Beard Necessities

What better way to end the wonderful Winston Brothers series than by bringing together the entire family to do what they do best–meddle.

For six books, we have seen glimpses of Billy and Claire/Scarlet. We know they have a dark history. We finally get answers to what happened between them in Beard With Me but still had no resolution. We, the readers, weren't the only ones who were tired of the dance these two characters have been doing around each other. The Winston siblings have had enough as well and in this book, they finally decide to do something about it. It's no surprise that the mastermind behind the whole Get-Billy-And-Scarlet-Together ruse is none other than Cletus, and I can't thank Penny Reid enough for opening this book with a prologue in his POV because I missed being in his head.

This book is filled with your typical Winston shenanigans, plenty of cameos from your favorite Winston family members, and Billy and Scarlet's reconciliation really ends the series on a high note. I will miss this crazy family and hope to see them pop up again in Penny's future books.

My, my, my! This is the perfect ending to this series. All the Winstons, including their significant others, gathered in Italy to nudge, shove, and sometimes right out push their de facto “patriarch” Billy into the arms of love. Luckily said love interest Scarlett/Claire isn't opposed to the idea. This book is very much about Billy, him learning to let go of the tight self control he's always held himself under, accepting help from others, letting go of the past etc. I very much enjoyed that. Where he is emotionally and physically at the beginning of the story is a logical consequence of what's been Billy's trajectory throughout the series. Seeing him come back to life, while shedding parts of his life, was a beautiful thing. I also loved how Scarlett/Claire, once she's made up her mind is fully on board with operation Bring Billy Back to Life. These two deserve each other and all the happiness in the world which [a:Penny Reid 5997227 Penny Reid https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1548811001p2/5997227.jpg] generously lets us peek in on in a sweet epilogue.My black heart was happy to see certain saints get knocked down a peg or two. As with the rest of this series I enjoyed it via the audio by [a:Joy Nash 327057 Joy Nash https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1447960281p2/327057.jpg] & [a:Chris Brinkley 8531381 Chris Brinkley https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] (who's narrated the rest of the series) and it was excellent. Highly recommended series.

I think I'm done with Penny Reid. I haven't been able to enjoy all her recent books and I couldn't even finish this one. Either her style changed or I just outgrew her tryingtoohardtobefunnyandsexy style.