Dating-ish - Penny Reid (Knitting in the City #6)

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.

Kulti - Mariana Zapata

Kulti was the second buddy-read for the Unapologetic Romance Readers group for June, and it served as the contemporary selection and designated "slow burn" romance.  Well, slow burn is right--this was a burn so slow that many in the group didn't feel it at all.  I loved it, but I can definitely see why others did not.  This is a book that goes from the two characters basically hating each other to slowly liking each other to being friends, and then finally to romance at the very, very end, so if you're looking into that, know to expect it!

The two main characters here are Sal, the point-of-view character who is a professional women's soccer player on the fictional Houston Pipers.  She's the team's main forward/striker.  Her life is turned upside down when Reiner Kulti, her childhood soccer hero and schoolgirl crush, turns up to act as assistant coach to the team following his retirement from soccer two years before.  Sal isn't drooling over Kulti anymore, due to an incident involving her also-professional-soccer-playing brother, Eric, but yeah, she's definitely still attracted to him.  Except he's kind of a jackass, doesn't seem to want anything to do with the Pipers in general or Sal specifically, and is more trouble than he's really worth.

I thought both the characters here underwent a lot of growth that I really enjoyed; seeing them transform, even so slowly, was breathtaking to me, as was the sloooooooooooooow burn of their relationship's evolution.  That said, there were a few things that I wish had taken place in this book.

First, I wish Eric had been present.  Sal mentions him a few times and talks to him on the phone once; other than that, he's not really a presence.  Considering that an encounter between him and Kulti, and Sal's feelings that she's betraying Eric by befriending Kulti, were so central to the relationship and Sal's development, his complete lack of being there seemed very strange.

Second, I wish that there had been some chapters from Kulti's perspective.  This entire book is from Sal's perspective, which means that at times Kulti's feelings don't really come across as strongly as they probably could.  I get it; he's a reserved person.  But I thinking having some chapters from his perspective could have really enhanced the reader's insight into his feelings without necessitating a change in his outwardly-reserved character.  There are signs into his feelings--one scene where he pretty much begs Sal to stop talking about sex, pretty clearly dying on the inside because he's thinking about sex with her but doesn't want it to show, the way he treats her family, his devestation following her injury, and so on.  But still, a few chapters could have made this more apparent and made the tension between the two characters so much more intense.

And speaking of intense... I wish there had been something before the last few chapters.  I mean, a torrid up-against-the-wall kiss following tense moment, even a freaking touch would've been nice.  But because there wasn't anything like that, it meant the sudden wave of contact at the end didn't really feel as built-up-to as it could have, and therefore kind of came out of nowhere.  I mean, not nowhere, but it could have been built up to better, I think.

One more thing I want to discuss, not because it impacted my opinion of the book but because it was brought up by a couple of people with different perspectives in our discussion group: Kulti's DUI.  When Sal hears that Kulti's license was suspended because of a DUI, she says something about how a DUI isn't a big deal, about how sometimes you get caught and sometimes you don't, and specifically "Whatever."  To some, this read as her excusing drunk driving and making it out to not be serious.  To me, it didn't read as that, but as Sal still trying to figure out what she thinks about Kulti and--because when she hears about it initially, it's still just gossip--not wanting to dismiss him out of hand.  When she asks Kulti himself about it later, she takes his words seriously and makes sure she doesn't drink around him because she doesn't want to tempt him away from sobriety.  As I mentioned, this didn't affect my opinion of the book, but I wanted to bring it up because I think it's interesting how different people can take different perspectives away from the same words and scene.

So, overall: yes, this book had flaws, and I think I pinned down a couple of places in which it could have been improved for me and maybe some other readers.  That aside, I still really liked it.  I could feel the tension throughout the whole story, simmering under the surface even when it wasn't really apparent.  Would I feel that way if I re-read it?  I don't know.  Maybe.  I rarely re-read books, so I probably won't ever find out.  But this definitely put me in the mood for more slow-burn romances, so it must have done something right for me.

In the end, I think I'll give it 4 stars out of 5.  Some general improvements could have been made, but there was nothing that destroyed it for me or really even knocked it seriously.