Goodreads Choice Award Finalist for Best Romance *Amazon Top 10 Romances of 2016AAR Top 10 Romances of All Time*From the NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, & USA TODAY bestselling series.Make a deal with the devil and you might get what you want, but will it be what you need?Jennifer Sylvester wants one thing, and that one thing is NOT to be Tennessee’s reigning Banana Cake Queen. Ever the … thing, and that one thing is NOT to be Tennessee’s reigning Banana Cake Queen. Ever the perpetual good girl and obedient daughter, Jennifer is buckling under the weight of her social media celebrity, her mother’s ambitions, and her father’s puritanical mandates. Jennifer is officially desperate.
And desperate times call for Cletus Winston.
Cletus Winston is a puzzle wrapped in a mystery covered in conundrum sauce, and now he’s in a pickle. Despite being convinced of his own omniscience, extortion by the exalted Banana Cake Queen of Green Valley has taken him completely by surprise. So… what’s a maniacal mastermind to do?
Likely, the last thing you expect.
Beard Science is book #1 in the Solving for Pie: Cletus and Jenn Mysteries series and Book #3 in the WInston Brothers series. Each book is a standalone, full length (110k words), contemporary romantic comedy novel, and follows the romantic exploits and adventures of one of the six Winston Brothers.
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Loved it. Great read.
Loved this book as well as all the “beard” books. The writing is superior in every way but especially in character development. And the story rings real, making it very satisfying to live in their world and get caught up in what will happen next. I’m reading all of the series for the second time and still would like to be around that family in the real world. Impossible, you say? Guess I’ll just keep living in Penny Reid’s world.
It was funny, intriguing with an unexpected plot.
This book is a book that will always be re-readable!! I love the characters and world the book is in. Penny Reid is amazing and her approach to telling the stories she writes is beautiful.
Beard Science was hilarious and sweet, romantic and fun. Jenn was such a mess from the beginning, she seemed like a caricature. I initially thought the humor here was going to be cheeky satire but it was nothing of the sort. While Jenn does start out that way, she quickly proves herself to be smart and independent. Between her near-crippling shyness and overbearing parents, Jennifer Sylvester has never been comfortable being herself. In fact, she’s been a people-pleaser for so long, Jenn seems to have forgotten her own hopes and dreams and wants.
At twenty-two, she just wants out of her parents’ house to escape her boring, tedious life and her situation is heartbreaking: Jenn works eighty hours per week in the family bakery but doesn’t receive any wages. She never complains and is happy to bake, but the constant advertising and social media circus orchestrated by her controlling mother are just too much for her to bear. She’s done it for years and she’s fed up.
When Jenn devises a plan to improve her life, it requires help and she’s identified the perfect person to execute her plan: Cletus Winston. He won’t help her willingly, but Jenn’s a step ahead of him, approaching him with an offer he can’t refuse. Like, literally can’t refuse because the quiet, demure Banana Cake Queen is blackmailing him. It was fun to watch these two fall for each other but seeing Jenn become independent and take charge of her life was even better.
The Winston family is highly entertaining and they welcome Jenn with open arms, giving her friendship and support for the first time in her life. This is the first book in the Cletus And Jenn Mysteries, but it’s book three in the Winston Brothers series. It can be read as a standalone, but has some spoilers so if you’re planning to read the series, read them in order.
Jenn was so naïve and beaten down, you just have to root for her and celebrate her victories. Cletus is hilarious and they make a sweet couple. I really wasn’t sure what to expect from this story, but enjoyed everything about it and will be continuing the series.
Yet another book by Penny Reid that I’ve fallen in love with. Cletus is such an offbeat, quirky character, I thought no one would ever be a match for him. Love the whole series, all characters are interwoven in the series and provide a lot back story. Writing style is equally great as the story line.
I enjoyed parts of the story that were quite funny. Made me laugh out loud.
Some parts dragged. After 70% it had a good ending to it, but it kept going. I was bored with it at that point so didn’t finish it.
Boring….too much uninteresting chatter by heroine……..couldn’t stay through first chapter!
Heart. Pure heart and doesn’t let you go.
Oh my Cletus – quirkiest leading man in any romance I have read. What a wonderful addition to the Winston Family Stories. I have read the whole series twice and it is just as good on a second read and will probably read the series once per year – on my All Time Favourites List.
Fun series
My favorite Winston gets his book. Jenn and Cletus are perfect together and they bring out the best in each other. Jenn has been stifled her whole life, and final makes the decisions to become more than just the Banana Cake Queen. Cletus finally “sees” Jenn and makes designs to make her his, even though it takes him a little bit. This is a SLOW BURN with very little steam to it, but you do not miss it at all. There are plenty of visits by all the Winstons and the rest of Green Valley that sate what you need.
