Bananapants

A Bonkers Romantic Comedy

By: Penny Reid

Narrated by: Colin Brown, Fiona Fischer

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 pretend 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. . .

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.

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.

Bananapants is a full-length, contemporary romantic comedy filled with hijinks and shenanigans. It can be listened to as a standalone, but the parents of the main characters will be familiar to anyone who has explored the Knitting in the City series.

©2024 Cipher-Naught (P)2024 Cipher-Naught

I loved this book

I really enjoyed the storyline and visits from some of my favorite characters. I hope the series continues

I wanted to like it more than I did

I feel like I remember liking Penny Reid’s books more than I actually did. I liked about half of the Knitting in the City books and most of the Winston Brothers books. The ones I didn’t like I either DNF’d or wish I had.
Regardless, I was excited to see this, the second generation.
I was very disappointed to see that one of the characters from one of the books I did like was no contact with his son.
The story itself was fine. I love a story that addresses mental illness and neuro-spicy folks, but this read more like a living with bipolar story than a love story.
Overall, enriching about this book was fine. Narration was fine, pacing was fine, MFC was a little loose cannon-like for my image of a tax lawyer.
The most intriguing character was the stalker bad guy, and they didn’t do much to make him as big or bad as he could have been.
This might be the end of my reading Penny Reid, unless I can borrow for free from the library.

Floaties for anyone with any mental health diagnosis

For anyone taking any kind of counseling or therapy of any kind.
Humans have so many problems, and Des is unfortunate enough to have a boat load. Fascinating to see how he's learned about himself and how it feels from the INSIDE of Bipolar (with comorbidities--ADHD, panic attacks).
In this book mostly I felt a whole lot of kindness and love from this found family and this young couple. I got a lot out of this book.

The reference to floaties is a quote from Taylor Tomlinson, the comedienne with Bipolar and standup specials on Netflix.
(Roughly quoted:) "Having bipolar is like learning to swim. [There's a lot you can't do], but they give you arm floaties. And then you can go anywhere you fucking want."

I want to make the analogy that Penny Reid is like a floatie. But I'm tired after staying up all night listening to this book with a smile on my face. So, all I can say is: this book is like a warm and fuzzy floatie for the ❤️💔 soul.

Disappointed , too long , too much information ! End up Listening parts for knitting in the city characters/references

Did not enjoy the narrations especially Female Lead. Storyline was stretched and didn’t made any sense or logical at times.

KitC Next Gen

I’ve never had a bad opinion of Penny Reid’s work, and Banana Pants keeps that going strong! Plus, in true Penny fashion, she wove a story with so much meaning that you don’t realize that the stigma of a mental health condition has been torn down to the smallest parts, so that you see what someone with that condition may go through (some and may being very key words!!). This book was as amazing as any of Penny’s books and I’d say you’re Banana Pants if you don’t get it!!

The only complaint I have about the audiobook is that the gentleman did a Boston accent for Quinn but the lady did not. I’m usually not bothered by the differences in the woman’s voice being different from the man’s on any specific character, but the accent threw me for a loop. Still an amazing job though, once you get used to that!!