Dating-ish (knitting In The City #6) By Penny Reid Read Online Free
- Penny Reid – Dating-ish Audiobook Download. Matt and Marie’s association, their science, their dynamic takes the air appropriate out of your lungs. Matt’s a mind boggling, broken man and he RUINS YOU. He makes you need to wrap your arms around him and cuddle him for eternity.
- 4.5 To Touch, To Feel, To Love Stars.1/2 In Kindle Unlimited-The Whole Series FREE! Spoiler Free-Leave to Penny Reid to approach online dating, Artificial Intelligence, the human need to love and be loved and wrap it all up in a charming and deeply moving Knitting in the City book.
Neanderthal Seeks Human is book 1 one in the Knitting in the City series. Each book is a standalone, contemporary romantic comedy novel, and follows the misadventures and exploits of seven friends in Chicago, all members of the same knitting group. Neanderthal Marries Human, Book 1.5 in the Knitting in the City Series.
Penny Reid
To my fellow Asimov readers, who know that the first law of robotics should be the first law of humanity.
1
DeepMind
A neural network that learns in a fashion similar to that of humans and may be able to access an external memory like a conventional Turing machine, resulting in a computer that mimics the short-term memory of the human brain.
–Source: Google’s Artificial Intelligence Program
I was sweating.
“Is this seat taken?”
My head whipped up from the book I wasn’t actually reading to look at the café employee. Her hands rested on the only other chair at my table and she gazed at me with an affable, expectant smile.
“It’s taken,” I shrieked. Like a lunatic.
But, man, I need that chair!
She lifted her hands, recoiling as though the metal singed her skin, and gave me a wide-eyed stare. My attention moved behind her and I spotted the nearby table of university students, obviously hunting for an extra seat.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to—” I shook my head, gathering a deep breath and telling myself to calm down. “I’m meeting someone and he’ll be here soon. I’m a little early.”
“Okay, no problem.” She affixed a polite smile and moved to another table, making the same enquiry.
Longingly, I gazed at the booth by the window. Every café or coffee shop has that one coveted table, where two to four friends can gather and spend an afternoon not being overheard while sharing ideas and stories. Or where a person can go to work—impervious to the room and its distractions—headphones on, laptop open, losing count of how many lattes and croissants were consumed over an eight-hour day.
I did not have that table. I had a mediocre table, set in the center of the coffee shop, surrounded by other mediocre tables.
But I would not let my mediocre table get me down.
My attention flickered to the door of the café, then to the clock above it. He wasn’t late. Yet.
Squirming, wishing I’d worn anything other than this sweater dress, my eyes returned to the book on my lap.Pay no attention to me, nothing to see here. I’m just perspiring, wearing a sweater dress in May, and not reading while waiting for my perfect match.
Derek Simmons. Six foot three with a well-maintained beard, great smile, gray eyes, tan complexion, and short hair. He didn’t work out regularly—which was great, because that meant he didn’t expect me to work out either—but enjoyed some outdoorsy activities. Engineer. Thirty-nine. Divorced, two kids.
Derek and I were a perfect match. That’s what FindUrPartner.com indicated last Thursday.
You have a perfect match. The notification alerted me as soon as I signed in. The irony was, I’d been logging in to suspend my account. After almost two years of Internet dating debacles and equally disappointing men, I was ready for a break. But then I’d received the perfect match message. Therefore, I did what any normal person would do.
I Internet stalked him.
Loves: cooking, hiking, camping, eighties music, film noir. Reads: GQ Magazine, The Economist, Politico. TV shows: The Walking Dead, Daredevil, and Project Runway.
. . . cooking, film noir, The Economist, and Project Runway?
YES! A man unicorn.
Compelled by his uni-horn, I emailed him.
Hi Derek,
I hope you are well. According to this website, we’re a perfect match. This has never happened to me before, so I thought I’d reach out and say hi. Let me know if you’d like to meet up for coffee sometime. I work downtown near the Loop and am free next Monday afternoon.
Best, Marie
The next morning, I was alerted that he’d looked at my profile, and I read his response with bated breath.
Hi Marie,
Thanks so much for your note.
Next Monday works for me. I’m near the university. You name the place and I’ll be there.
Dating-ish (knitting In The City Of New York
Dating-ish (knitting In The City #6) By Penny Reid Read online, free Pdf
-DerekI loved his response.
Direct. To the point. Polite. No detour into unnecessary topics. No typos.
To say my hopes were high would be a gross understatement. My hopes had reached astronomical. Since our exchange of emails, I’d tried to curtail those blasted hopes to no avail. I couldn’t help my hopes.
Don’t run away from me, hopes! I can’t move that fast in these heels and we’re in this together.
