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Review

4 “My kind of nice” stars!!



When I read a Penny Reid book I know that I’m going to get a story that is so much more than what is on the surface. I know it’ll be deep and intellectual. All of her characters are unique and original, and Anna and Luca are no exception. Such a wonderful take on the teacher student trope, it’s different than the norm and is creative and hysterical.

Anna is fun, smart, witty, and loves reading. She is someone I could totally see myself being friends with. She goes on a blind date but it turns out the guy isn’t the one she was supposed to email. Then, she discovers that her blind date is actually her summer professor the whole situation was hilarious. She was cracking me up with everything she was thinking.

I closed my eyes; his voice, the words he’d spoken hitting me square in the abdomen, driving the air from my lungs. He’d used the Russian pronunciation of Eugene. Life was not fair. Not only did he look good in leather pants, fabulous in a suit with a bowtie, was a world expert on Russian literature, but also he apparently spoke Russian. Flawlessly. Flee! He is temptation incarnate! He will steal your soul with sexiness.

Now, they are bumping into each other everywhere and it’s not helping diminish their attraction. It’s making them lust harder, fantasize more, and the sexual tension grow stronger with each encounter.

Luca Kraft is sexy and smart. He has to deal with his family before he can have a serious relationship but he knows what he wants and he isn’t afraid to pursue Anna. He just needs to get his ducks in a row before he can actually do anything about his feelings.

I was her professor, her teacher. I took this charge seriously, a sacred trust, never to be tarnished by selfish interest. This alone placed her well beyond my reach. And yet . . . Interest remained. Steadfast, undeniably selfish, and—recently, since Monday—unmanageable. Burdensome in a way that felt like a punishment.

The fact that they are attracted to each other and can’t do anything about it makes their situation frustrating. Anna is real and honest about how she is feeling and I loved that Anna doesn’t back down from telling him how it is.

“Everyone else gets to have you,” I whispered brokenly. “And I get nothing.”

When Luca is able to finally pursue Anna, he is sweet and totally swoony, and I fell even harder for him he finally opens up to her.

“Don’t change yourself. Never try to be other than you are. You are perfection, just as you are.”

Overall, Kissing Tolstoy was an entertaining and unique teacher/student romance that was full of laugh-out-loud moments as well as the sweet, emotional ones that really draw you in. It’s a wonderful addition to the book world and another fantastic Penny Reid rom com!

I have to add that I listened to the audiobook and thought that is was fantastic. Fiona Fischer really brings Anna to life and made me really get into her head. And Stephen Dexter sounds so swoony, I could listen to him all day.

“I want to know you, Anna,” he whispered, placing his hand on my bare shoulder. He traced the soft skin of my collarbone and neck as his eyes moved between mine. “Let me know you.”

 

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Dear Professor