REVIEW: Dating-ish by Penny Reid

Dating-ish by Penny Reid is the latest in her Knitting in the City series, about a group of female friends who get together occasionally to dish about their lives, loves, failures and successes. Some of them actually do knit, some attempt it, and some are just there for the companionship. Regardless this set of female friends is purely delightful to visit as a reader as every woman’s story has been as individual as the women are themselves. In Dating-ish, it’s Marie’s turn to find someone, but not without some challenges first.

Marie’s had poor luck in the dating department, including her most recent coffee shop meet with a man who looked nothing like his profile picture on FindURPartner.com, and that ended quite disastrously. To top it off, that man turns out to be her friend Fiona’s neighbor and sometime babysitter, Matt.

Matt’s a computer scientist with a focus on artificial intelligence. In fact, he’s trying to build a robot that will take the place of a human partner, and his interest in internet dating is related to finding out what people are looking for in a partner, so he can include those traits in his program. He wants to build a ‘compassion robot’, one that can perform all the functions of a human partner and can learn to adapt to its owner – in other words, make dating a thing of the past.

Marie is a journalist who works as a contract writer, and her next assignment is to come up with a series on online dating. But Matt’s idea has given her a great angle to look at. A personal robot seems pretty extreme (okay, crazy even) but what about human based companionship services? When her editor gives her the go-ahead, she strikes a deal with Matt – she’ll help him with acquiring the statistical data he needs to create a program for his robot in return for being able to write an article about it as part of her series. Meanwhile she’s going to investigate human alternatives to robot companionship. A friendship develops between them as they work together in a mutually beneficial partnership. But the more time they spend together, the more they discover that replacing a human partner with convenient alternatives is no substitute for falling in love.

There’s really nothing like a Penny Reid romance. She writes such wonderfully human characters, each with positive traits and flaws so that you can’t help but recognize bits of yourself in them. In Marie and Matt’s case, you’ve got two characters who have pretty much written off being in a serious committed relationship. Matt’s amicably divorced, his ex-wife and himself being such workaholics that they’d mutually agreed to end their marriage. Marie’s last relationship ended with her getting dumped and since her dating life seems to always end in disaster she’s taking a break. Friendship is the order of the day at first but as they see more of each other, Marie finds herself attracted to Matt, and thinks it’s being returned. Are they just friends? Are they dating? Mixed signals abound as they do research on cuddle therapy, life coaches and orgasm meditation for Marie’s articles. It’s a slow burn romance that heats up in the second half as they suddenly find they can’t keep their hands off each other!

While Marie and Matt are navigating their complicated dating-ish waters, we also get several scenes with Marie’s female friends and previous couples in the series to enjoy. Each story is written as a standalone and is easy to pick up on its own, but it’s fun to see where the other couples have ended up and how their lives are progressing. Penny Reid writes intelligent and sexy romantic comedies that delve into a variety of topics while providing laughs, occasional tears, and always a very satisfying happy ending.
 

Book Info:

Publication: May 16, 2017 | Self Published | Knitting in the City # 6

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 human kind, 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?