Beard in Mind, an all new standalone in the bestselling, romantic comedy Winston Brothers Series by Penny Reid, is available NOW! This book was absolutely fabulous, I floved it and I can't recommend enough to read it <3
All is 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 losing what matters most.
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Excerpt:
She’d taken the sofa, in her own house, and given me the bed. That didn’t make a lick of sense.
I crouched next to her, threading my fingers into the silky hair at her temples. “Honey.”
“Mmm.”
I bent to whisper, “Shelly.”
“Hmm?”
“I’m going to carry you to your bed. I’ll take the sofa.”
“Mmm.”
I grinned at her soft noises, at the untroubled expression on her face, and how her brow—even in sleep—still looked regal and stern.
Sliding my arms under her legs and shoulder, I picked her up. And, unfortunately, that woke her up.
She jerked in my arms. “What are you doing?”
“I’m taking you to the bed.”
“Don’t do that.”
“I don’t mind, I’ll take the sofa.” Our mouths were just inches apart, and hers was distracting.
She squirmed. “Put me down.”
Sighing unhappily, I did. I set her on her feet next to the couch. The blanket pooled at her feet and I stepped back to give her some space. It was dark, but I could see her just fine, and that meant I had to force my eyes to remain above her neck. The woman was wearing two pathetic scraps of fabric as pajamas. A thin little tank top and shorts. That’s it.
I set my jaw and turned to the side, waiting for her to walk past.
“Where are you?”
I glanced at her and realized she couldn’t see at all. She didn’t have a hand out, but the way her eyes were moving about the room gave away her blindness.
“I’m here.” I didn’t touch her, because if I did, I wouldn’t want to stop.
Shelly turned her head in my direction and took a deep breath. Still she didn’t reach for me. I didn’t know the specifics of what to expect after her Friday
session, but I recalled Dr. West saying something about Shelly doing self-guided ERP exercises over this week.
“Can you see?” She licked her lips, her voice sandpapery. “Because I can’t see at all. It’s so dark.”
“I can see.” Unbidden, my eyes dropped to her body, to the swell of her breasts, the panel of bare stomach, the curve of her hips. Pinpricks of heat raised over my skin and I curled my hands into fists.
She shuffled forward and I caught her before she bumped into me, setting my hands gently at her waist.
“Let me take you to your room.” My voice was rough, for obvious reasons.
Saying nothing, she brought her hand to my forearm, her body gently colliding with mine. And then her hand on my arm slid up my bicep to my shoulder.
“Shelly.” I was running out of breath.
“I like this.”
“What?”
“Touching you.”
Oh fuck.
I held still and endured her hands moving over my body, down the front of my shirt, stopping at the hem, then pushing it up.
“Take this off.”
I did. I pulled the T-shirt over my head and let it drop to the floor.
We stood there, facing each other in the dark, not touching. Despite the session on Friday and the progress that had been made, I realized she wasn’t quite there yet. Dr. West was right, Friday was just a step, the first step. Shelly wasn’t able to initiate contact. Not yet.
Her hands balled into fists and she swayed forward, her breath struggling little puffs.
If anything was going to happen tonight, I had to initiate it. I had to be the one to touch first.
God, how I wanted her. How I wanted her above me, beneath me, surrounding me. But how could I?
“I know why I hesitate,” her voice was breathless, “but why do you hesitate?”
“Lots of reasons.”
“Give me one.”
“I don’t want to you use you.”
“I wish you would.”
That pulled a laugh from me, just a small relief from the mounting tension. My eyes moved over her body, an undeniable impulse to devour the sight of her, her legs, stomach, chest, then up her neck to her lips.
“You asked me on Saturday if sex was a big deal for me, or if it was you. The answer is both.”
She held very still, and I got the sense she was holding her breath, straining to listen.
“You are a big deal to me. I don’t want a fling. I don’t want a flirtation. I want promises.”
“What can I promise you?”
That you’ll love me. That I’ll be your priority.
