Kissing Galileo (Dear Professor) Paperback – June 17, 2019

This novel was kind of eye opening for me. Here, Penny tackles a subject that made me have all kinds of feelings, and made me realize some things about myself I don’t like, and now I understand why . . . .Emily and Victor come across each other under very different circumstances: he sees her at the gym way before she is captivated by him, he sees her stage 3 naked (you have to read the book to understand what this means - it’s fully ingrained in popular culture now, so you are clearly uninformed and uneducated without this knowledge - how will you go on???) and then they find each other in class - he as professor, she as student. There’s some complications here - he has all kinds of feelings, and is moral compass points due north, so there will be no professor / student fraternization. But he wants her . . . . She is less a stickler for the rules, and misreads his infinite rule respecting as disinterest. He’s a full character. Deep, pained, beautiful. And I don’t wish to share the details here because this is part of what makes this book so beautiful.Penny Reid is not afraid to touch subjects that are taboo - things about ourselves (as humans), that we don’t even realize we do - prejudices that we probably don’t recognize. And she wraps these tough subjects and elegant lessons in a beautifully told love story. My favorite line? “My logic > his logic.” I mean, LOVE HER that she has a greater than symbol in her novel. It’s this simple fabulousness - combined with confidence interval research method dirty talk that separates Penny from other romance writers - all of whom I love, but Penny is special. And she’s giving the revenue from this novel to charity. Love her. Thank you for this, Penny.PS - next time you are in the gym, look around, and ask yourself - am I really treating my fellow (wo)man equally without regard for how they look? What is more impressive? The 120lb woman running on the treadmill, or the 300lb woman just beginning her workout journey? It’s a trick question - anyone who exercises to better themselves and their health is impressive. Remember that, and be proud of yourself for being there and your fellow health seekers. Everyone has pain, a smile directed to someone can change their day. Just sayin’. . . .

Love! Love! Love! Emily and Victor’s story is sweet and bittersweet, funny and sad, heartbreaking and ultimately heartwarming.This wonderful story starts off with Emily having an awkward encounter with her professor Victor outside of class. Emily is an attractive girl who is intelligent and giving. Not only is she attending college, but she is also working to support herself and pay her mother’s medical bills. Victor is an intelligent, somewhat socially awkward man of many talents. He is adjusting to how other people see and react to him after losing 150 pounds. I loved reading about them and how they fell in love.Like all of Penny Reid’s books, the characters have real life issues and feelings that make each relatable. I especially empathize with Victor. In our society, there is so much emphasis on appearance. Many people struggle with being overweight and are treated as less valuable because of it. I appreciate the smart and sensitive way this was handled in the book. Thank you.I have been reading this story in Penny Reid’s newsletter. Truthfully, as soon as I see the newsletter in my email each month, I rush to open it so I can read the next part! I love this story! I love the dual POV. Buy this book! Additional bonus - right now the proceeds go to charity!

I love that we get a story with a lead who is working through the physical, mental, social, spiritual repercussions of losing 150pounds off his body.I love that the main characters flirt through statistics & research methods. (Full disclosure: statistical analysis & research methods are not in my personal wheelhouse, and I was still able to enjoy the humor.)For all their witty banter and popping chemistry, Emily & Victor have such painfully different perceptions of reality and applications of logic. It hurts how much they hurt each other in their ignorance. But the slow, fragile burn of their connection is so very worth it.

Ms. Reid is known for her quirky romances where the not-quite-typical person finds romance. This story is the same. Victor, former 300+ pound virgin meets Emily, sure-about-myself lingerie model. He’s her professor and favorite. He’s a guy with a new body but with the same emotional hang-up as he had when heavy. Their chance meeting outside of the lecture hall leads to some funny and embarrassing situations afterward. Emily is very attracted to Victor but he’s so unsure of his own body/self image that it is a fight to get him to be involved with her. This is the jest of their romance.As per Ms. Reid’s style of romance, it’s nice to see this innocent man learn how to not only love himself but someone else, too, to give himself permission to be happy. Since this type of character is usually female it’s nice to read a reversal. Not a cocky, alpha male but just an insecure guy trying to learn to live with his new reality. And, Emily as the emotionally strong character is a nice change, too. She’s the leader and teacher in Victor’s life education. Together, they make a couple that you enjoy exploring and see grow together.My biggest complaint in this story is that I felt the last fourth of the story seemed rushed, less detailed. I felt we were missing all the parts of them truly learning about each other, of growing together as a couple. I felt cheated of their “real” romance. Otherwise, great read!

