Author: Penny Reid

What Are You Reading? (+ #Cockygate Giveaway)

Posted June 1, 2018 by Holly in Features, Giveaways | 14 Comments

WAYR-New

Casee: I’m still reading Claimed by Rebecca Zanetti. It’s only the second book in the series. Now that graduation week is over, I can really get into it. I’ve been reading a few pages here and there this week but just haven’t had time to really sit down and read.

After I’m done with Claimed, I’m going to pick up Ocean’s Light by Nalini Singh. I really don’t have an answer for why I haven’t picked it up before now. Obviously I’m demented.

Holly: I started re-reading the Kate Daniels series this week in anticipation of Magic Triumphs in August. I read Magic Bites, Magic Burns and Magic Strikes. At this rate I’ll have to do another re-read to be fresh for Magic Triumphs. I did download an ARC of Iron and Magic yesterday, though, so I’mg going to dig into that soon.

Rowena: This week, I finished reading Making Up by Lucy Parker and enjoyed it. Leo and Trix were a lovely couple that really came together and I ate their story right up. I didn’t read much else in the way of books. However, I did do a lot of reading on all things #cockygate. I read all of the documents that Courtney Milan provided on the cases and the entire thing is really interesting. I didn’t think I’d ever be this invested in a court case but I am. I’m rooting for Team Romance and hope that things turn out in our favor.

My plan for the weekend is dig into I Flipping Love You by Helena Hunting. I’ve been itching to read this story and am really hoping that I get over my slump and just start reading. Wish me luck!

Giveaway Alert

We are very fortunate here at Book Binge. We have loads and loads of books to read and we want to share the wealth so each week, we’ll be tacking on a Freebie Friday giveaway to our What Are You Reading posts. This week, we’re giving away…

What Are You Reading? (+ #Cockygate Giveaway)Cocktales by Penny Reid, Nana Malone, Dylan Allen, Jana Aston, Whitney Barbetti, Sawyer Bennett, K.F. Breene, Ruth Clampett, L.H. Cosway, Amy Daws, Mariah Dietz, B.B. Easton, Jaymin Eve, Emma Hart, Staci Hart, Jessica Hawkins, Julie Johnson, Karpov Kinrade, Adriana Locke, Lex Martin, Aly Martinez, Kayti McGee, Corinne Michaels, Liv Morris, Red Phoenix, Daisy Prescott, Jessica Prince, Meghan Quinn, C.D. Reiss, Julie A. Richman, Aleatha Romig, Kennedy Ryan, Kylie Scott, Sierra Simone, Tara Sivec, Kate Stewart, Leia Stone, Karla Sorensen, Rachel Van Dyken, April White
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: May 26, 2018
Pages: 998
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books

About the Cocktales Anthology:Cocktales is a limited-release anthology (available *only* from May 26 – August 26, 2018) of original, never before published material, some of which is raw and unedited. Each story was specifically written for this anthology.

The goal of the Cocktales Anthology is to raise funds to fight against obstruction of creative expression. Specifically, what we believe are obstruction attempts through the trademarking of common (single) words for titicular use in books / or as a book series (eBooks, print, and audio).

*ALL* net profits will be donated to:1) Authors already impacted by creative-obstruction (10%), and2) Romance Writers of America (RWA) (90%) as a general donation intended for their Advocacy Fund.

Disclaimer: This anthology is not being conducted on behalf of RWA, nor does RWA endorse this anthology or effort. They have, however, graciously agreed to accept the funds.

Today is a big day for our author friends and #cockygate so to help in our little way, we’re giving away three e-copies of Cocktales: The Cocky Collective to three lucky winners. Our thoughts and good vibes to Kevin Knuepper, Tara Crescent and Jennifer Watson today in court.

What Are You Reading: Cocktales: The Cocky Collective

What are you reading this week? Any new favorites or books that drove you crazy? Share!


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Updated: #cockygate Part 2: #Cocky Author Files Lawsuit (includes link to full summary)

Posted May 30, 2018 by Holly in Discussions, News | 12 Comments

Note: This is a pinned post. Scroll down for additional content.

Update June 1, 2018: Thanks to Euna Park for the updates she was able to post on the court hearing this morning in NYC. The judge denied FH the temporary restraining order she requested for the publishing of books with the word “cocky” in the title and removed Kevin Kneupper from the lawsuit. Kevin being removed from the lawsuit has no bearing on his trademark case. That is separate.

FH’s lawyer is really claiming that the word “cocky” is synonomous with FH in the romance genre. Wow. Considering nobody knew who she was before all of this came to light, that’s overstating the shit out of things. I mean, sure, NOW that might be true but not in the way I think her lawyer meant.

