I have started following a bazillion Romance blogs on Tumblr lately, and they basically give me life. Those ladies are hilarious. From questionable old novel covers and inappropriate Christmas ornaments, to sexy-mythic-space opera dramas, they have it all. Not only that, but they know what’s up with the book recommendations.
I found the Winston Brothers series by Penny Reid when one of the bloggers kept posting excerpts from it. The quotes were funny and quippy, and I finally had to look closer. Couple the premise with the clever cross-stitched covers and I was sold. On all of them.
The six Winston brothers and one sister live in small town Kentucky, and have unfortunate ties to a deadbeat father and a biker gang. That’s not stopping them from living their lives and being badasses, though. They all live together in the ancestral home that backs up to a national park, and basically are totally hot in every way. The facial hair abounds.
It was refreshing to get away from the stereotypes for a while in this one. The brothers are fine financially thanks to their mother’s inheritance, but they all work what would be considered blue-collar jobs (auto mechanics and park rangers, most of them). They’re also all incredibly smart, as are the girls they fall for. Informed consent is also at play here – a novel for the feminist in me for sure. Just, you know, ignore how incongruous some of the bad beard-pun titles are.
Beauty and the Mustache:
This is technically considered book #4 of Reid’s Knitting in the City series, but it’s also Winston .5. From the perspective of their sister, it’s a little sad. She moves home for a few weeks because her mother is dying, and Reid’s great writing does justice to the tragedy of it. Ashley has always wanted to escape town, and holds a major grudge for the hot Park Ranger that seems to be a good friend of her mother’s and always around – someone she never even knew about until she moved home. It’s a love-to-hate tale with the added complication of Ashley’s life elsewhere.
The Nietzsche quips alone make this novel worth your time. Add that to Ashley’s amazing and hilarious group of friends and you have something totally magical.
Truth or Beard:
Jessica has always been in love with Beau Winston, but accidentally finds out that the guy she made out with back stage that night wasn’t Beau. It was his twin brother Duane. And now it’s not Beau Jess can’t stop thinking about. She’s also a calculous teacher with a Lord of the Rings obsession and extreme wanderlust, living at home to save up for her trip around the world.
Jess and Duane grew up together and antagonized each other, which makes for some funny memories. And they also make this agreement as soon as he finds out she’s leaving, that you know neither of them are going to be able to keep. True to form, nothing turns out like it’s supposed to in the best way ever.
Grin and Beard It:
A successful, size 14, totally hot, Oscar-winning actress as a heroine who is also a feisty Mexican and a writer? Yes please! That hits every single bell of awesome I have. Sienna, who is in town to shoot her next comedy, keeps getting lost on the mountain roads. And it’s Jethro that keeps rescuing her. Working in Hollywood like she does, Sienna is immune to handsome. But she isn’t immune to all that Southern charm and capableness.
I think that’s really my favorite part of this book. Jethro just takes care of Sienna so well, and is so supportive of her awesome career in every way, even when it means he backs off a little. There’s also some bear wrangling and lots of Hollywood glamor to contend with. So great.
Beard Science:
Jennifer is under the thumb of her overbearing parents, and the one thing in life that she wants is to NOT be the Banana Cake Queen anymore. She likes baking, but resents the way her parents have trumped-up her celebrity. They choose her clothes, schedule local appearances, and go crazy with the online baking videos. They’re not even nice. The only thing Jennifer can think of to do is blackmail Cletus into helping her out.
I was honestly a little bit skeptical about this novel. In the former books, I see Cletus as more of a sly, crafty, and conniving guru. It was hard to think of him as a romantic hero. It works, though. Jennifer is naive, but just as conniving as Cletus, and together they con each other into a relationship. Bonus points for Jennifer uncovering a whole host of things that are really going on at home, coming into her own, and insisting she be treated well by her parents.
Beard In Mind, Dr. Strange Beard, and Beard Necessities are coming out in subsequent years, so we’ll have to wait for 2019 to know the whole saga. But I, for one, am hooked. Maybe I’ll read some Knitting In The City while I wait… that friend group really is awesome.
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