Wanting a good jolt of solid romance after a series of books that didn't skew so much in the "romantic tendencies" direction, I turned to Dating-ish, mainly because I already had it on my Kindle and I didn't have to go looking for it. It was also the next in Penny Reid's Knitting in the City series; the former book in this series, Happily Ever Ninja, was a total dud for me, but I've liked a lot of what Reid has written, and so I was determined to forge onward and give the series another chance.Oh, and the hero, Matt, had intrigued me in the previous book.
So here's the story: Journalist Marie hasn't had a lot of luck in the dating world, and so she's disappointed but not terribly surprised when she meets up with a guy she met online, finds him to look nothing like she thought--still cute, but completely different from his description and picture--and kind of a total weirdo who asks her invasive questions, part of which was brought on by the book she was reading, but still. The weirdo is Matt, a scientist who's working on developing a robot that can give love and affection place of actual human connections; he's also the neighbor and long-time acquaintance of Marie's friend Fiona, and the two cross paths again when Matt shows up with Fiona's husband while Marie is present. Matt was asking the weird questions as part of the research he's conducting for his robot, and he still wants Marie's data. And Marie needs a story. So she strikes a deal: in exchange for her data, Matt will have to let her have access to his research. And if he doesn't? She'll write a different story, about this creepy guy presumably taking women on dates only to do research on them. And so the two fall into an uneasy partnership, and then a friendship, and then...more? Maybe, but Marie wants a relationship, and Matt doesn't, so they put the brakes on that, but there's still that more lingering there in the background.
This is a slow-burn romance, far more than Reid's other works. Neanderthal Seeks Human, the first book in the series, was billed as a slow burn, but it definitely was not. This fits the slow burn profile far more. Marie and Matt don't like each other, and then they do, but they don't act on it. And it's not a friends-with-benefits relationship, either, which is also sometimes billed as a slow burn. It's a real friendship. Maybe a bit more affectionate than many, sure, but there is no making out, so no sex, not even any real cuddling. It's just a friendship, until--of course--that critical moment when it's not.
Marie, the heroine and only point of view character--except for the epilogue, but at the point, it doesn't really count--had not really interested me in previous books. She was just kind of there. Reid clearly made a bid for Marie to be more intriguing in HEN, but I wasn't convinced. And I'm still not entirely convinced, honestly. Does the book work as a whole? Yes. But Marie on her own is just not that fascinating, and if the rest of the series hadn't been propping this volume up, I might not have liked it as much. Marie just doesn't have much going on. She likes to learn things, but we don't really see this. She's a reporter, but we don't really ever see the evolution of that or her skills put to the test. She had a happy childhood and happy friends and her only real character quirk is that hey, she had one serious relationship that didn't work out, but seriously? That's it? Her story is far more interesting than she is, which isn't a good thing. Though she works at a magazine that's not a fashion one, so at least she's not completely stereotypical, I guess?
Matt interested me far more, and I was quite disappointed that we didn't get any point-of-view chapters from him. Most of Reid's books have some perspective flipping, and this one didn't, and it's one of the ones that I think could most have used it. We only get snippets of him through other people's eyes, and it's not enough. His experience and perspectives are more interesting than Marie, so it's quite a pity that he got sidelined on the perspective front.
Overall, this was a great step up from Happily Ever Ninja, far more in line with the early books of the series in terms of feel and general not awfulness of the her. (Greg was awful. I hated him.) I was pretty pleased by this, and I'm looking forward to the final book in the series, when we finally get to Kat and Dan!
4 stars out of 5.
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