Dr. Strange Beard by Penny Reid

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Title: Dr. Strange Beard
Author: Penny Reid
Series: Winston Brothers #5
Published by: Indie
Release Date: July 30, 2018
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 350
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 AtoZ Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Beat the Backlist Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Diversity Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Reading Assignment Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Winter 2018
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound
My rating:

Blurb:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERWall Street Journal BestsellerUSA Today Bestseller

Hunches, horse races, and heartbreak

Ten years after Simone Payton broke his heart, all Roscoe Winston wants is a doughnut. He’d also like to forget her entirely, but that’s never going to happen. Roscoe remembers everything—every look, every word, every single unrequited second—and the last thing he needs is another memory of Simone.

Unfortunately, after one chance encounter, Simone keeps popping up everywhere he happens to be . . .

Ten years after Roscoe Winston dropped out of her life, all Simone Payton wants is to exploit him. She’d also like some answers from her former best friend about why he ghosted her, but if she never gets those answers, that’s a-okay. Simone let go of the past a long time ago. Seriously, she has. She totally, totally has. She is definitely not still thinking about Roscoe. Nope. She’s more than happy to forget he exists.

But first, she needs just one teeny-tiny favor . . .

Dr. Strange Beard is a full-length romantic comedy novel, can be read as a stand-alone, and is the fifth book in the USA TODAY bestselling Winston Brothers series.

My Review:

4 stars — This one was an up and down ride that I wasn’t anticipating!  I totally thought it would be a slam dunk, because hello, it’s Roscoe.  But there was a lot to Roscoe’s story, and it took me longer than I expected to settle in.

Honestly, it mostly took me a long time to warm up to Simone.  It wasn’t because she was unlikable, but I didn’t understand her…AT ALL…and so I was worried about how things were going to turn out for her and Roscoe.  Basically I reserved judgement on her for like 70% of the book.  *rolls eyes*  She was just so unlike anyone I’d ever known, and I’m still not entirely sure what her deal is.  How can someone so logical and pragmatic not understand her own body’s responses to attraction and love?  Was it willful denial?  It didn’t read that way initially, so I was confused.  I wondered if she was on the Asperger’s spectrum.  It took Roscoe’s observations to eventually help me make a bit of sense about her.

I did feel for the horrible position she was in wrt her job, and all that entails.  I was so thankful that the aftermath of that reveal didn’t take long to resolve, and that Roscoe found his way without tragedy or drama…just on his own.

The things we learn about race in this one are, again, chilling.  It’s stuff you know on a subconscious level, but until you’re reading from the perspective of a black person, and learning about what they have to be taught in order to stay alive…well, it just makes it that much more REAL, you know?

Then there’s Roscoe.  There was so much more to him than I had been anticipating.  Granted, it’s been a bit since I binged the first 4-5 books, but I didn’t see his enhanced memory coming.  It was an intriguing aspect to his character, and it shaped him in ways I never would have guessed.  I felt for him.  It’s not that his logic wasn’t occasionally flawed, and that he didn’t still have stuff to learn (cause god knows he learned a lot in this book and grew), but I guess I could see making the same extreme choices if in his situation.

While it took me a bit to get over Simone’s idiosyncrasies, once the chemistry between these two ramped up, holy shit did it ramp up.  Honestly, I felt SO MUCH from both of them, I felt like I was going through their emotions with them.  And the steamy scenes were unbelievable!!  Like, whew….  And damn.  And such.  They connected on a level that just had me diving into the #1 Simone-&-Roscoe-together fan seat.

As with the other Winston Brothers books, this one had a side story involving the Iron Wraiths and goddamn Darrell Winston.  I loved how the tension built, and how easily I was caught up in the bits of action and suspense and mystery.  I will admit I’m afraid of Billy’s story now.  Very afraid.  Afraid and intrigued.

As always, seeing all the other characters, and watching the large cast interact was amazeballs.  It’s what makes this a favourite series for me…they’re all so unique, and well developed, so that just a few lines about each had me remembering and loving them all over again.

Honestly, the gist of this review is that the first 2/3 of the book was maybe only a 3 or 3.5, but the last 30% was full on 4.5-5 stars, so I averaged.  I kinda want to average up almost, because honestly?  The conclusion of a book is so much more important to get right in my opinion, and Ms. Reid REALLY GETS IT RIGHT.