Review: Happily Ever Ninja by Penny Reid

Title: Happily Ever Ninja
By: Penny Reid
Series: Knitting in the City #5
My Copy: Amazon.com
The BookWhisperer's Rating: 

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?

I saved this book for a long time.  See, I wanted to be able to pull it out whenever I needed a pick-me-up in life.  Penny Reid’s books are like rainbows; they just don’t happen every day so keeping one in your back pocket for rainy days ensures a glorious rainbow and that pot of gold at the end.  So I saved it and this week I needed the rainbow and a pot of gold and Penny Reid delivered it straight to me.

While Drew and Ashley are still my favorite couple in this series (so far,) Greg and Fiona are a very, very close second.  The novella Penny released filled me with curiosity and Happily Ever Ninja blew me away. 

I think it takes a certain kind of author to write a book about a married couple with children, who find themselves in the throws of the hum drum life but is also able to somehow incorporate a wife with ninja-like, crime fighting skills and an ex-military, good doing husband and make them seem so real and not at all absurd, like they could be your neighbors.  And without giving any spoilers away, that is what this book is about.  A married couple who have hit a rough patch, trying to work out their differences and struggles but still whole-heartily love each other and fight (literally and metaphorically) for each other.   

I could honestly list many different reasons while I loved this book (and all her books) but just for time’s sake, your sake as the review reader, and for the beauty of no spoilers, I won’t but I will list a few.

1.)   It’s a Penny Reid book.  Have I loved all Penny Reid books that I have read? YES! All 17 books.

2.)   Her characters could honestly be real people doing real things.  They are logical and smart.  It is not just because they are beautiful they make it into the book but because they have a mind and they use it.

3.)   I always learn something.  Whether it be beautiful poetry from Beauty and the Mustache, or the oil crisis over seas in Happily Ever Ninja, or the random tidbits of facts that Janie knows in Neanderthal Seeks Human.  I become smarter reading her books.

4.)   I immensely enjoy them.  I never get angry because a character does something stupid or there is a miscommunication.  Every action is a well, thought out action.

5.)   Fiona and Greg’s love was super cute and it gave me marriage goals. 

It’s safe to say that I love Penny Reid and her books.  It is safe to say that Greg and Fiona’s story was pure brilliance and while I am sad the book is over, I still hold them in my heart.  It is also safe to say that I am looking forward to Marie’s story in 2017 (where is my time machine?)  And lastly, it is safe to say that I would quit my job, move to wherever Penny lives and take care of her just so that I can get my hands on everything that she writes (but not in a creepy way – in a more, “I think you are wonderful and I want to jump for joy every time I think of your books.”)