Reviewer: 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
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Series Rating:
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
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