Kissing Tolstoy was awful and silly. I loathed its puerile story and nonsensical plotting, so, Penny Reid: YOU WIN! I am giving up on anything your name is on except MAYBE a Winston Brothers book, and even then it had better not cost me any money. Again and again her books with younger leads have problematic elements, and while it is classified as a “new adult” romance, only one character in Kissing Tolstoy is actually a recent grown up. The heroine, Anna, is a university student and the hero is her professor. […]
Can You Friend-zone a Compassion Robot?
After a “s’alright” from Mrs. Julien and an “I agree with Mrs. J” from Beth Ellen, I set my expectations to middling for Penny Reid’s 6th entry in her Knitting in the City series. Penny Reid is an uneven writer who swings between very good and awful. She is still working her way off Double Secret probation. Dating-ish doesn’t move her in any particular direction. The romance is just ok, the ideas Reid is exploring are quite interesting. I frequently wanted to insert myself into the […]
Penny Reid Is Now on Half Secret Probation
Buying all of Penny Reid’s Winston Brothers and Knitting in the City books means that I have ridden the roller coaster of her uneven stories. The writing is always fine, and often much better than that, but she hits more rough patches than smooth and doesn’t always manage her plot complications well. Those issues are dealt with, mostly, in Beard in Mind and along the way, the reader gets to see couples from previous books, including Quinn and (my favourite) Janie. One of Reid’s best […]
We Are All Our Own Refrigerator
This was not at all what I was expecting. Beard in Mind might be the best book Penny Reid has ever written. The lovely Mrs. Prolixity Julien and I have both put Penny Reid on triple-secret probation for sins against writing, reading and the Romance genre. We are harsh because we love and we want her to do better. Beard in Mind was doing better. A big huge thank you to Mrs. Julien for lending this to me. I will be adding it to my permanent collection. […]
Cletus Is Bold Choice of Hero Name
Beard Science by Penny Reid
A friend (it’s emmalita) and I have a running joke about Penny Reid that she is on probation with us, though we clearly keep reading her contemporary romances and seem to take turns actually paying for them. Reid was on secret probation, then double secret probation, then an unprecedented triple secret probation, before peeling back to regular probation and now she’s on “wait and see” status. That’s all a long walk to say that Reid’s work has been uneven, but can be very enjoyable when the […]
In which I am confused about how I feel
I have no idea if I liked Beard Science, the third book in the Winston Brothers series, or not. It is possible that I both liked and disliked it. I enjoyed it (mostly) while I read it, but as soon as I started thinking about it I had more problems. Penny Reid has not moved off my Approach With Caution list. I really liked the previous book, Grin and Beard It, but this one was more problematic. I liked Jennifer, she was no Sienna, but […]