Friends Without Benefits Review

Friends Without Benefits - Penny Reid

There are three things you need to know about Elizabeth Finney: 1) She suffers from severe sarcastic syndrome, especially when she's unnerved, 2) No one unnerves her like Nico Manganiello, and 3) She knows how to knit. 

Elizabeth Finney is almost always right about everything: the musical merits of boy bands are undervalued by society, “benefits” with human Ken dolls are better without friendship, and the sun has set on her once-in-a-lifetime chance for true love. But when Elizabeth’s plans for benefits without friendship are disarmed by the irritatingly charismatic and chauvinistic Nico Manganiello- her former nemesis- she finds herself struggling to maintain the electric fence around her heart while avoiding electrocution or, worse, falling in love.

 

Friends Without Benefits can be read as a standalone, is a full length 120k word novel, and is book#2 in the Knitting in the City Series.  

 

For the next year (2013-2014), Penny Reid will be giving 10% of the profits from Friends Without Benefits to a pediatric rare disease research foundation.

 

 

Review

 

 

Each chapter of this book is better than the last and that is saying something because it starts out pretty dang good. 

 

This is Penny Reid's sophomore effort and the second book in the wonderful Knitting in the City Series which was launched by the unforgettable Neanderthal Seeks Human. 

 

I have already reread Neanderthal Seeks Human (Janie's and Quinn's love story) four times and it just came out this year. 

 

This is Janie's best friend Elizabeth Finney's story.  And unlike how most of us look in our sophomore years when everything seemed to go a bit awry, Ms. Reid looks good. 

 

While in some ways this novel is very different from first book in the series with a heroine who just can't pick up on social signals and is all wide eyes and open because of it vs a heroine in this tale who has suffered great grief and is very closed  off and hero who is cool and dangerous vs a hero who is emotionally vulnerable and love committed, the books are linked by the amazing, fresh, human, sexy, and fun voice that is Penny Reid. 

 

She is hands down my new romance writer find of the year and I have had an incredible year discovering new (and new to me), great romance voices (Mary Ann Rivers, Sugar Jamison,  Danielle MonschPepper Pace) .

 

If you are looking for a slow build and love of the flirt with the stomach wobble of anticipation--- this is a great romance novel for you.  We get plenty of interplay and couple time between Nico and Lizzie but following what is natural for the characters the sexy times don't happen right away. 

 

Don't worry. They are worth waiting for and you even get to select whether you want the full show or dimmed lights. I, not surprisingly, selected the full show. 

 

The hero: I love Nico so much. He is funny, hot, Italian, and says I am sorry.  He is not perfect but he loves. I adore a man who loves. 

 

He is a ex underwear model comedian who has known and loved our heroine since he was in diapers. 

 

The heroine:  Lizzie is both likable and relatable   She is in her last year of medical study.  She has had major loss in her life that she really hasn't dealt with and is reluctant to risk. She is all sorts of mainly amusing  and sometimes exasperating running circles her brain to not deal with her feelings. But don't we all?  

 

Rereadable Scenes Panty Dance Parties, Out of Season Mistletoe  Car Trip,  Phone Calls, Window Crawling, Reunion Dance, Italian Whispering, Knit Night, Elevators, the Show and what I am calling Kiss Talk Kiss. 

 

Wow. This is a lot of yummy stuff to savor again and again. 

 

The Secondaries:  The knitting clue is the bomb. It is so awesome that this is a series.  Nico's mother and niece and even Dan the necked tattooed bodyguard. He needs a novella by the way. 

 

The Plot:  This is a long Sunday stretch in bed of a book so a lot goes on but Reid keeps it all in balance.  We have unrequited love, fame, an ill child, childhood friends, tomboy, circle of friends, a stalker, and matchmaking.

 

Mostly, we have main characters that really grow and a happily ever after we root for an believe in. 

 

There are some threads of character in the book  I would have liked to have seen given more time but over the mix of love, tenderness, emotional bravery, madcap, and pop culture is a excellent mix tape of romance.  

 

I was given this book by the author for my honest review and, in full disclosure, I was privileged to beta read this manuscript because of my earlier both adoring and critical review of her first book.   

 

So there, you have it!  

 

It was a good book in beta form and a great book in its final version.  I would have been happy to have bought it at twice the price  and certainly will be purchasing the rest of series and taking the time to share my good fortune of finding the writing of Penny Reid with those that enjoy an excellent romantic read.