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 … 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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I loved this so much!
I adore the Winston brothers. They keep getting better and better. I just knew Beau was going to steal my heart. So flirty, so confident, yet so vulnerable. He wants to be someone’s priority, wants someone to want him. I volunteer.
The new mechanic, Shelly, is a bit quirky. She’s blunt, she’s honest, and she’s absolutely adorable. And she gets under Beau’s skin like no other. To watch the sexual tension between these two was entertaining. To see their relationship blossom and grow and get stronger and more passionate was a beautiful thing. The way they helped each other, watched out for each other, and cared for each other was utterly heartwarming.
I can’t say enough good things about this story. To say I loved it would be an understatement.
I listened to the audiobook and the narrators were perfect.
I am absolutely loving this series in audio, its like seven brides for seven brothers, one of my favourite musical movies from when I was younger.
Each brother is unique in their own way and I couldn’t wait to read Beau and Shelley’s story.
Beau is the charmer, the pleaser, hes the kind of person who will do anything for anyone, hes the complete opposite of his twin Dwayne. Beau Winston is the nicest, most accommodating guy in the world. Usually, until Shelly Sullivan begins working at the garage and the woman’s straight talking and rudeness gets his back up.
Shelly is a brilliant mechanic, yes she’s rude (according to beau), she doesn’t shake people’s hand in greeting, she’s and odd ball but you only see the Shelly on the surface and getting to know her quirks and the revelation of her OCD that controls her was intriguing.
I couldn’t think of a more perfect and patient guy for Shelly than Beau Winston.
Shelly’s character is the most interesting of the women I’ve met in this series so far, although all have had their own little quirks I found Shelly the most interesting although I don’t know where her OCD stemmed from and Beau, *sighs, he’s so dreamy and swoon-worthy and he became one of my favourite of the Winston brothers but each book I finish I say that, you just can’t pick one as a favourite in this series and well, i’m still not finished with the series and can’t wait to read more from these hot bearded brothers.
Each book can be read as a standalone, but there are progressions or circumstances that run in order such as Dwayne leaving to go on his travels, you see the preparation of that in this book, Sienna and Jethro’s wedding the build up to that and then there’s Billies longing looks at Claire, I can’t wait to read their story, so I would say this series is better read in order and I highly recommend the audio version, its brilliant!!.
A heartwarming romance with humour and Witt and can I just say * fans self down, the car scene was hot!!
Beau is the good twin. The handsome twin. The nice twin. So why is he channeling his twin brother Duane when dealing with the female mechanic, Shelly Sullivan? She’s rude. She’s sarcastic. He doesn’t like her. So why can’t he get the painfully beautiful woman out of his mind?
He’s lived a charmed life, or so everyone thinks. He’s charming and kind. He’ll do anything for anyone. But his charm is as much a façade as his brother’s anger. It is his armor in a world of bikers, deadbeat, abusive fathers and unkind folks. His smile and his kindness disarms the unwary, they think he’s weak and easy to manipulate.
Shelly, like his brother Duane suffers fools lightly. As Duane prepares to leave with Jessica to travel the world, Beau must learn to be a solo act, unless Shelly Sullivan decides to stick around.
When the Winston brothers fall in love, they fall hard and fast. Beau didn’t want to fall for the prickly mechanic but the more he learns about Shelly, the more amazing she is.
My mechanic husband could fall for a woman like Shelly Sullivan, gorgeous, artistic, drives fast and knows her way around a car.
Penny Reid creates characters that feel real. They are flawed, but often their beauty and strength comes from their flaws. She fashioned the perfect, imperfect woman for Beau. One that was more impressed with his goodness than his looks. Someone who needed him but also wanted him to need her. Of all the heroines, I think Shelly Sullivan might be my favorite but Penny Reid makes it difficult to choose.
Have you read the Winston Brother Series yet? Why not? Don’t like beards? Oh, honey, let me tell you what a beard can do…
This was an interesting book. I enjoyed the first book in the Knitting in the City series by this author, and I’ve been intrigued to read this one as well. While this is the 4th book in the Winston Brothers series, and it plays off of the other series as well, it was easy enough to read on its own. I got to spend some time with Quinn and Janie from Neanderthal Seeks Human, since Quinn was Shelly’s brother and we met her in their book. I also got to meet all of Beau’s brothers and sisters and friends. I’m now looking forward to getting to go back and read their stories, as well as for future books that are other characters’ stories. All of the men in the story are so different that it makes them fun to see how they are going to handle love when it is coming at them. And I have to say that I really liked that we got an extremely real woman to see how she could fall in love with her extreme case of OCD. And I liked that Beau was able to deal with it, but that in some ways, he definitely acted realistically with Shelly in how he reacted to different events.
