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 […]
God Damn It! – A Contemporary Romance
My reaction to Happily Ever Ninja is why Penny Reid continues to be on double-secret probation with me, a situation that started with The Hooker and the Hermit, deepened with Elements of Chemistry and was cemented by Truth or Beard. I wasn’t going to buy Happily Ever Ninja. I WASN’T. No matter what joo-joo a couple of earlier books in the Knitting in the City series possessed or how much I liked Beauty and the Mustache. Penny Reid’s status as an autobuy was over. Then […]
“Without Benefits”? More Contemporary Romance
These are books two and six from Penny Reid’s Knitting in the City series: Neanderthal Seeks Human Friends Without Benefits – see below Neanderthal Marries Human (novella) Love Hacked Beauty and the Mustache Scenes from the City: A Knitting in the City Surprise (novella) – also below Happily Ever Ninja – 2015 Friends Without Benefits I enjoy the unrequited love trope, especially as the romance genre always allows for the besotted character’s vindication, but having said that, Friends Without Benefits was just okay and not as […]
Finally, a Romance Hero With a Beard
A HERO WITH A BEARD! My first lumbersexual after 3 years and 300 books. I may need a moment. Penny Reid’s great Knitting in the City series continues with Beauty and the Mustache, a book that also happens to introduce a family of brothers (Cletus, Beauford, Jethro, Billy, Duane, and Roscoe) set for their own stories. They all have beards, too! Huzzah! Ashley Winston is a nurse living in Chicago and she has just come home to rural Tennessee to learn why her mother is not […]

