Evie Mitchell - Knot My Type

Frankie
When you say you're a sexologist, people imagine Marilyn Monroe. They don't expect a woman who uses a wheelchair. As the host of the All Access Podcast, I'm breaking barriers, crushing stigmas, and creating sexual connections that are fulfilling for my fans. I'm like cupid, but with pink hair and fewer diapers.
Only, I've hit a snag. A lovely listener wants some advice about accessible rope play and I'm drawing a big fat blank. Which leaves me with no option but to get out there and give it a go.
Which is how I meet Jay Wood—rigger, carpenter, and all-round hottie.
I'd be open to letting him wine and dine me—only Jay isn't my type. He's not a one-girl kind of guy. Monogamy isn't even in his vocab, and I'm not a woman who'll settle for being second choice.
But the closer we get, the more Jay has me tied up in knots.
And it's making me think, maybe I could compromise and accept a little Wood in my life. Even if it's only temporary.
Jay
Frankie's funny, intelligent, and ridiculously sexy. This should be a no-brainer. A little fun in the sheets, and a little romp with some ropes—simple.
Only the infuriating woman is asking for more. I'm not that kind of guy. I wouldn't even know how to be that kind of guy. I'm the definition of easy.
It'll be fine. We'll be friends. Just friends.
So, why does my heart feel frayed? And why is it I can't help but consider taking the ultimate leap of faith—tying myself to Frankie. Permanently.

Comment: Once more, this book was in the pile because I've seen positive comments about it somewhere and that was enough to convince me. I finally had the chance to start it but it ended up being so-so to me.

Frankie is a bright young woman, a sexologist, and she has gotten some fame and accolades for her podcast All Access, where she discusses many subjects, especially related to people who might have some sort of disability and how no one should be left without options because of that. Frankie knows what she's talking about because she is in a wheelchair and her fans know she will say what is important.

Precisely due to a fan question, Frankie is unsure on how to reply to give advice about rope play in sex, and she is told Jay Wood is someone who can give her some pointers. When they meet everything goes smoothly but deep down, they are both attracted to each other even though they agree to be only friends. But will they be able to remain so with so much temptation just being around each other?

I thought this would be a cute and sweet romance where, by chance, one of the protagonists uses a wheelchair. I thought this would be a fun and positive story about how no one needs to be left out of having a fulfilling sexual relationship despite what others and society might think.

In truth, the author aimed to present precisely this and even went a step forward by making the wheelchair user a sexologist, an idea that probably most people would not think of, which is a great tactic. In fact, everything about Frankie and Jay's relationship follows such a cliched, but romantic pattern that I think some details went on a bit too easily, a bit too correctly, when reality is very likely not that simple. I feel a little bad about saying this, but the fact this story was so inclusive and correct and showed how people really should behave and accept differences, made the story a bit too politically correct and not that romantic after all.

Of course we should have books and content in fiction that shows how it should be, how it must be, but I can't help feeling that the goal here was more towards teaching that than to develop a more romantic or realistic relationship and I had the feeling I was being instructed on how things should be. In other words, everything is well about the book's content, but the fictional part of this book sounded rather dry to me.

Frankie is a bubbly young woman and she is doing something she loves, and feels she makes a difference by helping others. I really liked Frankie as a person, as a character. However, the fact her work is so directly related to sex or sexual content makes discussing it during the novel a bit annoying, especially because she is focusing on rope play and some BDSM, which is fine, people really should know what and how to do things, but since this is a theme I don't find particularly interesting, the conversations kind of passed me by.

Then, because of this, it was expected that she and Jay would bond over this knowledge and things he could teach her for her podcast. However, their physical relationship started quite soon after they meet... the obvious aside, I felt this was certainly not romantic, for it made me think what they were sharing was convenient and a product of proximity. How could they be falling in love so soon? I also don't think some time jumps helped, because it seemed everything was a sequence and then it wasn't, which confused me. I kind of wanted the romance of seeing them falling in love, of having them in a position that they had to be in love despite the conversations about sex and so on. I felt really disappointed that this wasn't as sweet as I hoped.

Jay seems to be a good guy, obviously we get the hint he suffered some heartbreak in his past but she was doing well enough and he is a great hero, since he accepts Frankie's limitations and is constantly thinking abut her in sexual terms. I mean... perhaps a bit too much sometimes, but I just went on with it anyway. Close to the end, of course there's this big scene where he is confronted with his past, then there's a conflict and then there's the HEA. All things that any romance reader can anticipate and that is not the problem.. to me, the issue is that all these things were presented in a very monotonous manner.

As it often happens to me, I've ended up thinking that the diea is great, some scenes/situations were great, but the overall mix of content just didn't win me over. It's very unlikily that no one has minimum expectations when starting a book, when reading a blurb, and I think the ones I had for this book weren't met. Certainly, this is not the author's fault, how could someone guess what thousands of millions of readers would specifically want, but it was a little disappointing that this plot didn't go the way I imagined...

Grade: 5/10