Friends Without Benefits: An Unrequited Romance (Knitting in the City, #2) - Penny Reid

Friends Without Benefits can be read as a standalone, is a full length 120k word novel, and is book#2 in the Knitting in the City Series.

There are three things you need to know about Elizabeth Finney: 1) She suffers from severe sarcastic syndrome, especially when she's unnerved, 2) No one unnerves her like Nico Manganiello, and 3) She knows how to knit.

Elizabeth Finney is almost always right about everything: the musical merits of boy bands are undervalued by society, “benefits” with human Ken dolls are better without friendship, and the sun has set on her once-in-a-lifetime chance for true love. But when Elizabeth’s plans for benefits without friendship are disarmed by the irritatingly charismatic and chauvinistic Nico Manganiello- her former nemesis- she finds herself struggling to maintain the electric fence around her heart while avoiding electrocution or, worse, falling in love.

My review :

A girl smart, sarcastic, unnerved around one guy : check!
A guy funny, charismatic italian, loves to unnerved one girl : check!
A hilarious, fantastic, story about finding true love again after lost it : check!

This story is book n°2 in the Knitting series, about Elizabeth Finney (Janie's best friend) and Nico Manganiello, who knew each other since they were young. We understand in the first one that the two of them shared a heavy past who lead them both heartbroken..
Liz works at the hospital with Ashley and Sandra, part of the gang of the Knitting group. She reconnected with him, when his niece came for a new medical treatment.

After all these years, they met again and what can i say : FIREWORKS!!! Feelings were buried and we have that interaction between them like watching a tennis game. I really enjoy this, Elizabeth insecure tried to hide her feelings by pushing Nico away. When she pushed him, he always came back.
Liz as always get scared and do what she did best : avoiding relationships and never wants to be hurt again. But she is confused by her feelings for him : friends? no friends? where’s the limit? She’s in complete denial with her non relationship with Nico!I love her interaction with Angelica (Nico’s niece), always caring for her and do everything to make her confortable with her disease. We saw a soft side of Liz, less tougher. I appreciate that we saw that.She puts a lot of walls around her! She didn’t want to see what is so obvious and prefer to be in her confort zone, no string attached.

I like, no i love Nico ; after a mysterious Quinn with a « poker face », showing no emotions except for Janie, he had the total opposite! He has a successful carrer in his show : « The Face », as the host in a very popular comic show having to deal with the public life, (don’t be mistaken, Quinn is hot too, Penny Reid knows how to write main males characters hot as hell!!). Nico is the one chasing her and tried to show how they can be great together. This guy knows what he wants and do everything in his power to make that happen! It was never cheesy and when he speaks italian : definitely melt my butter! OMG! He’s also romantic: the CD he gave her: makes me swoon!He is such an endearing character.He really tried very hard to be with her but Liz was completely stubborn. He couldn’t stand anymore to be in this situation, he left and the situation reversed.

How can i say it : all Penny’s books endings are totally quirky! How can she managed that? And always getting all the gang involved : so smart! Liz get back to her senses and all the group helped her to get Nico back! When they finally had their happy ending: FIREWORKS again!!! Liz opened her heart in front of a thousand people, totally naked!

All along the book we had Penny’s writing, unique style : hilarious, romantic moments, steamy and hot parts, friends who always be there for each other! All mixed together give an amazing chemistry and a outstanding story!This books is as good as the first one! I recommend it!! Thank you Penny!

More about Penny Reid : http://reidromance.blogspot.fr/

* Review for Neanderthal Seeks Human: A Smart Romance (Knitting in the City, #1)

* Review for Love Hacked: A reluctant romance (Knitting in the City, #3)

* Review for Beauty and the mustache : A Philosophical Romance (Knitting in the City, #4)

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