Beard with Me by Penny Reid @ReidRomance ‏@jennw23 ‏

Posted October 6, 2019 by Anne - Books of My Heart in Blog Tour, Book Review, Giveaway / 12 Comments

Beard with Me by Penny Reid

Review copy was received from Publicity team. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.


Beard with Me by Penny Reid @ReidRomance ‏@jennw23 ‏Beard with Me by Penny Reid
Series: Winston Brothers #6
Published by Self-Published on September 16, 2019
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 500
Format: eARC
Source: Publicity team
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No one is better at surviving than Scarlet St. Claire and making the best out of circumstances beyond her control is Scarlet’s specialty. In an apocalyptic situation, she’d be the last person on earth, hermitting like a pro, singing along to her CD Walkman, and dancing like no one is watching.

Scarlet is clever, Scarlet is careful, and Scarlet is smart . . . except when it comes to Billy Winston.

No one is better at fighting than Billy Winston and raging against his circumstances—because nothing is beyond his control—is Billy’s specialty. In an apocalyptic situation, he’d be the first person on earth to lead others to safety, overcome catastrophe, or die trying.

Billy is fearless, Billy is disciplined, and Billy is honorable . . . except when it comes to Scarlet St. Claire.

I have enjoyed every book in Penny Reid’s Winston Brothers series.  Now we are down to Billy. Next to Cletus, he is my heartbreaker.  Beard With Me is a very full book, prequel to the series. This is a long book but the pages flew by. The chapters alternate between Billy and Scarlet.  Billy is sixteen; she is fourteen.  It shows the life of all the Winston family and how really horrible things happen in Green Valley around the Iron Wraiths.

I feel for them so much.  My heart cries for Billy. As a prequel, Penny Reid has indicated you could skip this because it has triggers and it is not like the rest of the series. It’s not romance, it’s romantic tragedy. I don’t feel it should be skipped because it gives that background and shows how hard they all worked and how far the Winston family have progressed.

It is also a real tribute to Bethany Winston and how she protected and gave her children a better life. They had a loving home with a more normal life, something Scarlet didn’t have. Oh I enjoyed the developing Cletus here.  Ashley is amazing and no wonder the brothers  are glad to have her back in Tennessee.

I won’t spoil the story. I had to read it, feel it.  I am even more proud of Billy and want so much more for him.  I am mad that Scarlet St. Claire became Claire McClure. I hate that but that is not really in this story. It is yet to happen.  I am very excited to have the current day Billy story, Beard Necessities,  which is maybe 20 years later, releasing in November 2019.

Excerpt:

*Scarlet*

“Do you want me to leave?”

Yes. That would be best, a wise voice said between my ears.

So of course I inhaled deeply and said as calmly as I could manage, “I thought we were going to go get firewood.”

“Okay. Good.”

“But then,” I blurted, flustered and irritated with myself for not speaking wisdom, “You should go. You can’t tell me carting firewood back and forth between your house and here is how you want to spend the last of your Thanksgiving weekend.”

“I didn’t say it was.” He began making his way up the incline.

“But you just said—”

“How about we make a deal.” Billy dropped the kindling next to my little woodpile, dusting his hands off on his pants. “I’ll cart the firewood, and you sing.”

“You want me to serenade you while we carry firewood?”

He smiled, slow and easy as he walked to me and reached out his hand. On autopilot, I accepted it and allowed him to help me up.

As soon as I was standing, his gaze moved from my hairline down to my nose, lips, and then chin, saying quietly, “I’ll take a serenade from you anytime.”

Thunk ka-thunk. That was my heart. It had been doing the thunk ka-thunk quite a lot around him. I ignored it, because what else could I do?

“And you’re not carrying the wood.” He tugged on my hand, pulling me out of my daze and past my tent.

“I will too carry wood.” Struggling to find my bearings, I stumbled after him. “I can carry logs just fine.”

“You’ll carry a log.” Billy fit his fingers between mine, pressing our palms together and grinning at me like he was waiting for me to argue and he couldn’t wait.

Snapping my mouth shut, I glared at him.

“Nothing to say?”

Maintaining my glare, I walked next to him. I wasn’t being led anywhere I didn’t wish to go. Not anymore. He wasn’t talking me into anything else.

“That’s an awfully mean look, Scarlet.” His grin grew, his brutally attractive eyes glowing happily as he peered down at me.

