I feel seen.

I am keeping this review safe for work. The spice in this book is not explicit.

Medium Used: 65% audiobook via hoopla, 30% paperback via, and 5% ebook via hoopla.¹

Ratings out of 5

Overall Rating: 💜💜💜💜

Sweetness Level: 🍫🍫🍫

Steam Heat Level: 🔥🔥

FMC Likability: 👠👠👠👠👠

MMC Likability: 💂💂

Plot Engagement: 🧶💻🍷🥷

At least 1 bad dad (pass/fail): 💯²

BONUS audiobook narration by Jennifer Grace:🔉🔉🔉🔉

Spoiler Free Review

Neanderthal Seeks Human, is a contemporary romantic comedy³ (or Smart Romance as it suggests) about what happens after Janie Morris’ Worst. Day. Ever. Originally published in 2013, it is Penny Reid’s debut novel and the first story in the Chicago, Illinois set Knitting in the City⁴ series. Janie’s Worst. Day. Ever. Begins with finding an unfamiliar empty condom wrapper in her boyfriend's⁵ jeans and ends with security escorting her out of the office building where she is was an accountant.

The security guard that escorts her out is Sir Handsome McHotpants, at least as far as she and her friend (and now former) colleague are concerned. A few days later, Janie learns three things while out on the town with her best friend:
1. Sir Handsome McHotpants also works security at a night club.
2. Most people call him Quinn Sullivan.
3. His company has a business team, and that business team is hiring an accountant.
Janie, who I read as ADHD coded, struggles to put some obvious things together throughout the story, the first of these being that she is Lady Beautiful O'SexySkirt in Sir McHotpants eyes.

I really loved Janie as a protagonist. I have never read an inner dialogue that I identified with as much as Janie⁶. She is kind, brilliant, spacey, understanding, competent and funny. She is also tall, which is a much better match for a 6' something MMC than most FMCs⁷.

Quinn Sullivan is fine, but not my cup of tea. I never found myself caring about Quinn. I found his quiet, brooding, and bossy demeanor boring and stereotypical. His main redeeming quality for me was he made Janie happy.

As is to be expected for a CRC the overall tone of the story is light-hearted, however; it had just the right amount of conflict and mystery to keep me paging turning for more than an HEA fix. I also appreciated Janie's career success and other relationships remaining key pIot drivers past the first act. Overall, Neanderthal Seeks Human finds its way to a satisfying tale of love, growth, and understanding.

What I liked about this book

• Janie's inner dialogue. I did not appreciate how different the way I think is from the way every 1st person narrative I have read is written until Penny Reid pointed out the obvious to me.
  
• Decent communication and mutual understanding between the MCs throughout the book.⁸
  
• Tremendous amount of fun facts throughout, courtesy of Janie.
  
• Janie is presented as a unique individual without^imho falling being a “not like the other girls” cliché.
  
• Solid tension build up, with some great kissing scenes paired well with the yearning we get in Janie's head.⁹
  
  
  

What I did not like about this book

• A character named Olivia is done dirty. I get that she is there as a foil to Janie but her character came off as unnecessarily mean spirited to 'traditionally attractive' woman in the work place. This is one of several other slut-shaming-esque undertones, none of which phased me in isolation but stack up to a be a bit much.¹⁰
  
• Janie doesn't like cellphones. This book is set in the mid-2010s. One of her complaints is about the constant social media access but some people still had basic flips into the mid-2010s. Why doesn't she just get a flip phone? It is never even brought up as a middle ground from any of the people in her life asking her to get one.
  
• There are multiple meaningful conversations that take place between the MCs off screen, given how few words we get out of Quinn the entire book I would have liked to have seen how those played out.
  
  

Spoilers Review

What I liked Spoilers

Click to reveal spoilers

• There is a final confrontation in which three skinhead gang members end up at knitting night to try and kidnap Janie. The knitting night woman kick the shit out of them.¹¹
  
• Janie finding the client's nephew screwed up the AutoCAD drawings in the meeting with the client in Vegas. Then Quinn swooping in to defend her credentials. 11/10 – this is work place romance.
  
• Janie having plans to rearrange her comic books by level of influence 2nd wave feminism has on them is one of the greatest lines I have ever read.
  
  

What I didn't like Spoilers

• This whole guards on Janie thing without telling her why??!! And she just goes with it!??! Felt off and not consistent with either MC.
  
• ⁸If we ignore Quinn's multiple decisions to let Janie be oblivious to the obvious. It is a cute form of flirting in Act 1 but it goes on for too long and then feels gross with the lies of omission “to protect her” in the climax.
  
• The epilogue made me not like Quinn even more. He does not want to share Janie with her best friend? It's not like Elizabeth and Janie hook up. It just cemented his character as so one dimensional “I like the tall redhead with nice boobs and nice butt that you care about”.
  
  
  

This Book Reminded Me Of

• The burn pace of The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
  
• The MMC in Manwhore by Katy Evans¹²
  
  

Who should read this book?

If you're looking for a fun CRC you can do much worst. If you have ADHD and any of my comments resonate with you I would prioritize the read. If you have a strong preference towards dual perspective or equal emotional investment in MCs this may not be the read for you.

Get the book

¹ Libraries are 🤌💋.

² My opinion is we have 2 bad dads here. Quinn’s dad blaming him for for his other brother's death is bad parenting. Letting Quinn blame himself for his brother’s death is atrocious parenting. Janie’s is implied to be on decent terms with her father but he is was an enabler to the mental trauma her mother clearly inflicted on all three of her daughters 0/10.

³ CRC hereafter

⁴ About a group of woman in a knitting group. Janie belongs to this group. All her close friends are in it. Janie does not knit.

⁵ Now Ex-boyfriend

⁶ My ADHD manifest many of Janie's character traits. These include speaking before I think about what I am saying, sharing random facts about a topic that nobody understands how I connected it to the discussion, letting my mind wander away from a conversation, a natural aversion to brevity, and the superpower to completely lose oneself in interesting work to the point that you're surprised to learn it's 3PM when you decide it is time for lunch.

⁷ MMC = male main character, FMC = female main character

⁸ Covered in Spoiler section.

⁹ Just don't expect the payoff to be rated NC-17.

¹⁰ I offer this critique upon reflection but I do not presume to be an authority on the topic. Nor do I presume Penny Reid of being a judgmental prude.

¹¹ Books are fun, more climaxes in CRCs like this please!

¹² Perhaps because the voice Grace Grant does for the MC in that series is similar to the one Jennifer Grace uses here.

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