Author Liv Morris also attended the hearing and had this to say about the Cocktales: The Cocky Collective:

This is more great news for Team Romance. I’m super glad to see that Cocktales will be able to continue to sell books. I really love how supportive our community has been over this whole thing. It makes me so glad to be apart of such an awesome community.

Here is a list of links that Courtney Milan provided that includes all, or well, most documents pertaining to the lawsuit:

Defendants Joint Memo in Opposition to Preliminary Injunction & TRO
Tara Crescent Affidavit
Crescent Exhibit D
Crescent Exhibit G
Declaration for Jennifer Watson
Declaration for Penny Reid
Plaintiff (FH) Reply to Memorandum of Law in further support of Plainitffs Motion
Full Transcript of Preliminary Hearing on June 1, 2018

Here are some other posts that went up in the last couple of days:

Authors Guild and RWA Prevail in Court Defending Authors in “Cocky” Trademark Dispute
Judge Denies Injunction Request in Cocky Trademark Dispute
RWA’s Update on Recent Trademark Proceedings
The Cocky Trademark Author Writes an Open Letter to Herself in Response to Cockygate
How an Author Trademarking the word “cocky” turned the romance novel industry inside out

Marc Whipple has a great running commentary on the entire #cockygate on his blog so be sure to check that out too.

Posted on May 30, 2018: Rowena and I have been on vacation so while we’ve been keeping up with the latest nonsense with #cockygate, we haven’t had a chance to update until now.

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Joint Review: Neanderthal Seeks Human by Penny Reid

Posted May 2, 2018 by Rowena in Reviews | 5 Comments

Joint Review: Neanderthal Seeks Human by Penny ReidReviewer: Holly & Rowena
Neanderthal Seeks Human (Knitting in the City, #1) by Penny Reid
Series: Knitting in the City #1
Also in this series: Neanderthal Seeks Human
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: March 14, 2013
Point-of-View: First Person
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 403
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
Series Rating: four-stars

There are three things you need to know about Janie Morris: 1) She is incapable of engaging in a conversation without volunteering TMTI (Too Much Trivial Information), especially when she is unnerved, 2) No one unnerves her more than Quinn Sullivan, and 3) She doesn't know how to knit.

After losing her boyfriend, apartment, and job in the same day, Janie Morris can't help wondering what new torment fate has in store. To her utter mortification, Quinn Sullivan- aka Sir McHotpants- witnesses it all then keeps turning up like a pair of shoes you lust after but can't afford. The last thing she expects is for Quinn- the focus of her slightly, albeit harmless, stalkerish tendencies- to make her an offer she can't refuse.

Holly: Rowena and I have both been hearing a lot about Penny Reid, so we chose Neanderthal Seeks Human, book one in the Knitting in the City series, for our April joint review book.

I read it before Rowena did and I have to tell you, the heroine annoyed me. She was written as an extremely intelligent, but oblivious individual. Mostly she came off as lacking in common sense.

What did you think?

Rowena: I agree about the heroine. It took me a long time to read this book because I kept stepping away because I couldn’t believe how dumb the heroine came off. She was too smart to be so dumb about a lot of the things that went on. Like when Quinn kept telling her that the company was his company and she kept not understanding what he meant? There were too many instances where this happened and I wasn’t a fan of that.

Holly: I could have understood if she missed a few cues here and there, or even if she was oblivious until someone spelled things out for her, but that just wasn’t the case. Even when things were spelled out she completely missed them. She was completely lacking in common sense. It was frustrating.

Rowena: Yeah, I agree with Janie. I don’t think the way that she was written really pulled off her personality. It just didn’t work for me. I really liked the random trivia that she threw out. That was probably my favorite part with her.

I didn’t mind the random trivia facts that she threw out when she was nervous. I actually liked that stuff but the lacking of common sense for someone so smart didn’t work for me.

Holly: I thought the random trivia facts were hilarious, and I loved how she just babbled when she was nervous. But man, I couldn’t get past how dumb she could be.

Rowena: Then there was Quinn. He was great and I would have liked him more if he was more upfront about every little thing with Janie. He had too many secrets for my liking.

Holly: I really liked Quinn, but you’re right, it would have been nice if he’d been more upfront with Janie. It was obvious he knew she was oblivious to most things. He should have spelled things out.

Rowena: Yes, he knew that she didn’t understand that the company belonged to him and he kept letting her think what she wanted to think but also, he knew a lot of things about her and about those around her and he didn’t tell her and for what? He didn’t owe anyone but Janie anything so why keep her in the dark about things that affected her personally? He could have saved himself a lot of trouble if he was upfront with her about everything.

Those little things kept taking me right out of the story and I kept needing to walk away from the story for a bit because I could not deal with all of the unnecessary shenanigans.

