Beard Necessities by Penny Reid

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Title: Beard Necessities
Author: Penny Reid
Series: Winston Brothers #7
Published by: Indie
Release Date: November 4, 2019
Format: eARC
Pages: 334
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Source: Social Butterfly PR
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 Finishing the Series Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 New Release Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:

Blurb:

Billy Winston’s family is going to see him happy and in love if it’s the last thing they do.

No one deserves a happily-ever-after quite as much as the second oldest Winston brother and his lady love, Claire McClure (aka Scarlet St. Claire). Cruelty and circumstance tore them apart almost twenty years ago. Secrecy and bitterness kept them separated.

But you know who's tired of their separation and stubbornness? Everyone. Especially Billy Winston’s family. And now they're going to do something about it.

Well-meaning interference means the star-crossed lovers can’t stop tripping over each other in the hills of Tuscany, the catacombs of Rome, and the waterways of Venice. Billy and Claire find themselves thrown together and at the mercy of the Winston siblings’ shenanigans.

But will their forced proximity bring them together? Or push them even further apart?

This second-chance romance brings back the entire Winston gang, playing cupid in one last story of love, hi-jinks, and family collusion.

BEARD NECESSITIES is a full-length contemporary romantic comedy, and can be read as a stand-alone, but it’s probably best read after books 0.5, 2, 3, 5, and 6 of the Winston Brothers series.

My Review:

I received a free copy through Social Butterfly PR in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

4.5 stars — This book made me LAUGH AND LAUGH AND LAUGH out loud in so many places.  I seriously just love this Winston extended family, they absolutely DELIGHT me.

But it also made me ACHE so much in my heart, b/c there’s so much pain and misunderstandings and mistakes and tragedy between Billy and Scarlet.  And seriously, it was so hard to watch these two struggle to get back to one another.  I loved that they were both so flawed in that way, that they were holding on to things in the past and allowing that to dictate things now.

I really enjoyed Scarlet, but in part, I loved her more in Beard With Me.  I loved who she is deep down inside, when she hasn’t been stomped on.  She’s so delightfully scattered and silly and just great fun.  She’s also fierce when she wants to be, and I loved seeing that come out of her in this book.  I love that Billy always seems to bring out her protective instincts as well as her stubbornness.  I also loved that Scarlet was finally getting help and therapy…I mean, gosh girl, you deserve healing.

Related to that, I actually really hate Ben, and I’m having conflicting feelings about that.  Because Jethro doesn’t know, and he’s dead so what does it matter, but seriously…he was the worst.

Seeing my two views of Billy come together was pretty satisfying.  In Beard With Me we get to see more of his heart, but in the rest of the series he’s so harsh…and we get to see how those two can exist together.  It’s weird, because I genuinely love Billy, but my love doesn’t come easily.  He’s so bitter, and harsh, and black and white about everything, which is offputting.  But despite those things, he really does have a marshmallow center that is super protective of everyone he loves.  I LOVED that he finally got told about some of the things he’d been hanging onto, and I loved that they penetrated his wall and he was able to finally grow.

Seriously, the chemistry between Billy and Scarlet was fucking OUT OF THIS WORLD.  Like, I can’t even with it.  And holy wow, Billy is a dirty boy!  I LOVED that.  OMG.  Especially because he kept it all internal and it warred with his wanting to be gentlemanly.  ROFL.  So great.

I also loved that they were both so naive about relationships, and intimacy, and all of that stuff, because they never got over one another.  It made them so sweet together, because their feelings were genuine, and awkward at times, and just delightful.

I LOVED having all of the Winstons in this book.  I loved seeing them interact with one another, and all the different relationships that have formed — not just the couples, but the friendships between them.  I loved getting to remember all the little great details of all the romances by seeing glimpses of them in their current interactions.  It makes me desperately want to go back and do a binge read.  Maybe next year.  I think I would get a lot out of that.  I loved that they bring the hilarity so easily, but they also bring heart to the story.

That epilogue was everything that is right in the world.  I’m so glad I know that someone in the Sharks group is going to write out the family tree, because WOW.

So yeah.  Great conclusion.  So satisfying.  I couldn’t have asked for anything better.

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