I do have to say there were some moments I was unsure just how it could work, but they were overcome by the writing keeping me reading and not wanting to put it down. The beginning did take a bit to get into, as the book is told mostly from Beau’s viewpoint, and I think I’m more used to romances being evenly told throughout the male and female lead, with usually more on the woman’s side. I also guess I didn’t realize there was a bit of the motorcycle club story with this series, but it wasn’t in a way that overwhelmed the plot for me, even while it totally added a lot of depth to the story overall.
I am definitely a Penny Reid fan, and when I got the chance to win any of her audiobooks through a Facebook contest, I immediately asked for the first book in this series, and I can’t wait to listen and get back to the first part of this family’s story. If you are looking for a fun romance, but with the serious and realistic qualities of their lives and families thrown in, this is the book/series/author for you!
WOW – loved it. Didn’t finish until 1.39am last night, and slept like a baby because it was such a wonderful story. It meshed well with Cletus’s story, which is happening simultaneously. Beau is such a heart melter and Shelley is ready for him. I love that we never learn Shelley’s age, just that she’s older than Beau. It helps to read the Beard books in order, but it can’t hurt to jump into the middle – it’s a big clan and poor Drew needs a map! Can’t wait for the next Winston story!
So this is another wonderful book from Winston Brothers Series, can be read as a stand-alone book but I truly recommend to read them all.
Beau is the charmest of all Winston brothers, he’s smooth, beautiful, funny and talented. He works at the auto shop he co-own with his brother Cletus. He’s watching how his brothers and sister found love with their partners and he wants to have the same thing for him.
Shelly Sullivan is an amazing beautiful girl, she’s related with one of Beau’s sister close friend from Chicago and she’s moving to Green Valley. What she got in beauty she lacks in sympathy and now she’s working in Winston Auto Shop. The tension between both of them is palpable and working together is becoming a really difficult job.
I can’t stop praising Penny Reid’s Beard series. They have all I love in a romance: great dialogue, colorful, unique characters, intricate family dynamics and smoking hot love stories. This is one of her best!Penny Reid has made a world of wonderful characters that you never want to leave in Beard in Mind
This amazing series has ALL the feels!! Loved this one and can’t wait to read Roscoe’s story!!
The story of Beau and Shelly touched my heart so deeply. Penny Reid did an amazing job of portraying all of the difficulties that Shelly faced on a daily basis, while still showing us that Shelly was a kick-ass, talented woman who was so worthy of finding and experiencing love. Beau has always been the sweetest guy, but until he really learned how to understand Shelly, he found himself irritated and angry with her actions. Once he knew what she was dealing with, he realized what a beautiful soul Shelly was, and consequently fell so hard for her. Beau has plenty of his own demons to deal with. He has to learn to stand up for himself and fix his own problems. Shelly helps him as much, or more, than he helps her. I think that this story really speaks volumes about loving others and ourselves, not just in spite of our flaws, but because of them. The ending is just so beautiful. I couldn’t ask for a better epilogue for Beau and Shelly. It had me in tears. Chris Brinkley and Angela Dawe did an amazing job with the narration!
Another solid book in the series, with real issues that can’t be just kissed away. Beau was exactly as charming a hero as I’d imagined, though he came with a small surprise, as I’d thought he was a bit of a player. Shelly was a heroine with a severe OCD, and I loved how it wasn’t downplayed with a miraculous recovery for a happily ever after. Beau was wonderfully patient with her, and it was great how he learned that she can support him in return too.
What I didn’t like about the book was that it was out of balance. Most chapters were from Beau’s point of view. There were maybe five chapters from Shelly’s POV, and they were all set in her therapist’s sessions. So we only get to see Shelly as a patient. She’s supposed to be a world class artists, and I kept waiting for a chapter where she’s in her environment, showing who she is beyond her OCD, instead of being told who she is. In a book with a message that a person is more than their illness, it’s surprising that the main character doesn’t get to show that. No matter how admiring Beau’s view of her was, she never became a complete character and remained a stereotype. In the end, I read this as Beau’s book, not Beau’s and Shelly’s, which worked just fine.
Love this series
Beard in Mind by Penny Reid (Audiobook)
Narrated by: Angela Dawe and Chris Brinkley
Series: Winston Brothers, Book 4
3.5 Stars – I liked Shelley and Beau together. They fit and had a wonderful chemistry right of the start. He was patient, kind and understanding. She was strong, hardworking and truly wanted to work towards her goals. All these attributes really stood out and played a strong part in their story. I was a bit worried at the beginning when I saw that Shelley had a complex disorder. I wondered if the author would try to cure it- which to me, would be super unbelievable.. instead she shows us how Shelley is making progress.. which I liked. I should have known better. Penny Reid is a terrific writer and her stories often feel realistic.
The narrations were done well.
