Publication date: November 7 2017
Published by: Cipher-Naught
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary, College, Romance
Rating:
What do you do when you discover that your super-hot blind date from months ago is now your super-hot Russian Lit professor?
You overthink everything and pray for a swift end to your misery, of course!
It is popular to say that one must find love within oneself before knowing how to love another.
I rejected this statement outright, as both imbecilic in theory and impossible in practice.
Kissing Tolstoy read like any girl’s – or at least most girls’ – fantasy. The sitting under the window sill in your nightie looking longingly at the stars and moon kind of fantasy. The one when a strapping, well educated, knowledgeable man is obsessed with making you his.
At the end of the day, isn’t that what it’s all about?
It sure was for Anna, after she meets dapper Russian lit professor Luca who is:
A) Drop dead gorgeous
B) rides a motorcycle
C) wears leather pants like nobody’s business and
D) is kind of a dominant. But with a soft side. Duh.
Now why did I always picture Russian lit professors as long nosed, hunched backed 60 somethings, I honestly don’t know. Popular misconception I guess.
Kissing Tolstoy was a really sweet, very funny story about Anna, an unremarkable 21 year old self-proclaimed nerd, who loves jigsaw puzzles and Russian Lit, falling in love with her very hot 32 year old professor.
Before you say anything, yes, I realise the theme is a bit “taboo”, but is it really?
They are both consenting adults and Luca did the right thing and was responsible and mature enough to nip the issue in the bud when he knew he wanted to pursue Anna. Not that I am congratulating him for common sense and decency, I am just saying that's what happened.
You can’t help who you fall in love with and these things, as crazy as they seem, do happen. Probably not as exaggerated and over the top as in Kissing Tolstoi but I can personally attest that they happen. A close friend of mine fell in love with her professor in her mid 20s and they have been happily married for 15 years and have 2 kids, so there.
I loved the sense of humour in the book, I LOLed on a lot of occasions which can be kind of awkward when you are reading the book at work and the manager/monster is looking at you all weird.
"His words landed like a physical blow and the wind was forced from my lungs, leaving me breathless.
And wretched.
Breathless and Wretched, the new fragrance by Calvin Klein.
What I felt missing from Kissing Tolstoy was EITHER 100+ pages more, so Luca’s automatic obsession with Anna could be explained and justified OR more of Luca’s POV, which would have the same result.
I love reading Russian characters or characters with Russian decent because their mindset is very similar to Greeks: this totally pessimistic and cynical view of the world and people, which I guess is imbedded in our DNA from years and years of political and economic upheaval in both our countries. I always envied the optimistic and confident Westerners who were told they could have anything they want in life and that the world is their oyster. But in a way this perspective, appealing though it is, never felt real to me. So on the rare occasion I read about a self deprecating, mad at the world, defeatist character, I immediately like him.
Overall, Kissing Tolstoy was a super cute and sexy, but unfortunately very brief, story about a whirlwind romance between a college student and her professor. It was very enjoyable for what it was, a very short shot of romance with clever banter and over the top situations that will make you smile, even though they are far from relatable or believable.
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