ARC Review: Happily Ever Ninja (Knitting in The City #5) by Penny Reid

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There are three things you need to know about Fiona Archer… I would tell you what they are, but then I’d have to kill you.

But I can tell you that Fiona’s husband—the always irrepressible and often cantankerous Greg Archer—is desperately in love with his wife. He aches for her when they are apart, and is insatiable when they are together. Yet as the years pass, Greg has begun to suspect that Fiona is a ninja. A ninja mom. A ninja wife. A ninja friend. After fourteen years of marriage, Greg is trying not to panic. Because Fiona’s talent for blending in is starting to resemble fading away.

However, when unexpected events mean Fiona must take center stage to keep her family safe, her response stuns everyone—Greg most of all. It seems like Greg’s wish has come true.

Except… not.

When all is said and done, can Greg handle this new version of his wife? Will his irrepressible cantankerousness push her away? Or can the couple find a way forward without either being forced to step back into the shadows?

This is a full length, 100k word novel, and is the 5th book in the Knitting in the City Series. All books in the series can be read as a standalone except book #1.5

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Disclaimer: eARC provided by the author in exchange for an honest review 🙂

If you know me and have been following me for long, you have to know how much I am in love with Penny Reid (and hereby referred to as the Benevolent Overlord) – like leaving everything aside and reading her book the moment it hits my Kindle, the time never really matters, because it’s Penny and her weirdly relate-able romances.

I fell for her Knitting in The City series in 2014 and I re-read them anytime I want a little “away” time from the bleak reality of my work. And since the start, I have been looking forward to getting to know Fiona’s story (not Greg’s mind you!), especially since I came to know that she is ex-CIA.

But I fell in love with Fe and Greg in Ninja At First Sight – I mean how could you not? They are brilliant, weird and awkward but oh so adorable – not just together, but individually as well.

“Oh my God!”

“No, Darling. It’s just your husband”

This book is told in two parts, mostly in Fe’s POV and when the Overlord is feeling benevolent, Greg’s POV – but since I am more in tune with Fe, I overlooked this discrimination anyways!

As someone who is contemplating marriage – I have to say I both terrified and excited for this new phase, yet somehow wondering whether my HEA will stay that ways – always.

When I first started reading HEN, I wasn’t sure what I would be getting – a married couple looking to spice up their married life or a married couple who are just done being married.

What I got though was that, the lesson that we need to work to deserv our partner – every moment – for they are our better parts even if they are annoying little dipshits 😛

(Yup, that’s what I took away from the book, and I am sticking to that version :P)

“I need you to clean the apartment, and pick up your goddamn socks, and stop making mindless messes-like we have magical cleaning fairies who orgasm every time they do the laundry.”

Also, yes, there are ninjas – a lot of action, something I honestly wasn’t expecting – like it took me totally by surprise – both Fe and Greg are brilliant – not just the way they handle being wrong, but the way they never stopped loving each other in all the years they had been together – their love changed the way it was shown, but the core aspect of their love, their souls? They remained just the same as they were, when they first found each other.

Overlord, does, something different with each book of hers and HEN is no different at all – she took real love letters written, and put them at the start of each chapter – not only made the whole experience of reading this book more realistic, but also more heartrendingly adorable!

This book is weird – not just because our Overlord loves weird romances, but also because somehow those weird stories end up being exactly what you want to read at that exact moment. I have no idea how she does it, but she definitely does and somehow, just somehow in those dreary reality times, I end up with a smile on my lips and a heart lighter of its worries.