in the history of humankind, Marie is looking for an alternative to men. With the help of her friends, she quickly identifies a few possibilities:
Need a cuddle? Use a professional cuddler. Need affirmation? Get yourself a life coach. Need an orgasm? Try orgasm meditation! Why does she need the hassle of a romantic partner when she can meet all her needs with paid services?
But then her irritating date resurfaces. And he’s not at all the person she thought he was. And he suggests a different—and crazier—solution to her dilemma . . .
As everyone knows (or will soon come to realize), traditional relations between humans are a thing of the past. Robots are our future. And if robots are our future, then why do we need other people at all?
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I loved the slow burn between Marie and Matt! The friend zoning miscommunication caused a few speed bumps, yet I liked how it provided a different layer of relationship to develop between the two. When the air finally clears…wow, was the romance smokin’ hot!!
Nerds just do it better
It’s all that research and study time, lol!
Fun thoughts aside…Through Marie, Matt discovered different kinds of love for family, friends, and significant others. He realized the wealth of meaning behind a hug or warm smile. And he learned how much comfort real physical contact could provide. Through action, conscious or no, Marie showed him human nature at its best because of her giving personality. I don’t believe anything could ever truly replace the basic desire for affection, love, or physical contact and Matt’s AI research reflected that in different ways, however, I can see where it could help those with little to no option for whatever reasons. People will always seek to satisfy a simple need, even for a short period of time. It’s human nature.
I don’t think I’ve ever read a book more realistic when it comes to dating and unrequited feelings than this book!
Everything Marie felt and experienced before she and Matt got together was something that I have felt and experienced.
I love romance novels but they are usually so unrealistic when it comes to dating that I never take them seriously. I read them to escape my reality. But this was like reading about my own life! And I knew it was going to have a HEA so I was GLUED to this book!
Marie was a wonderful heroine and I really adored Matt as well. They were a perfect match. I’m really glad that this wasn’t a dual POV. Single POV from Marie’s perspective. Once feelings were declared, I liked hearing Matt’s perspective from him afterward and not in his head and then rehashed foe h2ee later. It was very satisfying!
I have to say that the love scene was one of the best I’d ever read. It wasn’t too long but not super short either. It was just detailed enough without being too much information. And the emotions that all came along with the physical act was perfect.
I’m so excited for Marriage of Inconvenience to come out next week! We got a tiny itty bitty teaser of Dan and Kat being married but not explanation as to why! Oh I can’t wait!!!!
This is a great rom-com that uses comedy in a way that is integrated into the story to show character & connection. The characters aren’t victims to comedic situations. The humor comes from honest goofiness, and the desire to find the ridiculous or absurd within the frustrations of everyday life.
Matt and Marie have great chemistry. I loved that we could see all the cues that Matt was giving, and still follow Marie’s logic that he didn’t want what she did. Keeping Marie as the sole narrator worked perfectly because Matt was an open book. Fun, silly, intriguing, complex characters who did go through a journey as they each got over their pasts and their fears enough to lay it all on the line.
It was fun to catch up with the gals and their husbands from the earlier books (but I did have to slow down to try to keep all the ladies straight on the first read-through) if this was your first book in this series hopefully there’s enough of a tease to want to get to know the rest of these ladies better.
Favorite Quotes:
On the one hand, I didn’t want to be bitter and jaded, trading optimism for pessimism. Or worse, nihilism. Nihilism was the worst. And the perpetuators of it had no imagination when it came to accessorizing. All black, all the time? No, thank you.
…underwhelming dick pics. I mean, if you’re going to send a woman a dick pic, at least send something worth seeing. Not a gherkin dwarfed by hairy potatoes.
Men… are plagued by FOMO, fear of missing out. Fear of missing out on the supermodel-playmate sex fiend who loves to cook, clean, and do laundry while working a high-paying job and waxing like a porn star. This is what men in their thirties want and expect.
I’d like to think of myself as fine wine, getting better with age, more robust, more complex. But I accept that when I was young, I resembled the simplicity of grape juice.
I’m desperate for you. I think about you all the time. Did you know I have a crush on your chin? I love your chin. And your brain gives me lady-boners. I’ve been walking around with a serious case of blue bean for months.
I was always going to go just for the instructional sessions. No one was ever going to touch me… I love you, Matthew Simmons. And I don’t want anyone but you to power on my CPU.
My Review:
Penny Reid has been gifted with exceptionally adept word skills. She has crazy good word voodoo – every time I read one of her fabulous books I want to stop time and read everything she has ever written all over again. Her style is unique, fresh, thoughtfully insightful, observant, crisp, remarkably clever, delightfully witty, deliciously steamy, and extremely addictive. More, and please hurry!
Maybe if you’re a teenager you’d like it. Very juvenile.
When your adored favorite author gives birth to a wonderful series full of fantastic characters with equally adorable and compelling story lines, you really cannot ask for anything more. But then Ms. Penny Reid delivers something extraordinary and marvelous and you have now fallen into an abysmal pit of I-don’t-want-this-book-to-be-over then whiplashes you back to I-want-these-two-to-have their-HEA-now! Dating-ish was a surprise, a great surprise, a stupendous story line and I’m now running out of words to describe my complete joy in reading this book! Matt and Marie who knew you were going to run a close second to my all time favorite couple Janie and Quinn. But you did and now I am at a lost, completely grinning like a fool and weeping like there was no tomorrow. You have basically destroyed my world and made it rain sunshine at the same time. And for those readers glancing at this demented review please note to truly appreciate what this reader has gone through please start reading Dating-ish now. Reading the first book in the series is optional but highly recommend. Thank you!
I love the way Penny Reid writes a great story!