Dating-ish, an all new standalone from the USA Today bestselling Knitting in the City romantic comedy series by Penny Reid is available now!

'Dating-ish' can be read as a standalone, is a full length 100k word novel, and is book #6 in the Knitting in the City Series.

There are three things you need to know about Marie Harris: 1) She's fed up with online dating, 2) She's so fed up, she's willing to forego the annoyance and consider more creative alternatives, and 3) She knows how to knit.

After the most bizarre and irritating first date in the history of humankind, Marie is looking for an alternative to men. With the help of her friends, she quickly identifies a few possibilities:

Need a cuddle? Use a professional cuddler. Need affirmation? Get yourself a life coach. Need an orgasm? Try orgasm meditation! Why does she need the hassle of a romantic partner when she can meet all her needs with paid services?

But then her irritating date resurfaces. And he's not at all the person she thought he was. And he suggests a different--and crazier--solution to her dilemma . . .

As everyone knows (or will soon come to realize), traditional relations between humans are a thing of the past. Robots are our future. And if robots are our future, then why do we need other people at all?

Excerpt:

He was quiet for bit, we both were, and I felt myself relax more and more. His palm took a detour every so often, dutifully skipping my hip and sliding along my side, and then back to my leg. Soon, I was so relaxed I felt drowsy. I felt fingers in my hair, moving the mass away from my neck with treasuring strokes just before Matt nuzzled the back of my neck, causing goosebumps to scatter over my skin. “Mmm.” I smiled. “Hey. Jared said no tickling.” My voice sounded sleepy. “Does this tickle?” Matt asked softly, nuzzling me again. I felt the brush of his lips—not a kiss, a brush—paired with hot breath against the bare skin of my neck and a zing shot straight down my spine, making my toes curl and a sudden hot ache twist in my lower belly. Oh no. I knew that ache. I hadn’t felt it because of another person’s touch in quite a long time. Nevertheless, no one ever forgets that ache. My back arched instinctively, my bottom pressing back against his crotch, and I stiffened. I felt my nipples harden, strain beneath the cotton of my bra. I was now fully awake. No longer drowsy. Nope. Not even a little. Matt stiffened, too. His movements abruptly ceasing. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?” he asked, alarm coating his words, and in the next moment his hand was suspended in the air above me. “Did I touch something I shouldn’t?” I exhaled a short, nervous laugh, gripped by the urge to sit up. “No. No. You didn’t.” I moved to the edge of the bed, righting myself, away from Matt, needing distance. “I’m good.” I gathered a silent breath and released it slowly because my pulse was racing. Crap, Marie. Get a grip. It’s Matt Simmons. Professor Matt. The big kid. Why are you reacting this way? “Did I . . .” These initial words were hesitant, and a moment of silence stretched before he continued, his tone comically teasing as he finished his thought. “Did I arouse you?” I snorted, shaking my head, laughing at his silly tone. Turning at the waist to peer at him over my shoulder, Matt was grinning at me, twisting a make-believe mustache between his thumb and forefinger. But then he stopped. “I did, didn’t I?” he pushed, his hand dropping. He looked pleased, if not a little amazed. I sighed, feeling a smidge embarrassed, and nodded. “Actually, yes. That’s a sensitive spot for most women.” “The back of your neck?” He lifted himself to one elbow, his eyes darting to my neck with keen interest. “My neck in general, actually.” “Huh.” Matt frowned thoughtfully. “Where else?” I pressed my lips together and gave him an incredulous look. “I’m not telling you that.” “Why not?” “Matt.” “What if I needed it for research reasons?” “Matt.” “What if I told you it was part of our questionnaire?” He tossed his legs over the side of the bed and stood, walking around to my side and offering me his hand. “You should give me a schematic of your body with the erogenous zones circled and rated.” “Let me guess, you want them rated on a ten-point scale,” I deadpanned as I accepted his hand, stood, and stepped away to gain some distance and straighten my shirt. He shrugged, crossing his arms, stalking after me. “Or exponential. I was going to say a Likert scale, but a logarithmic scale works, too.” Chuckling, appreciative of his attempt to diffuse my embarrassment and awkwardness with the joke, I realized Matt Simmons wasn’t a bad guy. He might even be a good guy, just a little . . . peculiar. And wants to replace romantic relationships with robots. Best not forget that detail. Yeah, he’d make an interesting friend. “Thanks.” I gave him a small smile. “For what?” His eyes moved between mine. “For the cuddle. Thanks for the cuddle, Matt.” “Anytime, Marie.” He grinned down at me, his eyes dancing as he leaned forward and whispered, “Anytime.”

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Review

RATING:

This definitely belongs in my top fave romcom read. I tell ya, no one does geeky romance like Penny does! Everything totally worked. You have tons of LOL moments. You have lots of sweet moments. You have plenty of learning moments. GAH, I loved it! Even when there was some itty-bitty niggling stuff in my head, in the end, I absolutely adore this one! I adore Marie! I adore Marie and Matt together! Most importantly, I adore Matt! GAH!

The 6^th book in the series, it can stand alone. I know because I haven’t read the first 5 (Eep! And this even when I have them locked and loaded in my tablet *gasp). It was quite adversarial the first time Matt and Marie met but that made it so much more delish. They became friends eventually and surprise, surprise, feelings started developing.

Marie is such a good person. She’s well-rounded. She’s loved by all. Gots nothing to complain about her at all! She’s the kind of woman you want to be friends with and just surround you. She wears her nerdiness proudly, and I loved it!

Matt is what I would say the kind of H you most likely want in RL. Even when he’s being rude, you can’t even get mad at him just knowing his thoughts come from a genuine place. Like Marie said, there’s a childlike quality to him with his social ineptitude and you just want to be the woman to bring out the best in him, a woman like Marie. He cracked me up so many times. He’s hot and nerdy, direct and funny, sweet and sincere, what more can you ask for!

Their story is one slooow burn (hmmm, this must be the flavor of the season as I think this is the 3^rd one I’ve read lately)… this slow dance that I just really savoured, even when they were each dancing to a different beat. I say they needed to go thru it and make their ending that much sweeter.

Now, regarding that niggling bits, I just want to say that because this is the 6^th bk in the series, I gathered all of Marie’s friends got their respective turns in the previous books. So if you’re like me and haven’t gotten to them (tsk), you might feel that there are a lot of names to track. Also, Penny took on relevant subjects guised as just discussion amongst friends and while they were all good foods for thought, it felt like a discourse in a classroom setting. But hey, ultimately, friends indeed do that in RL, right? So this will all boil down to personal taste. And like I said, none of these mattered. In the end, I just friggin’ adore this!!!

I love the way Matt and Marie grew. I love the friendship that surrounded them and grew between them. I love the innocence and honesty of Matt’s actions. I love Marie’s lack of guile. I love all the geek references… I love em all!

Meet Penny Reid:

Penny Reid is the USA Today Bestselling Author of the Winston Brothers and Knitting in the City series. When she’s not immersed in penning smart romances, Penny works in the biotech industry as a researcher. She’s also a full time mom to three diminutive adults, wife, daughter, knitter, crocheter, sewer, general crafter, and thought ninja.