Happily Ever Ninja by Penny Reid
Publication Date:
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Humor
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iTunes
From the USA Today Best Selling Author of ‘Truth or Beard’
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
Review
Every time I read a Penny Reid novel, I smile a little bigger, laugh a little louder, and revel in the intellectual way she writes her characters and her story lines. I’ve seen her say many times that Happily Ever Ninja is weird, but to me and many readers, it’s perfection because it’s what we’ve come to love about Penny’s stories and it’s filled with rich dialogue, multifaceted characters, and an adventure or two written like only Penny Reid can do.
Fiona is hands down my favorite Penny Reid heroine and that’s saying something because I love them all. It might be because I connect with her so much…sans the Ninja badass part;) She’s a wife, a mother, a friend, and a professional woman…all titles that she wears proudly and adores each role she has, but somewhere along the way of having all of those titles, she’s lost small pieces of herself…her personal identity, taking care of everyone else and not really having time to take care of herself and with Greg’s constant absence due to his job, her priority is never herself which is clearly a tenuous issue given her past and the things she had to deal with and perhaps still might.
Mr. Fiona/Greg may run some readers the wrong way with how he handles some things in the story, his constant absence, and his “handling” of Fiona at times. But to me, Greg stays true to who he’s always been…an opinionated, well spoken man whose views cannot usually be swayed because he feels passionately about many things. At times did I want to strangle him due to some of his choices and his inability to compromise, absolutely, but I also recognized that that is who Greg has been from the beginning…it’s that part of him that Fiona fell in love with all those years ago, and it’s the person she’s desperate to reconnect with now.
Readers could tell in the other books from the series that there was more to Fiona than she ever let known to her knitting group, so when the plot takes a turn that might be uncharacteristic of Reid’s other stories, I adored it because it added that other dimension to Fiona’s character that was there from the start and showcased how different she truly can be from her “normal” life in the city.
Happily Ever Ninja showcases the struggles of marriage compounded by two people who extremely stubborn, pragmatic, and intelligent. Fiona and Greg’s relationship will resonate with a lot of readers and the fact that Reid was able to write a story of a couple who have been married for 14 years and not compromise their relationship by adding the usual romantic angst speaks to the type of writer Reid is and how she refuses to stay inside a box to sell books. And the most amazing thing about that is that she still sells an immense amount of books.
Can’t wait for more from the nerdy goddess!
A complimentary copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.
5 Poison Apples
Excerpt
I tucked my fingers under her chin and lifted her face to mine, stealing a kiss; true distress clawed at my chest, traveled like a spike down my spine. I didn’t want to guess, or entertain any possibilities. Inevitably, my mind always jumped to the worst possible conclusion whenever I saw her inexplicably sad (i.e. brain tumor).
Even so, I attempted to keep my tone level and calm. “What could be too important for the greeting card aisle? It’s the perfect place to tell me anything and everything. There’s likely a card we can buy afterward for the occasion.”
She huffed a laugh, laughed a bit more, and then began crying again.
Her laughter was a good sign, so I went with it.
“Let’s see . . .” I shuffled us both to the rack and plucked a greeting card from it. “You tell me if this one describes your situation.” I cleared my throat and began to read, “Dear Brother, Many blessings on your fortieth birthday. May your girlfriend bring home that hot girl she works with and suggest a three-way.”
Fiona began laughing in earnest, burying her face against my chest.
I returned the original card, walked us a few steps farther down the aisle, and selected another card at random. “Here’s another. Dear Friend, Thank you for your thoughtfulness. I am so lucky to have you in my life, especially after that time I hit you with my car and salted the earth around your house.
I cracked a smile as I grabbed another card. She was laughing so hard she could barely breathe.
“Dear Co-worker, Get well soon. Sorry about the scorpions in your bed. And the leprosy. And the chlamydia.”
“Stop! I can’t- I can’t breathe.” Fiona gripped the front of my shirt as though she needed my solid frame to remain upright.
I took one more step and picked a new card. “Dear Dad, Happy Father’s Day. I know I’m not your favorite child, but I hope you will . . . you will . . .” I stopped reading because Fiona had stopped laughing.
In fact, she’d grown eerily still, though her fists remained anchored in my shirt. I don’t think she was even breathing.
“Fe?”
She released an audible exhale—as though bracing herself—and titled her head back. New tears shone in her eyes and she looked . . . emotional.
Not sad. Not worried or scared. Just emotional.
And I knew.
“I’m going to be a dad,” I said.
She nodded, her mouth wanting to smile but her eyes betraying the disordered chaos of her thoughts.
I had no idea what she was thinking.
I had no idea what I was thinking.
But I felt like I’d just been punched, slapped across the face. And it felt scary. And good.
I felt like I was the king of the universe, the luckiest man alive.
I felt panic, because I didn’t know how to be a dad, at least not the kind I wanted to be.
I felt a bizarre surge of pride, of accomplishment.
I felt a heady wave of possessiveness, for this woman I loved, for the child we’d made. I felt responsible.
But I did not feel burdened.
And I knew nothing would ever be the same.
About the Author
SEX! It all started with sex, between my parents. Personally I don’t like thinking about it, but whatever works for you is a-ok with me. No judgment. The sex happened in California and much of my life also occurred in that state until I moved from the land of nuts (almonds), wine, silicon… boobs, and heavy traffic to the southeast US. Like most writers I like to write, but let’s get back to sex. Eventually I married and gave birth to 2 small people-children (boy-6, girl-4 as of this writing).
By day I’m a biomedical researcher with focus on rare diseases. By night I’m a knitter, sewer, lino block carver, fabric printer, soap maker, and general crafter. By the wee hours of the morning or when I’m intoxicated I love to listen to the voices in my head and let them tell me stories. I hope you enjoy their stories.
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