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My apologies to everyone who recommended this series to me and was rewarded with ‘that doesn’t sound like my cup of tea.’ You were right and I was wrong. Deliciously, wonderfully wrong!
Truth or Beard is the first book in Penny Reid’s Winston Brothers series about six handsome, bearded brothers living in the middle of the Smoky Mountains, racing, fixing and sometimes stealing cars, playing banjo music over campfires, skinny-dipping in cold November lakes and steering clear of the local biker gang. Now, if you’re thinking ‘that doesn’t sound like my cup of tea’, think again!
Jessica James grew up with the Winston brothers in Green Valley, Tennessee. She’s back from college, teaching calculus at the local high school to pay off her student loans, and then she’s out of there. Jessica has some serious wanderlust and plans to spend her life traveling the globe. Her fondest memory of Green Valley is her infatuation with Beau Winston. She adores Beau – he rescues her cat, he saves kids from rattlesnakes, he’s polite to his elders and he’s beyond hot. Not at all like his twin Duane, who pushes Jessica into ponds, argues with her about the color of the sky and throws rocks at her cat.
When she attends the Halloween party at the Community Center (where she has the bright idea to dress as “sexy Gandalf” to irritate her sheriff father and deputy sheriff brother) she sees Beau for the first time in over four years and is struck, like a deer-in-headlights – her body is a “blubbering mess of hormones” and her mind which starts to play Gary Wright’s Dreamweaver. Her lifelong crush approaches and, completely out of character, pulls her away from the crowd, behind the stage and starts kissing her. Jessica is lost in a sea of want. She’s so lost, she’s pretty sure that she’s about to have crazy sex right behind the wall of the party when suddenly her swain pulls back and curses. They stare at each other, breathing hard and that’s when she hears someone calling “Duane, you dummy, are you back there?” And it’s Beau’s voice. Jessica has been kissing Duane.
Duane Winston is stubborn, sexy, smart and fiercely loyal. And he’s had it bad for Jessica since she de-panted him in a pond after he pushed her in when she was fourteen and he sixteen. He knows Jessica thinks she’s kissing Beau but he can’t resist – he just wants one kiss, that’s all. Until Jessica starts to respond so enthusiastically – and he’s lost. He pulls back before it goes too far, but now he’s had his kiss and Jessica is furious with him.
Jessica is wildly confused about her reactions to Duane. She can’t stop thinking about him and his hot hands. She is surprised to find that her crazy infatuation with Beau is gone – no deer-in-headlights, no romantic music in her head. Gone! And she can’t stop staring at Duane. A round of Truth or Dare later, and she finds herself naked in a pitch dark lake for fifteen minutes with Duane listening to him tell her things like “arguing with you is one of my favorite things” and “I think we’re suited”. Befuddled doesn’t begin to describe how Jessica is feeling.
“I feel like I don’t know you at all. One minute you’re the Duane Winston who throws rocks at my cat, kissing another girl, making me feel like I have heartburn, arguing about the color of the sky, and the next minute you’re telling me we’re suited for each other. I don’t trust you.”
“Jessica, we’re standing in the forest naked. You trust me a little.”
True – she does and she’s definitely discovered an attraction to Duane that she didn’t even realize was there. And what does Duane mean by “I think we’re suited”? Is he planning to court her? Why is Roberta Flack’s The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face playing in her head when she looks at Duane? And what about her plans to leave Green Valley and never look back?
Truth or Beard skilfully switches the PoV between Jessica and Duane. I ached to hear Duane struggle with his desire to make a lifetime with Jessica and his conviction that he needs to let her follow her dreams. And getting inside Jessica’s head was an adventure of its own. Her sensual awakening at the hands of Duane is equal parts tender, sexy and hilarious. Watching Jessica reconcile her wanderlust with her current reality was thoroughly engaging.
Jessica and Duane are easy to cheer for and it’s plain to see that these two have been building up to this for years. The cast of supporting characters is well done and downright hilarious at times. I couldn’t help thinking that I’d like the Winston brothers to meet Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton brothers. And I’d like to be there when they do.
Truth or Beard gives the reader a super steamy attraction between the leads. Add in Duane’s incredibly tender statements and you’ve got a dreamy romance.
“My priority is making sure all your dreams come true. You can trust me on that.
You’re it Jessica James. And that’s the truth. Not racing or going fast. Not fixing up old cars. I want to spend my life with you and maybe that makes me wrong in the head and unhealthy, or old-fashioned, but when I think of my future and what I want, all I see is you.”
Beyond being a first-rate romance, Penny Reid’s writing is enjoyable and mind-blowingly creative. I guffawed numerous times and went back and reread chapters (even before I finished the book). When I finished. it was with a heavy, contented sigh and a giddy burst of delight. And another heavy sigh!
If you like unique, clever romance with a shot of hilarity then Truth or Beard is for you. I’m off to read the next book in the series!
