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picklechic 's review for:
Kissing Tolstoy
by Penny Reid
3.5 stars. I liked this book, but I didn't love it. This is Luca and Anna's story. In a comedy of errors, college student Anna accidentally emails the wrong email address and ends up on a blind date with the wrong person, Luca. Even though they hit it off, when she realizes her mistake, Anna is mortified and runs from the date. A few months later, she comes face to face with Luca in her Russian literature class, where he is the professor. The two struggle with their feelings for each other and the ethics involved in their situation for quite awhile. They have to figure out whether it is possible for them to be together. It all works out for them in the end, though.
The overall story is good. It was interesting and different. The way Russian literature is tied into the story was original. I liked Luca and Anna in general. But they were very wishy washy on whether they wanted to be together. For such a short book, there was a lot of back and forth going on, right up to the end. There was some slow burn, all the way through the epilogue before there is any payoff, and also just some slow parts without much movement. Also, while I liked the references to Tolstoy and other Russian works, I hadn't read any of those books. There is a lot about it in the book and it was all a little much. It was almost like the book was trying too hard to be high brow and intelligent. It just felt a little pretentious and made me feel "not very smart" sometimes. I don't read romance to feel dumb.
Still, this was a fairly enjoyable novella. I liked that it was different than most of Penny Reid's other books. I definitely look forward to the next book in the series, as the preview looks really good. And I look forward to more from Ms. Reid in her other series too.
The overall story is good. It was interesting and different. The way Russian literature is tied into the story was original. I liked Luca and Anna in general. But they were very wishy washy on whether they wanted to be together. For such a short book, there was a lot of back and forth going on, right up to the end. There was some slow burn, all the way through the epilogue before there is any payoff, and also just some slow parts without much movement. Also, while I liked the references to Tolstoy and other Russian works, I hadn't read any of those books. There is a lot about it in the book and it was all a little much. It was almost like the book was trying too hard to be high brow and intelligent. It just felt a little pretentious and made me feel "not very smart" sometimes. I don't read romance to feel dumb.
Still, this was a fairly enjoyable novella. I liked that it was different than most of Penny Reid's other books. I definitely look forward to the next book in the series, as the preview looks really good. And I look forward to more from Ms. Reid in her other series too.