ARC Review: Dating-ish by Penny Reid

Recommended Read!

“…it was thoughtful and funny and just helped me reaffirm my believe that Penny Reid writes some of the best contemporary romance…”
~ Under the Covers

This book worries me. It’s dawning on me that Penny Reid is running out of people to write about in this series, the knitting group is almost all made up of deliriously happy, loved up couples. Now that Dating-ish has paired off Marie, Kat is the only gal left footloose and fancy free – or is she? Dun dun dun! You will need to read Dating-ish to find out. For those of my millions of fans reading this who have no idea who I am talking about, stop reading this review right now and start reading Reid’s Knitting in the City series. You can then come back and continue reading my review. That’s right, scram, you won’t regret it.

Marie isn’t a character we have seen too much of, at the start of the series she was in a long term relationship, which we all guessed wasn’t quite working out. By Dating-ish Marie is single and on the market looking for that special someone. Only the market is a big scary place full, full of men that always seem to be looking for a younger, skinnier, more beautiful version of the woman in front of them. All in all, it’s a barren wasteland. After a bizarre and upsetting date Marie decides to look for alternatives; professional cuddlers, orgasm mediation, escorts. Why deal with the fall out of disappoint dating when you can get all the human contact you need from a professional?

That’s where Matt comes in, he’s developing a compassion AI, which replaces human contact with a robot who can give you all the affection and love you need. Matt and Marie explore the idea and viability of replacing humanity with robotics, can you really love a robot? Could it replace all aspects of humanity and fulfill our needs? What Matt and Marie don’t expect is the discovery of how much they need each other.

What I really enjoy about Reid is that she doesn’t just bang out a standard romance. If you really wanted to break this down you could call it an enemies-to-lovers troupe type of book. But, by picking off the other aspects of Dating-ish and marginalising it into one category you’re missing a lot. This book looks at the idea of the need for human connection whilst giving us a fantastic romance between two very different characters. The feelings between them grow from combatants to friends to more as the book progresses and they find themselves in a number of funny situations.

But, with Knitting in the City, you don’t just get the romance, you get a little bit more. Through the series we have explored the friendship between the women in the knitting group and I would have been very disappointed if they didn’t play a part in this book. I wasn’t disappointed, the various characters popped in acting as defender, confidant and a friend in need. It’s part of why I really enjoy this series, you’ve been introduced into the embrace of an intelligent, warm and interesting group and with each book they welcome you into their sphere.

I really enjoyed this book, it was thoughtful and funny and just helped me reaffirm my believe that Penny Reid writes some of the best contemporary romance that’s being released.

[about-author author=”Penny Reid”]

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