~Paragraphs and Petticoats~
I have been waiting for Beau Winston’s story. Twin to Duane, Beau is his complete opposite, charming, handsome, funny and loved by everyone. We saw just a hint of Beau’s turmoil of his new co-worker Shelly in Cletus’s story in Beard Science. Shelly, who is drop dead gorgeous but is socially inept. Beau loves her at first site, but then hates her when he realizes how rude she is, but it’s that kind of hate that rides the line of love and in Beard in Mind we see Beau cross that line into love and we are given insight into why Shelly is rude and impervious to Beau’s charm.
Shelly was a fascinating character. She was seriously flawed, in therapy, and very infatuated with Beau. When Beau finally see’s past the fact that Shelly didn’t fall at his feet, he opens his eyes to why she is the way she is and he is all in. No hesitation. I loved that about him. Shelly has some serious issues, she is OCD to a level I’ve never read before and she needs Beau with a capital N, and Beau needs her back in just the same way. This was a LOVE story full of trepidation, self awareness, and charm. It had a sweetness that was different than the other stories in this series. It didn’t have Duane and Jess’s sizzle, Jethro and Sienna’s humor, and Cletus and Jennifer’s oddity. It was singular in it’s own uniqueness and I enjoyed it a lot.
In addition to the love story between Shelly and Beau, we also had a story filled with the Winston family dynamic. I want to adopt myself into this family. Even though they are a strange bunch, they love each other infinitely. How nice is that?
This was an exceptional story filled with wonderful characters. An amazing addition to the series. I loved the humor, drama, and emotion and couldn’t put it down.
Loved it!
I loved reading this book. I think it is the best of the series that I have read so far. I recommend to anyone is reading the whole series.
I love all of Penny’s books. She is an automatic one click for me. Her books are romance, yes, but they also make you think and this one is no exception. Beau and Shelley are quite the couple, both flawed, but they way they love is awesome.
An intelligent, moving story filled with humor and love
Book four in the Winston Brothers series, while this book works well as a standalone, in my opinion you’ll get a richer experience having read the earlier books in this series (especially Beard Science, the events of which are happening in parallel to this one) and if you’ve also read at least the first book in the related Knitting in the City series.
I read my first book by this author less than a year ago and she has quickly become a favorite. Her writing has proven to be consistently intelligent, funny and touching and this latest book is no exception.
We’ve met both Beau and Shelly in earlier books, and here we really get to know them. Shelly, who has always been prickly and standoffish, has ocd to the point where she doesn’t want to touch anyone. I thought the author did a wonderful job of developing this character and showing how isolating this type of illness can be. As someone who has struggled with anxiety issues, I found Shelly and her attempts to cope both extremely relatable and moving, sometimes to the point of tears.
Beau, who has always been known as the nicer and more easygoing of the twins, has issues of his own to cope with; his twin brother is leaving for Europe for an indefinite period of of time, plus Beau is hit with a major life plot twist that he has to decide how to deal with. I loved the way Beau and Shelly were the opposites in some ways, and yet still had so much in common, and I loved how they balanced each other out.
With beautiful developed characters, a plot that has engaging twists, and a moving story filled with humor and love, this is one of my favorite reads for the year. 5+ stars.
B2B Kelly
When you are known as the ‘nice twin’…things in life just seem to fall in place. As the friendliest of the Winston Brothers, Beau has always been the gentleman in all aspects of life. That is until he meets Shelly Sullivan. Cletus has hired Shelly to help out at the shop that the brothers all own. Shelly’s constant verbal ‘vomit’ takes Beau by storm, and he just doesn’t know how to respond. The reactions to Shelly’s ‘out there’ take on life cause a reaction from Beau that very few have ever seen.
Shelly is trying to get a hold on her life. With compulsions having a very big part of her life, Shelly finds that doing some of the simplest tasks in her daily routine become very complicated. The work at the Winston Brothers shop seems to ease Shelly’s tormented soul. However with Beau Winston in such close proximity, Shelly quickly discovers she has a reason to overcome her fears and compulsions.
Can I say how much I love each and every book in the Winston Brothers series?? Beau’s story was an unexpected and interesting twist to the series. First – I must say Penny Reid is a genius!! Shelly’s mental health was written in a very realistic and relatable way. The troubles that plagued Shelly face so many people today. Having this heartfelt characters play such a huge role in Beau’s story was both a treat and truly engaging.
Now Beau……who knew that one honest gentleman could be shaken to the core? Beau has always been the stable and strong arm of the family. Watching Beau from the aspect of learning how to lean on another individual for strength was so touching. Beau never tried to ‘change’ Shelly….only learn to love her in spite of her differences. Isn’t that what love is all about??
All I can tell you is you are totally missing out if you haven’t stepped inside the lives of all the Winston siblings!! Grab Beau’s story and get ready for a book unlike any Penny has penned before!! Feel the love and fill your heart with this Winston story!!
I love this entire series! Penny Reid makes me laugh. Her characters arealways clever and people I want to get to know