Reid markets her work as "Smart Romance," a brand characterized by:

This is the perfect entry point for readers who love by Graeme Simsion or The Hating Game by Sally Thorne but crave a heroine who is neurodivergent-coded in a loving, authentic way.

Neanderthal Seeks Human: A Smart Romance is the debut novel by Penny Reid and the first book in her Knitting in the City series. It is widely available in

You can also check your local library's digital collection or online archives to see if they have a copy of the eBook.

The story follows Janie Morris, a woman who is as brilliant as she is socially unconventional. Janie is a walking encyclopedia of trivia, a trait that often alienates others but becomes her primary defense mechanism when her life falls apart. In a single day, Janie loses her boyfriend, her apartment, and her job. It is in the midst of this catastrophic "triple threat" of bad luck that she encounters Quinn Sullivan, a man nicknamed "Sir McHotpants" by Janie’s friends.