The plot line in one line:Smart and caring student Emily falls for her professor, but the intelligent man so confident in the lecture hall, has a surprising layer of insecurities which only her patience and understanding have the power to cut through.The good and the bad:Entirely unexpected and adorable, this book set at a university in America, gave me good feelings from start to finish.I was pleasantly surprised to find that this wasn’t the usual story about a sexually-experienced, cocky alpha male seducing a woman who desires/needs a dominant man to get her hot. Instead, Professor Victor Hanover is inexperienced and has secret insecurities about his body. On paper, that might not sound sexy – generally speaking, us women are expected to be turned on by hot-and-he-knows it, sexually accomplished men, but Penny Reid shows how a man of the contrary character is tasty in the eyes and mind of the right woman.Emily is indeed the right woman – she’s compassionate and intelligent and it was utterly delightful to read how she slowly and sensitively worked with Victor to understand him and break down his barriers, resulting in a strong friendship-based relationship.While there is sexual tension between Victor and Emily, this is not a book that is all about the moment when the protagonists finally have sex - it’s very much about them bonding emotionally and mentally. When the sex moment comes, it’s delicious and is used to show how unified they are as a couple, rather than to just titillate the reader. The whole book made me melt inside.Reid’s books are moreish and while Kissing Galileo is littered with intellectual discussions which you will only understand if you know uni-level science (or Googled all the terms), these bits are not essential to understand – they are included to demonstrate how well-matched intellectually Emily and Victor are, and to build tension between the two.The only point at which I found myself a bit annoyed with the writing was when Reid used the acronyms DM and D&D several times (which apparently Emily and Victor are!) and didn’t explain what these stood for or indeed even what they generally referred to. I think it is some American university reference, so needs some explaining to us non-Americans. But this was one teeny-tiny thing in what is overall a brilliant book.Reid is now solidly established as an author on my Fantastic Author Billboard (FAB). I cannot get enough of her!P.s., you can read this book before the first book in the series, and it won't ruin the first.

Penny Reid - what a writer everything so hilarious and pointed about the wars and alliances and treaties and love ins of intelligent, unusual, energetic men and women, here a virginal male professor with weight issues (Yay! for once the POV of a male with body problems) and his clever adoring student. But for Penny Reid that wonder of an author just a little predictable and even - dare I say it - a bit repetitive. Perhaps for her this relatively ordinary novel just points out the wonders of her work as a whole. She is very good of course about logic and its lack .....

Loved it! Need more! Please write more stuff! How refreshing to read about real issues especially from a man's POV.

I was so happy to finally be able to one-click Kissing Galileo released in its entirety - I've been scrolling past all of the newsletter instalments and any spoilers, determined to wait until it was released in full (so glad I did).I love quirky characters, and Penny Reid always delivers with the quirk factor. Victor was super smart, very awkward at times and very blunt. That overwhelming honesty he possessed was often to the detriment of conversations and his social relationships (what social relationships???). What was unexpected was the other issues he also had - how it affected his sense of self, his ability to interact and develop meaningful relationships.Emily was a great character - she was also super smart which meant there was some great banter between these 2, she refused to be cowed by his wit and sarcasm in their professor/student interactions. Thank goodness it was dual POV, so some of Victor's thought processes were exposed, and I wasn't left as frustrated as poor Emily wondering what was going on. Kissing Galileo was worth the wait.

Book 2 in the professor series sees Penny Reid address another sensitive issue within the framework of a beautiful love story. (Add injections of Reidisms throughout for us to ponder or have a hearty laugh over and there you have it.)Dr Victor Hanover is very much attracted to Emily Von, but he is her research methods professor. As a person, he is a little tortured and insecure, but has a great mind and a sharp sense of humour. He makes a fabulous hero, if an unconventional one. Emily is fun, intelligent and simply gorgeous. She finds Victor very attractive, too and is equally a fabulous heroine. Penny has drawn these two characters so appealingly and their 'meeting of minds' is delectable. Their romance becomes a lovely combination of mutual admiration and powerful desire.A shortish read, but a highly entertaining, moving and clever narrative.