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It’s hard to be objective when your heart’s involved, and Penny Reid definitely got my heart involved with her Winston Brothers series (not to mention my feet, which occasionally danced me across my bedroom floor when she wrote something so wonderful that I just had to get up and wriggle with all the feels). But I’m going to try for objectivity.
Billy Winston is on The World’s Most Deserved Vacation. He’s recently undergone surgery to save his abusive father, who needs to be kept alive to turn witness on the Iron Wraiths, the biker gang that has, in many ways, defined the Winston family and their home town of Green Valley, TN for two decades. Sent to Italy to recuperate at the home of one of his brothers, he’s content to lie in a stupor. His six siblings have other plans: it’s time for Billy Winston to eat, drink, be merry, and finally make love to and wife up the love of his life, Scarlet St. Claire/Claire McClure, who happens to be the daughter of the leader of the Iron Wraiths (for this review, I’m calling her Scarlet because that’s how she thinks of herself), and who is also at the house in Italy. Soon the place is packed with family, and they enlist Michelangelo’s David, Venetian gondoliers, and their Tennessee ingenuity to get Billy and Scarlet together.
I classify romances into two plot categories: Love & Other Stuff and Love Only. In the former, the main characters have plotlines that feed into but are distinct from their love story. For example, in Reid’s Beard Science, the heroine falls in love and tries to break away from her family and gain control of her career. In the Love Only category, the plot is mostly the main characters just being with each other, and the issues that dog them are all directly related to their relationship. That is Beard Necessities, and it’s consequently a bit of a blur. When I think what happened in this book? I think ‘Billy and Scarlet dry-humped at a picnic’, ‘Billy and Scarlet went to the museum, got locked in a room, and talked it out’, ‘Billy and Scarlet fooled around by the pool’. This worked for me; one of the things I love about romance is its one-track mind (about love, not just sex), but this book is at the extreme end of the Love Only category.
Scarlet and Billy exemplify the saying ‘it takes two to tango’. As Scarlet puts it: “Every time we were alone, we would either fight or kiss” – and they were alone a lot in the seventeen years they’ve known each other, even when she was married to her now-dead husband. They committed emotional adultery together, and trod the line physically, which are consequences of a lot of other painful choices they both made. “Scarlet”, Billy says, “is addicted to her guilt and shame” and he’s vitriolically “pissed” with her about it. But Reid divides culpability for it all evenly between her characters, and so it’s impossible to pick a side in Billy and Scarlet’s fights. Scarlet is even-keeled as a heroine (perhaps it’s the therapy she’s just started) and ultimately offers mercy to her “Billy Goat Gruff”. Billy is sincere, loyal, and has a dirty mind, which, frankly, is my personal Triple Crown.
Penny Reid does not short change readers on the HEA, but I had one quibble. Shortly before the end, Scarlet makes a big decision that I was disappointed about, because after she’d just been saying how unhappy she was that her father had “inspired” Billy into actions that meant “his soul was wounded”, she then goes and does something that will also stay with her forever, and has some sketchy consequences. If she hadn’t, admittedly, there would have been a loose end from Dr. Strange Beard that would have been unrealistic to leave open, but I’d have voted for a lack of realism in exchange for Scarlet’s eternal, unmarred peace.
The main reason this book just missed an A grade and DIK status is that I can’t shake the feeling that most of my enjoyment came from the fact that I’d had a running start on this love story, having read other Winston Brothers books. The presence of all the siblings isn’t intrusive – they want Billy and Scarlet to be alone as much as the reader does – but they’re there, and their storylines with Billy and Scarlet get closure. Only people who’ve read the prior books are truly going to see those moments for their significance, and also know what it means when Billy tells Scarlet that “I promise, if you’ll have me, I’ll sing with you whenever or wherever you want. But only with you, Scarlet. I only want to sing with you.” As a result, Beard Necessities is less of a standalone and more of a ‘leaning-heavily-on’.
I have a feeling I will reread this book multiple times, grow to love it more, and realize I have so much more to say about it. For now, I’ll say this: reading Beard Necessities by itself is like eating ice cream with no toppings. You won’t regret it, but it would be infinitely more delicious if you add on all the chocolate sauce, whipped cream, sprinkles, nuts, and cherries that are the other books in the Winston Brothers series.