But they did run away, hopping onto a spaceship—likely one of those SpaceX crafts that keeps infuriating Elon Musk by blowing up—leaving me on the ground, waving frantically, which was probably compounding my sweating problem.Arm waving at one’s high hopes while wearing a sweater dress in May is a workout.
But he’s perfect!
This squealing nugget of optimism originated from some dark corner in my brain. Once I found the owner of this voice inside my head, I was going to . . . I didn’t honestly know. On the one hand, I didn’t want to be bitter and jaded, trading optimism for pessimism.
Or worse, nihilism. Nihilism was the worst. And the perpetuators of it had no imagination when it came to accessorizing. All black, all the time? No, thank you.
I checked the clock over the entrance for maybe the hundredth time just as a man walked through the door. My heart did an odd prickling thing, but then the sensation eased. He wasn’t Derek. The man was too short and had no beard. And he was clearly younger than thirty-nine, more like late twenties.
With another sigh, I returned my attention to the book in my lap. I didn’t even know the title, having grabbed it from the bookstore across the street in a fit of pre-date-overthinking-induced insanity. I didn’t want to wait for him by scrolling through messages on my phone. I felt like phone-scrolling was too prosaic. And I didn’t want to be one of those people who just stared forward or people-watched while waiting, even though I loved to people watch. And I didn’t—
“You’re Marie.”
I glanced up, blinking at the man standing in front of my table, the man who I’d just dismissed as being not-Derek. He wasn’t looking at me. Rather, his gaze was on the open pages of my book.
“Yes?”
His eyes quickly darted to mine and then away as he removed his coat. “I’m your date.”
I frowned because I was surprised. And because I was surprised, it took me a solid five seconds to respond. By then he’d already placed his jacket on the back of his chair.
“Oh! Hi. Hi. Please sit down.” I gestured to the seat across from mine and belatedly stood, trying not to feel weird about my smile. I never knew how big to smile during these things. I missed the days when I could just smile naturally and not have to think about it.
Reassessing my date, my eyes flicked over him. He was definitely not six foot three. More like six foot even, or a little shorter.
No big deal. A lot of guys embellish their height on dating sites, except . . .
He shaved his beard.
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:
Dating-ish (knitting In The City Of Los Angeles
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?
Read Today!
BFF K’s Review of Dating-ish
Dating-ish is everything! It is clever, unique, funny, emotional, heart-felt, romantic, inspiring, educational….it’s perfect! Stop whatever book you’re reading right now and download this immediately! (Or purchase the audio!) But do it NOW!
Penny Reid writes the thinking girls’ romance novels. Dating-ish is the perfect example of her unique talent, and is the most exceptional book that I’ve read in 2017. I loved everything about it! If you’ve followed the BFF Book Blog much, you know that I love Penny Reid. 2015 was actually declared “the Year of Penny Reid” where I read everything she’d written to date. It’s no surprise that I follow her on social media and am a proud member of her fan club/reader group The Sharks of Awesome.
I’ll tell you, I went into Dating-ish with some apprehension. Penny had described this book as “weird.” The synopsis mentions robots. I didn’t know what to expect. I was confident she would deliver a great story, but I just didn’t know what it was all about. In fact, I let it sit on my Kindle for longer than I will publicly admit, before I finally gave it a read. Once I picked it up, I couldn’t put it down. I put everything else aside and flipped page after page. When the audio released soon after the regular release, I bought the audio so I could read it that much faster! (And the audiobook is incredible too.) Dating-ish is NOT weird, it is wonderful!
Marie is what I expect from a Penny Reid heroine. She’s smart, capable, kind, compassionate, honest and brave. She’s the kind of friend that anyone would be honored to have. There are many scenes with the Knitting group and it is so heartwarming for fans of this series to see them all continue to interact and support one another. BUT, you don’t have to read the series to love this story! Matt is also what I expect from a Penny Reid hero. He’s clever, quirky, a little mysterious and worthy of the heroine’s love.
While I found many things that I expected to find in this book, it all combined together with the unexpected to create something truly exceptional and worthy of my rare 6-rating. This book is just so smart. I feel like I learned so much and it caused me to think about love and relationships in the modern age in ways that I’ve never considered before. But, it isn’t preachy or boring, it is fun and flirty and fantastic!
I repeat: Dating-ish is everything! It is clever, unique, funny, emotional, heart-felt, romantic, inspiring, educational….it’s perfect! Stop whatever book you’re reading right now and download this immediately! (Or purchase the audio!) But do it NOW!
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.
Dating-ish (knitting In The City Of Industry
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.”
About the Author
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.
Connect with Penny:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PennyReidWriter/
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2lakzsD
Twitter: @ReidRomance
Newsletter: http://pennyreid.ninja/newsletter/