5 STARS ✮ PENNY REID ✮ BEARD IN MIND

BEARD IN MIND

Winston Brothers #4

Penny Reid

✮✮✮ ALL THE STARS ✮✮✮

When it comes to Penny Reid's books I associate words like warm, smart, wonderful and one-of-a-kind. These are her stories. These are here characters. And with each book I'm becoming a bigger fan. I have no idea how she does it but her stories draw me in, grab me by my black heart and won't let go. With each story I learn something, something that makes a substantial difference in my life and that's how I love my stories.

In Beard in Mind we get Beau's story. You see, he reeeaally doesn't like Shelly, his new co-worker who was hired by Cletus while Beau was on a business trip. She's rude, stand-offish and tells him that his face is crooked. Now, the charming Winston brother DOES NOT like to hear that and he's fuming and contemplating a plan how to get rid of her...but somehow...this woman sneaks under his skin and he finds himself completely charmed by her quirks. When he learns about Shelly's condition he is nothing but supportive and helpful. He comes up with solutions that might help this amazing and strong woman deal with her lot in life.

“Do you feel sorry for her, Beau? Is that why you want to help?
“Hell, yes, I feel sorry for her.”
“That’s not a good basis for—”
“But mostly, I feel sorry for everyone else. Because from what I’ve seen, the glimpses of herself she’s shared with me, it’s a damn shame no one else gets to see it. It leads me to suspect that what we see of her on the outside has nothing on the beauty of the inside.”

But Beau also has some burden to carry. One of them being his twin brother leaving for a long journey - he really struggles with that. Plus, with almost everyone in his family having somebody to lean on he feels like he is being left behind.

Oh Shelly...Her isolation and loneliness caused by her condition is heartbreaking. She has learned to put an impenetrable facade in place that keeps her from getting hurt. Too much emotional pain comes from her disorder. She works so incredibly hard to learn to live with it, to improve her life's quality. And then Beau comes along and lifts her spirits and becomes a fixture in her life and gradually teaches her that the OCD doesn't define her as a person. He is somebody she can lean on and who lifts her burden. Who also learns in return that she is strong enough to be there for him when he needs it. Shelly was such an amazing heroine - she made it to one of my top favorites.

Shelly and Beau's love story is full of warm, tender moments but also some very steamy ones.

“Shelly.”
“Yes?”
“Look at me.”
“Why?”
“I love how it feels.”

I loved that they didn't want to change one another. Especially Beau was completely accepting of the woman he loved, he saw perfection in her disorder, her quirks. Talk about quirky, we get to see the whole bunch of Winston brothers and one of the funniest laugh-out-loud-scenes came from, who else could it be, the ingenious Cletus Winston.

I have so much love for this book. As always we get an unorthodox, singular story with a lot of cleverness and humor from Penny Reid. She is becoming one of my favorites fast and, God, can we have Billy's story soon? I will not so patiently wait for this author's next release and while I do I will go through major withdrawals because that Penny Reid? Totally got me hooked.