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Book Review: Banana Pants by Penny Reid  @ReidRomance  @SmartyPantsRom

Banana Pants
by Penny Reid

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Estranged childhood friends unexpectedly reunite under bizarre circumstances and bicker their way to love in this bonkers romantic comedy.

Ava Archer misses her best childhood friend most especially during the month of April. Ask any tax attorney, it’s a lonely, grueling time of year. Luckily, Ava has just received a surprising and delectably absurd offer from her posh doppelgänger at work. She must .to be the aforementioned posh co-worker for one night at an extremely fancy party; a party so fancy, there exists absolutely no chance anyone will recognize her or suspect her ruse. .
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Desmond (Des) Sullivan is a thief. And not the heart-of-gold kind. He’s the steal-from-the-rich-and-give-to-the-also-rich-so-he-can-get-paid kind. He does, however, have one firm rule: never steal what the target can’t afford to lose. After a brutal falling out with his father, Desmond hasn’t returned to Chicago in over ten years. But when a good friend is swindled and something priceless is stolen, Desmond must return home, both as himself and his thieving alter ego.
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Infiltrate a dangerous secret society of the world’s most elite billionaires while leveraging his estranged father’s resources and not blowing his cover? Sure. No problem. Or it wouldn’t be a problem if Ava Archer hadn’t just walked into the room, wearing a ridiculous wig, speaking with a preposterous accent, and pretending (badly) to be someone she’s not.
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‘Bananapants’ is a full-length, contemporary romantic comedy filled with hijinks and shenanigans. It can be read as a standalone, but the parents of the main characters will be familiar to anyone who has read the Knitting in the City series.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

They probably had a money vault somewhere Scrooge McDuck wanted to swim in.

My brother guarded himself like he was an illegal state secret and all other humans were whistleblowers.

You were unhinged on the phone when you called that night. Ranting about how his attractiveness should be against the law. I couldn’t take you seriously until I saw it in person.

Incompetence was everywhere. EVERYWHERE! It was one of the constants in life: death, taxes, change, cockroaches, and incompetence.

I swear, I will go to girl jail for this if you ever reveal me as a source…

Everyone here had been checking him out since he’d walked in. If he’d been a book in a library, he’d have a yearlong waitlist.

 

My Review:

 

Reading a Penny Reid novel is something I always look forward to with great anticipation, so much so, I have tried to use her tales as a reward for good behavior. But as I can’t resist the allure of her delightful missives and appear to be lacking in self-restraint when her oddly consuming character dynamics are concerned, I will read her clever arrangements of words even if I’ve been naughty. Her witty tales are smirk-worthy amusing, sizzling hot, and deeply insightful while thoughtfully written. She has mad word voodoo that sucks me into an all-consuming vortex populated with authentic, complex, and compelling characters. Her latest effort is her best work yet and kept me tethered to my Kindle late into the night.

 

Penny Reid is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of the Winston Brothers and Knitting in the City series. She used to spend her days writing federal grant proposals as a biomedical researcher, but now she writes kissing books. Penny is an obsessive knitter and manages the #OwnVoices-focused mentorship incubator/publishing imprint, Smartypants Romance. She lives in Seattle Washington with her husband, three kids, and dog named Hazel.