Review: Beard in Hiding by Penny Reid

Beard in Hiding by Penny Reid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC via the author, all opinions are my own. This book was published November 16, 2021 and is available for purchase now.

We were first introduced to the concept of Diane Donner and Mr. Repo in a short story during the holidays of 2016. Penny wrote a short story that was posted on Nocturnal Book Reviews. It can also be found in A Beardy Bonus: Bonus and deleted scenes from the Winston Brothers Series, which is a collection of all of the short stories and bonus content from the Pennyverse. As the synopsis states, this is not really a standalone, you will want to have read Truth or Beard, Beard Science, Engagement and Espionage, and Marriage and Murder prior to reading this to really get an understanding of the events that are taking place and not be spoiled. I think you could still read this on its own, but it will spoil things in the other books, and you might be confused about certain things, but Penny does a good job giving you enough info to follow along.

I was pleasantly surprised that this was a full length novel. I'm not sure why I thought this was a novella, but it is in fact a fully developed novel about Dianne and Jason (aka Repo) from beginning to end. If you have been keeping up with the Winston Brothers and Solving for Pie series as I have, you probably don't like Diane Donner very much. If you've read the books up to this point as I mentioned above, you will know why and there is a reason. She is just starting to redeem herself and in this book we get to know her a bit better as she begins to discover life post divorce. Her ex was a bit of a tyrant, who Diane was eager to please and wanted his approval to the detriment of her relationships with both of her children and those around her. Now that she is recovering from her divorce she wants to have a little fun, so she takes a trip to the local motorcycle bar in search of a little fun and maybe some danger. She finds Repo, who's real name is Jason, who happens to be part of the notorious Iron Wraiths motorcycle club, he's a criminal and she knows it. Repo doesn't want Diane to get hurt, but when she propositions him one thing leads to another and they have a connection atleast for one night. A year passes and they meet again, but this time they decide to take things slow and get to know one another. This is where this book really shines, we get to know them both as people, which we didn't in the previous books. While they may seem like an unusual couple, romance readers know that opposites attract and this is the case here. Jason has a soft side despite his gruff exterior, and Diane is tough as nails when she needs to be. They both complement each other nicely and I really enjoyed getting to know them and watch their relationship develop. We get a ton of backstory that leads up to the events that take place in the other books. I think Penny did a masterful job making sure the storylines matched up without rewriting scenes from the other books verbatim.

This was amazing as are all of Penny's books! I can't wait to see what she has in store for us next! I hope we get an Isaac book soon! He and Hank Weller are the two characters I am most anxious to read about. I know Hank is getting a book in the Good Folk series, but I'm not sure about Isaac. I do highly recommend this book and all of the other books in the Winston Brother series and the Solving for Pie books!

View all my reviews