Love Hacked by Penny Reid

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Title: Love Hacked
Author: Penny Reid
Series: Knitting in the City #3
Published by: Indie
Release Date: January 14, 2015
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Devra Woodward
Length: 13 hours and 56 minutes
Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Romantic Comedy
Source: Audible
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Beat the Backlist Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Reading Assignment Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Summer Hunt
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ iTunes
My rating:

Blurb:

There are three things you need to know about Sandra Fielding: 1) She makes all her first dates cry, 2) She hasn't been kissed in over two years, and 3) She knows how to knit.

Sandra has difficulty removing her psychotherapist hat. Of her last 30 dates, 29 have ended the same way: the man sobbing uncontrollably. After one such disaster, Sandra--near desperation and maybe a little tipsy--gives in to a seemingly harmless encounter with her hot waiter, Alex. Argumentative, secretive, and hostile Alex may be the opposite of everything Sandra knows is right for her. But now, the girl who has spent all her life helping others change for the better, must find a way to cope with falling for someone who refuses to change at all.

This is a full-length, 110k word novel and is the third book in the Knitting in the City series. All books in the series can be read as a standalone.

My Review:

3.5 stars — Well, this one left me supah mixed.  There is so much I LOVE about these stories, even as they’re totally over the top sometimes.  I think this series is maybe even more over the top than Ms. Reid’s Winston Brothers series, but that probably comes down to the reveal of who Alex is…apparently my suspension of disbelief only goes so far.  *snort*  But that wasn’t what had my feelings mixed, that came down to Alex, the relationship between the two, and the way Sandra behaved in a certain scenario.  Needless to say parts of this review will be a bit spoilery, so I’ll try to spoiler tag them (or remove them from vendor reviews, if you want to read them, find me on elsewhere).

OK narrator first.  In general I still REALLY enjoy Ms. Woodward’s narration.  I LOVED her accent for Sandra, and it remained consistent throughout.  I ADORED her Alex voice, and think she seriously nails male voices.  I also loved her different voices for all the knit group girls, and how consistently she performs those.  And then there’s the emotion and comedic timing — just wonderful.  My only niggle with her is that I still don’t like her female…sexy times? sounds?  Like every time Sandra said “ZING!” it almost sounded like an orgasm, and just didn’t work for me.  She also gets some pronunciations wrong, but that only bothers me because I’m a weirdo and notice it.  Otherwise she is SPECTACULAR.

Honestly the book started off fantastically.  And that’s just because Ms. Reid writes really well developed, colourful characters that I can actually picture.  Sandra was HILARIOUS.  And I could see why people like her, she’s super easy to like.  She’s hella sassy, compassionate, and just plain funny.

Alex…was…harder to like.  It’s not that I didn’t want to, or that I didn’t like and admire certain aspects.  But his behaviors are hella unhealthy, and while I found the storyline of a psych Dr being with a damaged hero without “fixing” him intriguing to a certain degree, I was also really bummed that we didn’t see Alex improve in the book.  Part of that is that it’s almost entirely from Sandra’s POV, and so we don’t get to delve into his thoughts…and their romance did take place over just a few months, hardly enough time to change and grow.  But we do get to hear his POV in the epilogue, and I still wasn’t impressed with him.  He was possessive, quick to anger, stubborn in an unattractive way, untrusting, kinda mean…  Really, his negative qualities trounced his positive qualities for me.  He made me uncomfortable.

But even that wasn’t enough to completely turn me off the story, just because of all the other fun goodness we did get.  And I did find it intriguing to watch their relationship change and grow.  I found it unhealthy…like a lot.  But for some reason I wasn’t sad for Sandra…I think she could hold her own with him.  And they did have a strange connection.  Again, as with the previous 2 couples, the love story had a strange intensity to it that doesn’t really float my personal boat…but that’s still not enough to really put me off the book, just wouldn’t make it a fave.

BUT.  But…  *sigh*  View Spoiler »I was HELLA disappointed in Sandra’s reaction to Alex’s virginity, and his initial desire to wait. Like, I was loving the book up to that point (even with some reservations), but when we get to that scene I was like: wait, what?? She got MAD at him. She was going to break up with him. She was basically holding their relationship HOSTAGE because of his choice. If the hero had behaved as Sandra did to a virgin heroine, there’s no way we’d be okay with it. I mean, I’m not sure I understand the point. Because she was HORNY?? REALLY? If there had been more to it (and sure, there was a bit more to it, but it wasn’t the main reason), I might have understood more. But it just turned me right the fuck off. Like RIGHT THE FUCK OFF. And I had a hard time letting it go. Later she eventually talks about intimacy, and worrying that the relationship was never going to go there, but it was almost as an afterthought, and it wasn’t very believable. And I’m not sure I ever came back from that. « Hide Spoiler

So this isn’t looking like the most positive review, and yet I still want to round up.  I think it’s super easy to quantify things you don’t like, but it’s really hard to elucidate what makes a book shine sometimes.  I think in the case of this book it’s the crazy cast of characters, and the fabulous relationships of the knit night girls.  Heck even the adjacent knit night boys.  I love seeing them interact, and seeing all their unique personalities shine.

And not just that, but even though the book is a bit over the top, it’s over the top in a FUN way that’s just entertaining to read.  *shrugs*  What can I say.  Sometimes things bug me and it’s all over, and sometimes…sometimes I still enjoy myself, just with reservations.  And that would be Love Hacked for me.

COYER Summer Hunt: Read a book with a red item on the cover — 1 point.