“Well, you deserve it. Always trying to tell me what I can and can’t do. I’m not arguing with you about this. I’m carrying as much wood as I want and you can take your stupid, chauvinistic opinions and shove them up your pretty-boy ass.”

Goodness. Where had that come from?

Billy’s steps faltered and his mouth fell open, his eyebrows rising high on his forehead. He stared at me, looking shocked as hell. And then in the next moment, he threw his head back and laughed. But he did not let go of me, instead bringing my knuckles to his chest as his deep, rumbly laughter filled the empty spaces between the trees, surrounding us.

Crushing me.

Yes. I was well and truly crushed as I could only watch Billy Winston laugh, desperately basking in the image of him so delighted and relaxed. I had the odd sense that his laughter also filled the empty spaces inside of me, the neglected, vacant rooms, and even a few places that felt brand-new, like he’d created them.

All that noble honesty he carried around like a boulder abruptly lifted, revealing him. Just him. Carefree and young and happy. Someone he might’ve been if his burdens hadn’t been so heavy, his responsibilities so broad.

It lasted only a minute, maybe two, maybe less, but I had the sense of being caught afterward. Billy’s laughter had receded, but he’d spun a web while I’d been staring at him, holding his hand.

His grin became smaller and he bit his bottom lip, his gaze dropped to my mouth. “You think I’m pretty?”

“You know you’re pretty,” I said, bizarrely out of breath, rattled, needing to anchor my focus to a tree beyond him and waging war against the heat climbing up my neck to my cheeks. Oddly, my eyes stung. I blinked.

His attention was still on me. I felt it, but I didn’t dare look at him. I couldn’t handle one of Billy Winston’s intense stares right now. He’d probably use my scattered wits to his advantage, talk me into something I shouldn’t want to do, and then I’d be kicking myself later.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice deep with concern, all trace of his earlier humor gone.

I huffed, trying half-heartedly to steal my hand back from him. He didn’t let it go, instead taking my tugging as a signal to step closer, filling my vision.

“Scarlet—”

“Are you ever going to teach me how to play the guitar?” I closed my eyes.

He didn’t answer right away, and I felt him hesitate, his mind work before he muttered, “It’s only been a week.”

A quality to his voice made me think he wasn’t answering the question I’d asked, but rather he was reminding himself that it had only been a week since we’d struck the deal.

Was that only last week? Why does it feel like so much has changed?

Then he said, “Don’t be angry.”

“I’m not angry.” I was muddled, my head and heart hurt, I was incredibly confused, but I wasn’t angry.

The air shifted and I felt him move closer. A second later, the fingers of his free hand were at my ear, tucking my hair behind it, his fingertips lingering at my neck, sending wave after wave of goose bumps every which way. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t swallow. I couldn’t think. Every nerve in my body strained toward him and I didn’t understand it. What is happening?

“Have you ever been kissed, Scarlet?”

 

Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About Penny Reid

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.

Penny Reid is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Best Selling Author of the Winston Brothers, Knitting in the City, Rugby, and Hypothesis series. She used to spend her days writing federal grant proposals as a biomedical researcher, but now she just writes books. She’s also a full time mom to three diminutive adults, wife, daughter, knitter, crocheter, sewer, general crafter, and thought ninja.

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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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

  • 2019 Releases

Posted October 6, 2019 by Anne - Books of My Heart in Blog Tour, Book Review, Giveaway / 12 Comments


12 responses to “Beard with Me by Penny Reid

  1. Aomullan

    Thank you for sharing your review! I really enjoy your reviews and appreciate that you rate them by flames also. Very helpful!

  2. Jen

    I’ve always heard really good things about this author and series – plus the covers are amazing. However, I just assumed they were light rom-com type books based on the titles. Glad to know more because I am all about light and easy, which these don’t seem to fit that type. So glad you are enjoying them.

    • OK the 2 series Knitting in the City and Winston bros are romantic comedy but smart. For example, one of the Winston bros falls for a plus-size movie star / model, so there are fat issues and celebrity issues. One of the bros falls for a woman who is OCD probably on the spectrum. So they are mostly light hearted and definitely funny but realistic with all sorts of people, good and bad. This one though Beard With Me is not so easy and is not really a romance. Penny says you can skip this one as it is a prequel to the series and you can. So I would encourage you to read the 2 series but not this one if you only want light and easy. You could easily try one Neanderthal Meets Human(often a freebie) would be the first and just see if you like it. I LOVED it. Janie is awesome. The narrators are great too.