Beard in Mind

Oh my goodness! Loved this story. Read it!

I have read all up to them at this point and I don’t remember crying like I did this. This story was absolutely amazing! All of them have been!

A delightful read. Penny continues the Winston brothers series with great characters, laughter, family & love. Beau & Shelly’s story continues to build the history of this family. Penny’s writing is phenomenal. She draws you into the story and you are compelled to keep turning the pages.

All I can say is I started this novel at 8pm yesterday evening. It is currently 2:30am and I could NOT stop reading. It has been a pleasure to sacrifice my beloved sleep to finish Beau and Shelly’s story.

I loved Beau’s story so much! He was a fave character from previous books and I was so excited to get to his story. Him and Shelly had so much chemistry on page and I was having so much fun following them along. On top of that, there’s a FANTASTIC representation of OCD in here that is nuanced and not romanticized and I loved it!

This book. This book has left me with a torrent of emotion and once again, in complete awe of its author. Penny Reid has crafted a story is so unexpectedly powerful with characters who feel every bit real. I can't remember a book calling to my heart as deeply as Beard in Mind has. There were moments so familiar that I felt my lip quivering and tears building because I knew exactly what the characters were feeling.

At its very gorgeous heart, Beard in Mind is a love story between two people that are so completely different that words like "oil and water" or "match and flame" come to mind. And at first blush, Beau Winston and Shelly Sullivan are more the fiery, bad idea kind of match than a romantic one. BUT the power of this book lies in how they do become a pair, through understanding and a willingness to see more than what they each show the outside world.

If you have read the Knitting in the City series (If you have NOT read those books, please do it. They are amazing), you have met Shelly Sullivan in the first two books of the series. Outwardly, she is a beautiful woman with a blunt-force personality, those who meet her usually come away with perceptions of her that aren't so pleasant and write her off. But there is so much more to Shelly and getting to meet her through both Beau's eye and being inside her unquiet mind is one of the many joys of Beard in Mind. Shelly is fierce and determined to retrain her mind so that she can manage her OCD. Just know that depiction here is NOT the term appropriated for those who like order, it is a real and unflinching view of the struggle between a person's logical mind and their brain. It's in those moments that my affection for all of the Shelly's of the world grew exponentially. I felt that anxiety in the scenes where she didn't believe she could resist her compulsions. My heart broke just as hers did. I felt like I was there fighting back the need to go to her in comfort. That doesn't just happen. It is all from the need of Penny Reid to get the story right. Let me just tell you, she succeeds brilliantly.

Beau Winston is a charmer, but he only uses his charm for good, definitely not evil. Always affable, he impossible not to love and you absolutely do. The goodness of this man is soul-deep and it isn't that he saw Shelly as a project, but that he saw something in her that called to his own heart. I loved bearing witness as he unlocked each box that lead to the gift of this woman. But even more, his infinite patience and ability to stand back made me adore him all the more.

Together though, Shelly and Beau may have been oil and water, but were the right blend of each. In any given moment they are funny, combative or downright sexy. But ultimately it is in the depth of how much they love and value each other that brings this story all the way home for me.
In each their own way, the Winston kids suffered at the hands of their father and while his shadow still attempts to cast itself on them, it is the enduring strength of their mother Bethany that is woven into each of these seven people in a multitude of ways -- How much she loved of the arts, particularly the written word, her wit and humor, her absolute grace and most of all, her unconditional love for each one of her children. While her absence is felt, the best tribute to her is that each of the siblings know that they only have to reach across the supper table to find some level of comfort.

Bridging two series with so many moving parts is definitely not for the feint of heart. But Penny Reid manages like the boss (evil overlord) that she is. It's probably reason 1,000,002 why I am so in awe of her.
Beard in Mind is a clear the decks read, because once you start, putting it down will be impossible.
But it will be totally worth it.

Happy reading.

Laurie's Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️➕➕➕➕➕➕➕