Holly: Right, that’s what I mean. He knew she didn’t understand what was going on with him, his company, her sister, etc. Yet he chose not to tell her, to keep her in the dark. I didn’t like that. He should have let her know what was going on.

Rowena: But how great was that knitting group?

Holly: That knitting group was amazing. The scene toward the end with them? Oh man, I about died laughing. I want to read more of this series just for them.

Rowena: The way that the knitting group came together to fight the bad guys had me bent over at the waist laughing. They truly saved this book from a lower grade because even though they weren’t front and center in the story, they were still a big part of it and their part had me laughing a lot. These are the kinds of friends that a woman needs in her life.

Holly: While there were some enjoyable parts – most notably the knitting group and their shenanigans – I didn’t love this book the way I expected to. It came highly recommended from so many, I thought I’d love it. I loved the knitting group enough to try another book in the series, but Janie really killed this book for me. I’m giving it a 2.75 out of 5.

Rowena: Yep, I pretty much have the same thoughts. There was potential but overall, most of the comedy stuff missed its mark with me though I will not permanently say no to any of the other books in this series. I really do need to get to know the other ladies in the knitting group, especially Sandra. She sounds like a riot and I’m all for reading her book.

I’d give this one the same grade, 2.75 out of 5.

Final Rating

Holly: 2.75 out of 5
Rowena: 2.75 out of 5

Knitting in the City


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Guest Review: Neanderthal Seeks Human by Penny Reid

Posted August 5, 2013 by Tracy in Reviews | 0 Comments

Guest Review: Neanderthal Seeks Human by Penny ReidReviewer: Tracy
Neanderthal Seeks Human by Penny Reid
Series: Knitting in the City #1
Also in this series: Neanderthal Seeks Human (Knitting in the City, #1)
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: March 14, 2013
Format: eARC
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

There are three things you need to know about Janie Morris: 1) She is incapable of engaging in a conversation without volunteering TMTI (Too Much Trivial Information), especially when she is unnerved, 2) No one unnerves her more than Quinn Sullivan, and 3) She doesn't know how to knit.

After losing her boyfriend, apartment, and job in the same day, Janie Morris can't help wondering what new torment fate has in store. To her utter mortification, Quinn Sullivan- aka Sir McHotpants- witnesses it all then keeps turning up like a pair of shoes you lust after but can't afford. The last thing she expects is for Quinn- the focus of her slightly, albeit harmless, stalkerish tendencies- to make her an offer she can't refuse

Janie is having a bad day. She found out her boyfriend was cheating on her and then goes into work and gets “downsized.” She’s pretty upset but wraps up her feelings and puts them away in the closet in her head, like she does everything else. She’s more flustered by the security guard who escorts her down to sign her final employment papers. She’s been watching him for weeks because he’s so darned good looking but had never gotten the nerve up to talk to him.

Since she has no official home she contacts her old college friend Elizabeth (who she still sees once a week) and ends up crashing on her couch temporarily. The arrangement works and Janie stays. Elizabeth gets tickets to an exclusive club one night and who do they run into there? The security guard – whose real name is Quinn Sullivan. The next morning she wakes up in a strange apartment that Quinn brought her to after she got drugged at the club and he saved her. They head to breakfast after Janie finds out that nothing happened between the two of them and Quinn ends up telling her about a job that she may be perfect for.

This begins the relationship between Quinn and Janie. Quinn has never dated before – he’s just kind of had women that were available (which is a point of contention in the relationship) so he’s not sure how to act and he’s a very stoic guy anyway. Janie is so many different things. She’s never felt passionate about too much of anything so when Quinn comes around and she starts feeling things that she never has before it feels awkward. She doesn’t know what to say and ends up spouting her endless supply of trivial information. Normally this would make people look at her funny but with Quinn he just wants to know more.

The story is sweet, fun, funny, awkward, lovely. It really isn’t like another romance I’ve ever read because of the awkwardness of both characters. Quinn’s no geek but he’s just lost with how to act. It made me love him even more. Janie misunderstands Quinn and his motivations at first and I found that part a bit frustrating but her self esteem really wasn’t at its highest point.

There was kind of a subplot with Janie’s sister, Jem, that involved both Janie’s ex-boyfriend and Quinn that I thought was a bit on the odd side. I can’t say that I saw the whole point of it being in the book but maybe that was just me. Janie’s knitting club was the best. They were all such very different women but they were all warm, caring, loyal and they could kick some butt when they needed to.

In the end seeing both Janie and Quinn grow and learn about both themselves and each other made for a really good read. I’m pretty interested to see where things in the series next and hope we get to hear more about this couple.

Rating: 4 out of 5

four-stars


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