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Kissing Tolstoy

Written by: Penny Reid
Narrated by: Fiona Fischer,Jacob Morgan
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Publisher's Summary

Now a USA Today best seller.

What do you do when you discover 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!

Kissing Tolstoy is the first audiobook in the Dear Professor series, is 46,000 words, and it can be listened to as a stand-alone. A shorter version of this story (28,000 words) was entitled Nobody Looks Good in Leather Pants and was available via Penny Reid's newsletter for free over the course of 2017.

©2017 Cipher-Naught (P)2023 Cipher-Naught

What listeners say about Kissing Tolstoy

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Pretty good but...

Entertaining and well written story but the narrator's mispronunciation of words was distracting, like a song skipping would take one out of the moment. I will definitely check out the author's other work, though.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars

good book bad narrator

it was very difficult for me to get into this book entirely because of the female narrator,she kept swallowing very loudly and make other mouth noises it wa so distracting. I liked the story might buy a hard copy to enjoy

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Poor Narrator Match

I really struggled to listen to this one, I think if the female narrator sounded more mature, less monotone at times, clearer narration etc it would have been more enjoyable. The immaturity of the character was noted but the added narration made it sound sooo painful it was hard to believe the dynamics between the professor and this student progressed the way they did. Wish the student had been more mature, in behaviour and age. I get the fictional romance troupe of these things but, I'm not sure this story was a good way to explore that theme. Ugh.

This was just not a good listen, I finished it for the sake of finishing it but I think I'm good on this narrator and author.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good story… hard to listen to.

Seriously?!? Based on the photo of a black woman in the cover, I thought I was choosing a book with a rare black female lead. So I was very disappointed when she sounded like a dippy, blonde, valley-girl. No way this girl’s parents were from Nigeria. Even more annoying was listening to her describe herself and talk about her dark curly hair. I struggled to match the voice with the character.

This may be a good read, but a terrible listen. I stopped after about 10 minutes.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

One of My Least Favorite Books by This Author

Penny Reid has provided me with countless hours of reading pleasure. This novella was a huge disappointment. The meet-cute was great, but it was downhill from there. The ten year age gap was compounded by their power imbalance, differences in social status, life experience, and the heroine's immaturity. Reid often has female leads who spout vocal oddities, but here they bordered on inane. It was difficult to see why a sauve professor in his 30's would be so instantly smitten with this particular 23 year old at the cost of risking his job and reputation. Given that this was a summer course with a short time frame, why couldn't he tell her how he felt but just wait to start a relationship until the course was over? Making a big deal of it at the admin level before he even knew how she felt was mind-boggling. The background story of his domineering father seemed unnecessary given that it was resolved so quickly at the end.

Disappointing narration with errors in pronunciation that were distracting.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Don't waste your patience with this one.

The story line was ok, a bit basic, but possible. The female narrator was atrocious and made it difficult to get through.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Cute story, struggled with the narrator

The story is fine, but the narrators were hard to listen to. The female made odd noises and the male sounded like you slowed down his read back speed by %50. The dialogue isn't great, so I don't know of that is the issue or the actual narrators. I wasn't familiar with either and this is my first book by the author.

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  • Claudia Fosca Stahl
  • 2018-07-23

In love with Tolstoy


I love Penny Reid. All the books I’ve read of hers, have been awesome. Kissing Tolstoy is no different, although maybe better. The story is so compelling and funny and smart. Anna is a riot, so smart and sarcastic. I love her. Luca is a little tortured, like a character in a russian novel. It’s a slow burn romance, so satisfying And funny. It’s hilarious, actually. So incredibly well written. So intelligent and addictive. The narration is awesome, Fiona Fisher did an amazing job. I could listen to her forever. And Steven Dexter is so intense and seductive. It is an incredible audiobook. I see myself listening to this story many, many times. I truly loved it. I would give it 6 stars, because 5 are not enough. It’s a masterpiece.

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14 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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  • Carolyn B.
  • 2019-06-24

Did not enjoy

I had a hard time staying interested. The main character Anna is supposed to be 21 but her personality was more like 12. She irritated me and narrator's voice stayed the same whether she was having a conversation with someone or when you were hearing her thoughts. It was very confusing. Probably the worst narrators so far.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Travis Ross
  • 2018-10-21

No, Springfield, Transylvania!

Penny Reid is an autobuy for me, and I’ve never been disappointed. This is yet another home run, and I’m wishing Anna was my girlfriend, except that she dwarfs my intellect, and, although I’m pretty well-read, it’s in different genres than hers, obviously (this is a romance, after all). I don’t know where Penny finds these awesome narrators. Fiona Fischer did a fantastic job expressing Anna’s quirky personality. I loved it. I don’t normally award 5 stars, but I can’t seem to stop giving them to Penny Reid.

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10 people found this helpful

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  • Michelle W
  • 2020-12-17

Inexcusable mispronounced words!

Seriously, doesn't someone with a decent working of the English language listen to these before releasing them? Although I enjoyed her voice, a professional narrator should not make so many mistakes and certainly there should be someone who listens and requires a rerecording when mistakes are made. There are several mispronunciations in this. In addition, this was not Penny Reid's finest work. There really needed to be more plot and character development to make this story of a professor falling in love with a student more believable.

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9 people found this helpful

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  • Kelly
  • 2019-02-25

Juvenile

DNF! I had a hard time believing this was a woman in college, she talked and acted like a middle school age person. Couldn’t stand her and saw no reason for a mature man to be interested in her. For goodness sake she apparently couldn’t get a word out coherently for the first 1/3 of the book. Gah!! Getting my money back.

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8 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • jlhsd
  • 2018-08-23

Love Penny, Dislike the Narrators

I love Pennys work and this one was very enjoyable. Its not a Winston book but it was fun! Maybe read this one instead of listen. Maybe Joy Nash should just read all of Pennys books. I enjoy her male and female voices. These two, not so much. Especially Stephen doing a female voice. It sounded drag and distracted from the moment. Depending on the cost it might be better to buy this book instead of using a credit since is only a 5 hour read.

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8 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Amanda
  • 2020-12-23

The book was fine.. but the narration was not stellar

The female narrator mispronounced so many words! Ugh. It was cringey. The book was fine other than that.

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6 people found this helpful

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  • S. Kappelman
  • 2018-12-28

Great story but terrible narration

I love Penny Reid and her intelligent fun storytelling. The narrators of this story a monotone and uninspired.

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6 people found this helpful

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  • Carol
  • 2018-07-25

Beautiful Romantic Story

This is the 3rd book by Penny Reid and I've LOVED all three! The characters are intelligent and Anna is especially insightful. My only complaint is that it's a short read ending somewhat abruptly.

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4 people found this helpful

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  • ADal
  • 2018-07-19

Loved it!

I couldn’t have picked two better narrators. They both made this story come alive. They were a perfect fit! This is one of my favorite Penny Reid books. I’ve loved it since I read part 1 in her news letter. I just wish the book was longer and had more Luca point if views.

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3 people found this helpful

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  • Client d'Amazon
  • 2022-09-29

so cute

cute ans sweet , good references , not too pushy ! great story ! recommended for a "short" and sweet time without endless sex scene !

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    2 out of 5 stars
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  • Marie-José Tyan
  • 2023-04-16

Shallow and bad female narrator

Fiona Fisher narrates as an amateur schoolgirl with a singsong voice reading a lesson.
Story is incoherent with not credible subplot.

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