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Grade: B+
Book Type: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 11/11/19
Publication Date: 11/2019
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
Part-time cowgirl, part-time city girl. Always working on converting all my friends into romance readers ("Charlotte, that was the raunchiest thing I have ever read!").
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I generally enjoy Penny Reid’s books while I’m reading them but with the exception of Beard Science (which I read off the page first but absolutely ADORE rereading as an audio book) and Beauty and the Mustache (Ashley’s story that introduces us to the rest of the Winstons), they haven’t really stood out for me. Sounds like I might get around to Beard with Me and this one some day but . . . ?
Thanks for the great review Charlotte. B+ is what I came away with too. This series is most enjoyed if you read all the books. I read Beard with Me – and it was not fun to read but wow, did it make me understand Billy and Scarlet more. I also reread Dr. Strange Beard right before I read Beard Necessities to refresh everything in my mind. I think I would not have liked this book as much as I did if I missed Beard with Me. Billy becomes so much clearer in that book. And Claire was confusing to me until I read Beard with Me. That said, my only issue with the book was that I wanted to see more Scarlet and less Claire. We got glimpses of the amazing Scarlet but I would have liked more.
It’s been an amazing series and I am SO glad that the stories of Green Valley will continue! Thank you Ms. Reid for a wonderful ride!
This one for me was more in the C range, unfortunately. I think it was diminished by a lack of plot and an extraordinary amount of dialogue – like 90% of the book consists of talk therapy as Scarlet and Billy debate the finer points of their Issues. The Issues that separate Scarlet and Billy are innumerable and exhausting to try to unravel. Also, I found myself questioning Scarlet’s decision to stay away from Billy for years, despite the fact that they adored each other, that she had been more or less forced into an arranged marriage at the age of 15 (!), and that her husband was sort of a villain. And yet, we’re asked to believe that she is tormented by self-hatred and guilt for her emotional cheating with Billy. There are some funny moments provided by Billy’s family, but overall I found this book to be overwritten, melodramatic, and filled with emotional hyperbole.
Also, except for the rugby series Reid did with Cosway, I’ve read everything she’s written and I’m noticing that it’s a rare Penny Reid book now that does not have at least one main character in therapy sorting through issues. This is probably a personal dislike but I’m not enjoying the heavy-handed centering of psychological issues over other types of storytelling. I think maybe that’s why I enjoyed Beard Science more than her other recent books. So thankful Cletus hasn’t decided he too needs to be in therapy and rehash his life problems.
I have to agree, Blackjack. I was underwhelmed. Too much going on, and in the end the payoff wasn’t quite worth it. I also couldn’t quite get over how abused Billy’s body was over the years.
I haven’t been looking forward to this book. Don’t know why, I’m just not interested in Billy and Scarlet’s romance. They have always seemed a little flat to me compared to everyone else. I’ll probably read it to finish off everyone else’s storylines, but I’ll wait.
I did think it was disingenuous to promote this book as a stand alone. I enjoyed it but agree with your B rating.
Glad this one is good!
So, you would advise those of us who have read most, if not all, of the series to read the previous book that came out a month or two ago before reading this one? I didn’t read it because I heard that it did not end with a HEA. I hate books and series that end with cliff hangers. It’s so unfair to the reader, IMO.
I read Beard Necessities having read the other Beard romances but NOT Beard with Me, and it was enjoyable. This book discusses a lot of the action that must have taken place in Beard with Me, but from a distance of years as the characters look back on events. As far as timelines go, I think it would have been helpful to reread Roscoe’s book before reading this as the action takes place immediately after that book.
I actually was kinda disappointed with this book, probably more like a C+ to me. The story was okay, but the fact that I removed the book to cloud storage as soon as I finished, spoke more volume than anything else. The story didn’t linger in my mind either. I doubt I would pick it up again anytime soon – if ever. I had such high hopes and was really let down as a result. The whole thing was filled with big-mis after big-mis, a plot device that I loathed with all my heart. Yes, Ms. Reid tried to justify it to make us see it from both perspectives, but I didn’t buy it. In the end, I think this book was a weak end to an otherwise strong series.
The ice cream is a great analogy! I enjoyed this book, but it was just “good” (for me, most of Penny Reid’s books are “great”). I think it lacks some of the depth of her other novels. I may reread this one eventually, but I won’t reread it a half dozen times like I have several of her other books.
I agree that it isn’t really a standalone. You’d miss a lot if you didn’t have the insights provided in the previous Winston Brothers books.