Beard in Mind by Penny Reid [Review]

Beard in Mind (Winston Brothers #4) by Penny Reid
Format: ebook
Source: provided for review
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: July 21, 2017

Winston Brothers
0.5. Beauty and the Mustache
1. Truth or Beard
2. Grin and Beard It
3. Beard Science
4. Beard in Mind - Kindle
4.5. Beard in Hiding
5. Dr. Strange Beard
6. Beard with Me
7. Beard Necessities

Penny Reid
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Synopsis (Goodreads):

All's fair in love and auto maintenance.

Beau Winston is the nicest, most accommodating guy in the world. Usually.

Handsome as the devil and twice as charismatic, Beau lives a charmed life as everyone’s favorite Winston Brother. But since his twin decided to leave town, and his other brother hired a stunning human-porcupine hybrid as a replacement mechanic for their auto shop, Beau Winston’s charmed life has gone to hell in a handbasket.

Shelly Sullivan is not nice and is never accommodating. Ever.
She mumbles to herself, but won’t respond when asked a question. She glares at everyone, especially babies. She won’t shake hands with or touch another person, but has no problems cuddling with a dog. And her damn parrot speaks only in curse words.

Beau wants her gone. He wants her out of his auto shop, out of Tennessee, and out of his life.

The only problem is, learning why this porcupine wears her coat of spikes opens a Pandora’s box of complexity—exquisite, tempting, heartbreaking complexity—and Beau Winston soon discovers being nice and accommodating might mean missing out on what matters most.

Thoughts on Beard in Mind: I ADORE the Winstons. Absolutely adore them. And this book brought all my mushy, gushy love to the forefront. Not only are the characters utterly fantastic (and oftentimes diabolical), but all these little heretofore unknown secrets are bubbling up and they make me GIDDY. I have giddiness. So much giddiness.

(I'd like to get it out of the way that I didn't realize Shelly was Quinn's sister EVEN AFTER IT WAS EXPLICITLY MENTIONED in book 3. So, yeah. I'm a little dense sometimes. Like a black hole. Dangit. I'd also like to get out of the way the fact that once I realized the connection, it made this book TEN THOUSAND TIMES better. Because I love connections like that. Love 'em.)

So. Beau. The easy-going twin. The guy who's buddies with everyone and all the girls have unrequited crushes on. He is genuinely a nice guy. Except when he first meets Shelly. She gets under his skin and irritates him like no one ever has. He's sharp with her. He doesn't try to see beyond the facade she puts up. Then he gets a glimpse of the Shelly underneath and things start to change. It takes a while, but...he gets there.

Meanwhile, Shelly is a mess. She's working on fixing herself, but she's bad in social situations. She's disarmingly honest. She doesn't know how to respond to this attraction she feels toward Beau. In fact, she kinda denies there is any attraction for a while. But eventually things start to fall into place. She opens up. SLOWLY. I kinda loved that about her. It took prodding and poking and some gentle guidance, but she does start to share her problems.

Even better, she got Beau to open up to her. *fluttery sigh* I really liked them together. Really.

Without giving anything away: Secrets. Beau's feelings of being left behind. More secrets. A bad feeling that things are going to get nasty with the Iron Wraiths before this series ends. People facing their issues head on. AND THE WINSTON FAMILY. OMG, I ADORE THEM SO MUCH! I just reread the series and I kinda want to do it all over again now.

*draws glittery hearts around all of them*