Truth or Beard: Winston Brothers, Book 1

Jessica’s back in her hometown, living with her parents and working at her local high school until she can pay off her student debts. After that, they won’t see her for dust. She’s always dreamed of seeing the world and nothing and no-one is going to stop her, not even her childhood crush.Beau Winston has always been the man of Jessica’s dreams: handsome, outgoing, charming. He makes her heart race in all the right ways. His twin brother, on the other hand, makes her heart race in all the wrong ways. Duane Winston is straight out of her nightmares. He’s moody, argumentative, and growing up he made her life hell.But the first time Jessica sets her eyes on one of the Winston twins since she came home, she makes a catastrophic mistake. It’s not Beau who’s got his lips on hers and his hand down her pants, but his surly twin. How can Duane be setting her body on fire when it’s Beau she’s always wanted? And how can this be any more than a casual fling when she’s so determined to leave?This is my first Penny Reid book and won’t be my last. She’s a master story-teller, pulling you into the Winston family effortlessly. I’m not usually a fan of beards, mechanics or bikers, but by the end of this book I wanted to hump a Hell’s Angel. This book has humour, heat, angst, mystery, danger, and a cast of fabulous characters to fall in love with. The fact that Duane is such a hard man on the outside and so soft and gooey on the inside is panty-melting, and even though he’s the star of the show, his brothers are so well drawn that I can’t wait to read all of their stories. There’s also unexpected suspense and foreshadowing of high drama that I hope will be resolved later in the series. I absolutely loved this book and hope you do too!

A really enjoyable book, great characters, good story with humour, romance and angst, plus a motorcycle club you don’t want to be your enemy Duane and Jessica our main couple have known each other from childhood, Duane is a twin and Jessica has fantasised about his twin brother Beau for years, he is the happy go lucky twin,Duane the quiet serious one who would go out of his way to torment Jessica and also ignore her.Now a teacher of mathematics Jessica sees Duane at a dance, thinking he’s Beau her heart is all a flutter, he in turn grabs her and kisses the life out of her, when she realises it’s the wrong twin she knows Duane is the one for her. Not without some angst, misunderstanding, funny and some sad moments this book takes you on their journey....and it a really lovely enjoyable one.I was lucky to get this book for free, to be honest I don’t think I’d of bothered otherwise because I hated the cover, but decided to give it a go..thankfully. I would continue to read this series but find the price is far to high, I really don’t understand how the publishers can charge £6 or £7 for a digital book, reduce the price and so many more would be purchased.

It has a good plot with engaging characters, the story goes a bit over the top towards the end which spoiled the book for me.I'm going to give the series a miss though. The characters in this story were enjoyable; their re-interpretation in more books will, I fear, spoil them.

This gets extra stars for a red-headed & bearded hero. One can trust Penny Reid to be brave enough to deviate so far from the usual darkly handsome hero****RED HEADED & BEARDED HERO*** whoop!!!!Positives:1. Loved Duane's description. His manly career (a man who works with his hands doing real herd labour **swoon**) - makes a change from the suited business types or the biker criminal types.2. Loved the sample - the way Jess hates Duane but mistakenly assumes he is his twin was hot.3. Loved Jess's LOTR obsession. Who wouldn't want to be Gandalf?----------------------------------------------Negatives1. SURPLUS of INNER MONOLOGUES - it's tedious reading about a person's every emotional feeling.2. Jess was a quirky LOTR-fan interesting character to begin with but transforms into your typical blonde beautiful, angst-y hormonal silly cliché after the sample finishes.3. Too much swooning and insta-lust.4. They fell in love without any build-up. At the beginning she hates him with a passion - then the next day loves him with a passion (and constantly wants to get into his pants).5. Surplus of characters and subplots that focused on setting the next set of books for the series that that it compromised the plot.6. The plot wasn't anything special and dragged. I skipped to the end.7. I loved Duane he's a redhead and has a beard - BUT - his constant emotion sharing, angst over Jess etc was off-putting. He was emasculated t times.Penny's other hero's generally tend to be reserved.8. Chemistry sizzles out a few pages after the sample.9. Most of the times - we are told how they feel - but I didn't feel the connection.10. Didn't like the scene at the race where Jess goes crazy in lust for Duane (it happens so quickly) to the point she's acting like a race bunny - it didn't make sense and just didn't add to the book.----------------------------------------------Not a bad book, but not as good as Penny Reid's first book. I think if the:(i)love-hate relationship continued past the sample;(ii) a slow-build-up of emotions rather than insta-love/lust;(iii) the focus was on Jess and Duane (rather than setting the next set of the series); and(iv) there was more banter, chemistry, quirkiness and plotit would have scored a 5* from me.