Review: Beard Necessities by Penny Reid

Beard Necessities by Penny Reid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is the long awaited conclusion to the Winston Brother series. It is also the long awaited conclusion to the tumultuous romance between Billy Winston and Scarlet St. Claire aka Claire McClure. Billy and Claire have been at odds for the entire series, and if you haven't read Beard with Me yet, you need to so you finally understand their relationship. I'm glad they finally got their HEA, and the epilogue is the perfect send off to this series.

This wasn't as angsty and filled with conflict as I expected. Now that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. After all of their fighting, pain, and suffering, it was nice to see them finally work through their issues and get back to that place where they were friends and loved each other. I just think many of us were expecting Billy and Claire/Scarlet to be alot more stubborn about their feelings for alot longer in this book. In fact this book has some of the most swoony quotes I've ever read from a couple that couldn't stand each other just a short while before, which just goes to show the depth of their feelings for each other all along. I expected to learn a bit more about Ben and Claire's relationship, which we did, but I almost feel like that relationship in itself could have gotten an entire book. That part of her life was a bit vague and told in pieces to Billy who already seemed to know parts of the story and to Sienna. Maybe those parts of the story aren't relevant to Billy and Scarlet's love story, but her relationship with Ben was certainly a reason that kept them apart for so long. I just feel like that part of the story could have been a little more clear, after all of the angst and pain of Beard With Me maybe we just don't need to know all of gory the details. While I would have liked a bit more clarity on that whole situation, I do feel like we got enough to get and understanding of what happened.

The entire Winston family gets together at the beginning of the book and plot to get Billy and Scarlet together. They decide on their behalfs that because they love them and they want them both to be happy, that the only course of action is to get them to stop fighting and remember that they love each other and be together. In typical Winston fashion all types of hijinks ensue to ensure that our angst ridden couple find the spark that neither one of them have forgotten and make sure they find romance while on their Italian vacation. I loved that each of the Winston couples played a role in this story. Like with every Penny Reid book the humor is excellent.

This is a standalone, but I'd highly recommend reading the prior books in the series before reading this one. There are so many references to other events that happened in other books. Plus why would you want to miss out on so much Winston awesomeness? While this is the final book in this series, it is not the last of Green Valley or the Winstons. I'm excited for what Penny has in store for us next.

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