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Grade: A
Book Type: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 09/03/19
Publication Date: 07/2015
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.
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I actually thought Beau’s story was the weakest in the series. Although, he is a nice guy, he’s also a bit boring. Duane is at least a stronger character. But I have to agree Cletus is number one, then Billy, Duane, Jethro, Duane, Roscoe, then Beau. But honestly, Billy and Scarlett broke my heart.
I love this series but this one never sat right with me because Jessica’s “fernweh” rang so false to me and made Jess seem like such an inherently selfish person. Travel doesn’t require unexpected wealth- though admittedly it makes it easier. She suffered from a desire to travel soooo…. how about Canada or Mexico. Central or South America… oh sorry, do non white countries not count? Cheap air fare and you can teach English. Instead, throughout this story, we were expected to believe this girl was bogged down by dreams she could never, ever accomplish and everybody in the story has to give up everything so she can go and live her dreams.
Then, as the later books end up detailing, you learn that if you suffer from “fernweh” the answer is to go live in Italy for five years??! I absolutely hate that. Hate it with a passion. Fernweh should be reserved for people willing to make themselves uncomfortable, go to the places on the map that nobody goes to, Italy is the country anybody and everybody wants to go to. It’s an incredibly easy place for a white woman with wealth to go and live in. There’s nothing at all admirable, to me, about a woman with a lot of woman taking off, ditching her family, having her husband leave his own family and a job he enjoys, to go and waste a lot of money being rich and idle in Italy. That’s not Fernweh. That’s Paris Hilton.
I agree that Italy was a comparatively safe choice to make when wanting to travel. Like you, I did not have the sense that this was a rebellious and especially adventurous way to express a need to experience other cultures. I didn’t have the sense from the story though that Jessica wanted to be rich and idle (or Paris Hilton) in Italy. Their Italian travels are coming up in Billie’s book this fall and so we shall see what life is like for them over there. I also did not have the sense that Dwayne was forced to leave his life behind. He’s an adult and made that choice, partly because his partner in life wanted this, but partly because he chose to do this for himself, and it’s temporary for both of them. More power to anyone who can live in another country, even a European one, for a period in their youth. I’ve done it and would recommend it to anyone who can find the way.
Cletus’ story Beard Science was the first title I read in this series, and remains the best of a generally good lot, IMHO. Beard Science is at the top of several of my own “best of” lists. And the beard series is better than Reid’s knitting series IMHO – which is full of hackers and private security plots and more than enough money to solve every problem. This first beard book (which I picked up next after Cletus) is the weakest – although anything would have a hard time in comparison to Cletus’ story for me. Agree with comments above that, while there were funny scenes/dialogue, this book dragged. But worth reading/skimming as Blackjack pointed out above to meet/fill out the rest of the family characters. And those moments of laugh-out-loud dialogue like the naked forest example above that Reid is so good at.
Nope. Nada. No way Jose. I hated this book, definitely not my cuppa. I did enjoy the absurdity of Cletus’ story and the poetry of Ashley’s, but Reid is too vague and uniformed in her characters and their plot situations. JMHO. The bikers, the Boston thugs and especially the ridiculous security/hacker/black ops stuff is absolutely incredulous.
To me, none of this series feels grounded in reality and that’s just fine. Reid’s books are hip versions of a small town that mimics no small town I’ve ever experienced. She’s a feel good author whose books primarily exist to bring joy. IMHO.
I really enjoyed the world of the Winston brothers and the relationships between them. I also loved Duane as a hero. But I really thought the book needed some editing. Once the conflict of travel the world or put down roots was established the book seemed to tread water for a long time and I found myself siding with Duane over Jessica the longer it dragged on. There were plenty of funny scenes in the second half of the book but they didn’t advance the plot or the central relationship and it seemed to take forever to get to the end. Overall I liked the book but I’m not up for investing that much time in another Penny Reid book.
Just to clarify, Jessica’s childhood recollection of a young Duane is that he threw rocks at the cat. But that’s not what really happened. Duane is a sweetheart! Sorry to upset anyone!
I liked this one, but it did not come close to Cletus’s book, which is the third in the series. It does though introduce all of the Winston brothers and for that alone is pretty much a must-read.
I have no recollection of any cat-hitting scenes and suspect that was exaggeration on Jessica’s part. Duane was a bratty child and teen with her but grows up to be a really decent guy.
I’m pretty sure he never did that.
Reid’s always got a good sense of character!
Marian—That was my first thought too. I know we’re talking about a fictional character in a romance novel, but irl cruelty to animals is one of the consistent traits of serial killers and abusers. I’m really not interested in seeing someone who throws rocks at cats be presented as a hero.
I liked this one. Love a twin story.
The part about him throwing rocks at her cat makes me wonder if any of those rocks hit the cat, and whether he’s likely to do this again. Not to mention why he did it in the first place.