If I could add more stars to this book I would! 5 out of 5 just doesn’t do it justice. It’s an absolute page turner, I couldn’t put it down. Penny Reid knows just how to suck you into her beautiful stories!
In this book, the reader gets to learn more about how Cletus Winston thinks. What a clever, interesting, devious, character. In earlier books, he seems awkward and different, but his use of language makes me smile. He is in his late 20’s but he is old-school and a genius meddlesome “fixer”. Cletus doesn’t realize that he isn’t always the smartest person in the room. How delightful to read about Jennifer Sylvester, who has been studying him and starts out being a little scared of his deviousness and hidden depths. She is desperate to further her dreams of being a wife and homemaker, but having been homeschooled, sheltered, and manipulated by her parents, she believes Cletus is clever enough to help her. Being famous as the Banana Cake Queen is not how she wants to be remembered and is not something she wants to build upon, but her parents rely on her baking for their income and her mom, in particular, has big dreams for her. The problem is, she doesn’t know how to say no or how to meet husband material. She turns to blackmailing Cletus into helping her, as she believes it is the only way to get help. When you tangle with Cletus, you get more than you bargained for…
If you haven’t read The Winston Brothers series, you’re missing out. This book is one of my favorites in the series because of Cletus. He’s been a favorite oy mine since Book 1 and this is his story. Mix in a Banana Cake Queen and you have yourself a funny, entertaining love story. Does Cletus get the girl?
I am absolutely addicted to the Winston Brothers Series! I love Reid’s writing style! Cletus has been my favorite character since the start of the series and I loved finding out more about his story.
This is the one Winston brother I have been waiting for. Cletus is absolutely intriguing. Cletus and Jennifer are perfection. I adored their witty banter, their friendship, their connection, and their undeniable chemistry. This was the sweetest, cutest, and most heartwarming story I have read in a while. Simply beautiful!
I have been binge listening to the Winston brothers books. Cletus’ quirkiness and wittiness was definitely a winner in this book.
I could not stand Jennifer’s parents. There was nothing likable about either one. Then to have her brother come at her with that completely hypocritical attack was anger inducing.
This waa a really long listen. It seemed like it took forever for Cletus and Jennifer to connect. I know I would have enjoyed it more if they had connected earlier and spent more time as a couple.
I like the way the Winston siblings and their significant others interact and bring new people into the fold. With the introduction of each Winston sibling, I get to see the levels of their character. This was a fun, funny, good time story. They can be read out of sequence, but I am slightly anal, so I listen to them in order.
I enjoyed the narration. I think it adds so much to the story. The narrators do a great job injecting humor. I’m not sure I would be having the same experience if I was reading the books. I tried, and I was unable to finish the first two. I had no problem listening to the audiobook,
I fell in love with the voices in this book. Both main characters are conveyed in first person point of view, and while I usually find that jarring, it worked in this book because both voices are distinct and engaging.
Cletus is a world-class schemer whose main (maybe) motive is to save and protect his family from a dangerous motorcycle gang. On the other hand, perhaps that grumpy, get-even exterior is also designed to ward off any risk to his heart, but don’t try to get him to admit it.
Jennifer, on the other hand, is living a weird kind of stunted emotional life, her parents training her to be a Stepford Wife, only a couple generations removed. She’s the face of their brand but has no money or life of her own.
The resulting plot is a hilarious cross between Cyrano and My Fair Lady, set in moonshine-and-fiddle country with a side of the Duke boys.
All I really need to say is I Love Cletus. LOL! It’s kind of funny that I actually am just now reading/listening to this book! I think I’ve owned the actual paperback for awhile now, but I haven’t had time to pick it up and read. So I decided to purchase the audiobook through Audible. Because I knew I could listen, and I was really getting anxious for the full Cletus and Jen story after reading the books that come after, including the new cozy mystery set very shortly after this one, Engagement and Espionage. It was nice how the characters in this one didn’t immediately think they were attracted to each other, in any way. In fact Cletus had his mind set on how he had found the woman suited for him, which I knew from reading the books later in the series who she was actually going to end up with. But one thing I loved about this book is the description about how the Winston family seemed to use any excuse to get together. My family, my mom’s side anyway, used to be like that. It’s changed a little as cousins grew up and moved away or got married and had other families to spend time with. And then this whole pandemic thing has totally put a damper on so many of our traditional get-togethers as well. I also loved how Jennifer was as likely as Cletus to get in a pun joke here and there, because I do love a good pun! And then, you know a Cletus story would not be complete without a good bit about his sausage. And in this case, it was his brothers teasing him, and as usual, I laughed so hard as I was sitting in my car, if anyone saw me during that part they probably thought I was crazy.