Kissing Galileo

Friends to Lovers New Adult Romance (Dear Professor, Book 2)

By: Penny Reid

Narrated by: Jacob Morgan, Fiona Fischer

Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Her professor just saw her mostly naked. Awkwardness is guaranteed to ensue.  

What do you do when your freakishly smart and wickedly sarcastic Research Methods professor sees you mostly naked? You befriend him, of course.

Kissing Galileo is the second book in the Dear Professor series, is 70k words, and can be listened to as a stand-alone. A shorter version of this story (40k words) was entitled Nobody Looks Good Naked and was available via Penny Reid’s newsletter for free over the course of 2018-19.

©2019 Cipher-Naught (P)2021 Cipher-Naught

I wasn't expecting to like it this much

I confess that I reluctantly decided to listen to this one. I barely managed to finish Book 1 because of its cringeworthy narration but then I saw that this was narrated by Jacob Morgan and he can absolutely read the instruction manual to how to fix a tractor and I would happily listen to it. It was a nice surprise to see that the female narrator that bothered me SO MUCH in the first book got a lot better. She still has a little to go, but she was really nice to listen to this time.
As for the story, as someone who struggled with her weight her whole time it rang really true. All the issues and insecurities that come from it were portrayed in a true and raw way and I really appreciated that. I also loved that it was the guy who had the weight issues and not the girl. It affects everyone, Being invisible is akin to not existing and that can really do a number on a person. I am so glad that the dude found the right damsel to accept him for who he was. I loved how Emily and Victor found a way to each other. Great read/listen!

A perfectly OK book

Here are my thoughts:

1. I did not read the first book in this series. I don't think that was a major stumbling block, but I kinda wished I had.
2. This is not Penny Reid at her finest, though clearly is her style so if you like her books, you might give this a go.
3. The main character was severely annoying at times. Maybe Reid had her speak in almost stereotypical teen-speak to emphasize her age, but it was still annoying.
4. In a completely hypocritical fashion, I'll admit that while I didn't mind how the female narrator did the man's voice, I hated the way the male narrator did the female voice. Hated.
5. I rolled my eyes at the professor's two professions. It's not that I think someone doing one of these jobs isn't capable of doing the other, I just thought it was a stretch that the second job was so involved that he could swoop in at one point and solve all of her problems. That's probably just me, I just found it a stretch. It was not as believable as Cletus doing all the things he did. (That's for you hard core Reid readers.)
6. Even though is a professor / student relationship, the emphasis at the end of her age and, therefore, the age difference creeped me out. THAT IS ME. Of course there's a big age difference! I just didn't think about it until the end. I think Reid made certain of the professor's traits the way she did to try and mitigate that age difference. I don't know.

Kinda disappointed that I wasted a credit on this one, though it won't turn me off from reading Reid's other books, especially as I'm still in love with several of the Winston brothers.

Odd all the way around

I find this whole series about female undergraduate student/male professor entanglements uncomfortable at best. One way it is accomplished in a less icky way is to infantilize the male leads so that the relationships don't seem exploitative. That is certainly the case in this one, but this particular male lead's insecurities and inexperience simply make him an "Oh, honey" character as opposed to a believable and compelling romance novel protagonist. The romance narrative that underlies it all is formulaic, but fine. The characters in a different setting/storyline would have reasonable chemistry. The sexual tension is hot at times. It's just that the treatment of the premise.... doesn't work as a romance, at least not for me.

Great Story

I really enjoyed the story but I find the male narrator speaking the female parts to be
VERY OFF-PUTTING!
It definitely takes away from my enjoyment of the narration.
I believe the male narrator should only read the male parts and the female narrator should only read the female parts. This would be much more enjoyable and realistic!

Want more

Love both main characters!! Would love for their story to be continued. Still hopeful for more.

okay, don't think I'd listen again

the story was fine, but the characters are not that interesting. Maybe I just didn't like the narrators. The guy sounded so bored. I really like the Penny Reid books I've read, this one missed for me.

Entertaining, wonderful goofy romance.

Kissing Galileo was so much more than just a romance novel. Complicated. Challenging. Frustrating. Irritating. Delightful. But most of all addictive. The characters, the story was packed full of mind blowing situations, scientific concepts, insecurities and determination.

Kissing Galileo was an eye opener. I never thought about guys having the same weight issues as gals deal with every day. It isn't because I am shallow. It is because I neglected to see life from a male's perspective. Society has different attitudes for males and females. Shame on all of us. I want, no I need, to be more like Emily.

Thank you Penny Reid for giving a new role model. Just like Pluto will always be a planet in my mind, you will always be one of my favorite authors.

02/09/23 GRAB the AUDIO!!!! What an amazing listen. I found reasons to keep listening throughout the day. I did laundry. I cleaned the bathrooms. I vacuumed. I did not want to put it away.

Better Male Narrator!

I had listen to book 1 and did not like the male narrator. Jacob is definitely better but I think it would be all around 5 out of 5 is they just had Fiona do all the female parts and Jacob do all the male parts on each chapter.

better than the first

better than the first one in the series in that there were no weird skips in time where you felt like you'd missed something

very sexy like the first one, good to get all the philosophical questions about body image and such out in the open. still didn't really resolve how upset he was about student/professor relationships though.

Absolutely BRILLIANT!

I have NEVER been disappointed in any of Penny Reid's books. I love the intelligence, her fabulous descriptions making us feel that were are actually there. Penny's delightfully witty humour is her signature with every story told and of course they all have a hugely erotic climax!😂
Enjoy!