Beard in Mind - Penny Reid (Winston Brothers #4)

It took me a while to get back into the Winston Brothers series because I was somewhat disappointed by Beard Science, which I had really been looking forward to.  That, and Beau wasn't really a character I cared much about.  He featured in the other books but in a comparatively minor supporting role, against his brothers who, even as supporting characters, seemed a bit more prominent.  I also wasn't super interested in Shelly, who we encountered in Beard Science for the first time.  All of this together meant that this was kind of a "Yeah, sure, I guess," book, but I was still hoping it would take me by surprise and I would love it.

Ultimately, though, I left this book disappointed.  The setup is fairly uneven compared to the others in the series--while both Beau and Shelly get perspective chapters, Shelly's are greatly outnumbered by Beau's.  I don't know what Reid was thinking, but I'm willing to hazard a guess that she didn't want to get too deep "in the head" of someone with OCD and then get slammed by people who actually have OCD for "not getting it right," which would be a motivation that I understand.  The problem is, Shelly is a vastly more interesting character than Beau, and that's not even taking her condition into consideration.  Her links to Quinn, her past with her family, her interest in mechanics, her position as an extremely talented artist, her somewhat abrasive personality--all of this made Shelly seem like a really fleshed-out character, and the very low number of chapters from her perspective was a disappointment.  The imbalance made her feel more like someone Beau pursued and wanted than someone who was engaged in a mutual relationship.

Compared to Shelly, Beau was...blah.  At one point, he says that his twin brother Duane isn't just his brother, he's Beau's other half.  And that's exactly what Beau felt like: half a character.  All of this book is about his fixation on Shelly, and really nothing else.  Even the subplot with the Iron Wraiths that Reid tried to throw in didn't make him feel more complex or complete.  And because he was the point of view character for most of the book, that made it feel just "meh."  I could never really see why he liked Shelly, other than her being off-the-charts gorgeous, which doesn't get you very far in a romance novel.  Even if someone is attracted because of physical appearances at first (which, fine, cool, I get it) it has to evolve, and even though Beau kept saying he loved Shelly for other reasons, I never really saw evidence of it.  I never felt chemistry between him and Shelly, either, and a romance book with no chemistry isn't really much of a romance at all.

Overall, I think this was the weakest book in the series so far.  At times it trended more towards "chore" than "enjoyment," and that's not a good sign.  It had its moments--watching Jennifer and Cletus from another perspective was interesting, and Shelly's parts were good--but I ended up feeling like I probably could have just skipped this one and waited until Dr. Strange Beard came out to rejoin the Winston family.

2 stars out of 5.