She shifted her weight from foot to foot. A spike of anxiety that she might leave me like this had me acting without forethought. I lifted my hands to her waist again and immediately, her fingertips skimmed over skin of my lower stomach in response, making my muscles tense in hot anticipation. She grew more assertive as she caressed my sides, abdomen, ribs, chest, shoulders, and then back down.
Shelly stepped closer, a hint of thrilling contact between her breasts and my torso, and all the words and worries melted from my mind, died on my tongue, suffocated by the feel of her body, and the possibility of this moment.
Her finger hooked in the waistband of my jeans. “Take these off.” Her hand turned, her fingers and palm cupping me over my zipper.
Instinctively, I pressed myself into her touch even as I grabbed her wrist.
“Beau, I promise—”
She didn’t get to speak, because I kissed her, hard and wild, unbuttoning and unzipping my fly with one hand and bringing her palm inside my boxers with the other.
Enter the Giveaway!
Meet Penny Reid:
Penny Reid is the USA Today Bestselling Author of the Winston Brothers and Knitting in the City series. When she’s not immersed in penning smart romances, Penny works in the biotech industry as a researcher. She’s also a full time mom to three diminutive adults, wife, daughter, knitter, crocheter, sewer, general crafter, and thought ninja.
Connect with Penny:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2lakzsD
Twitter: @ReidRomance
Newsletter: http://pennyreid.ninja/newsletter/
Review
This book, this book was everything.
I'm in awe at Penny Reid, at her ability to write books like Beard in Mind. This book was so much more than a simple romance book. I would need many pages to rightfully do justice to this book.
I want to focus on some of the things that made this book so special to me.
First of all, I have no direct or personal experience of mind diseases, being them OCD or other pathologies. But I know that they affect many people in these days, and that unfortunately they are sometimes treated as inferior diseases, not real. Because they can be abstract, they are not something that you can see, but they are there, oh how they are there. They exist, and they are real.
By chance, while reading Beard on Mind, I was studying for a Uni exam, Neurophisiology, a subject focused on how our mind works, and let me tell you, our mind is mysterious, it's awesome, but also scary.
And in cases like Shelly's, it can take control of your life, and make you a prisoner.
I digress, but what I wanted to say is that I'm really happy that Penny decided to focus this book on a subject that is yet to be fully comprehended and accepted.
I admired Shelly so much during her slow but steady progress in taking control of her life. She had to be so strong to beat her own mind and seek treatment.
I loved how well Shelly was characterised, so many aspects of her personality were touched, and we really really get to know her from page to page.
One of the things that often made me smile while reading Beard in Mind was her approach to life. Yes, she has some limits due to her situation, but her honesty and bluntness amazed me: sometimes it was like looking at a child discovering the world for the first time, without forcing her reactions or actions because of appearances and good manners.
Last thing, some scenes of Beard in Mind gave me goose bumps, difficult and hard moments, but also happy ones. Some scenes were described so throughly, so roughly, that they made me feel like I was Shelly or Beau, under their skin, living what they were living, every nuances or feeling.
As far as Beau, well, I don't need to tell anything more that Penny herself said in her notes at the end of the book (you will see). I loved him, simple as that. And he's really one of a kind, so supportive, the friend everyone would like to have in moments of need, or only to share a good time together. He has a really strong sense of family, but well, we already knew it, he's a Winston brother, after all.
And one element that made me fall in love with him, like marry me right now kind of love, is that he is absolutely not judgmental. I'm thinking at his relationship with Shelly, and the fact that he accepts everything with an open mindness that is really admirable, and also with a humility and humanity that is not so common these days.
Shelly and Beau built their relationship brick after brick, they had misunderstanding, yes, but also a lot of respect for each other. I was hooked to the story, which was developed beautifully.
Like every other time after finishing one of Penny's book, I feel like there is so much more to say and to reflect about, so much more to highlight and point out, but I would need a whole book to do so.
I will just leave you to read this book and fall in love with it as much as I did.
PS: Winston brothers, I love you all! Every time I meet them (even if only in fiction) is a great day!
And Janie and Quinn (and Desmond!!!) <3 <3 Love love love.
PPS: the acknowledgements and notes... 😍😍😍 and last last thing, I promise: the epilogue was one of the best I've ever read. Really.❤
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