Review: Truth or Beard by Penny Reid

Title: Truth or Beard

Author: Penny Reid

Reviewed by: Cassie

Genre: new adult, contemporary, romance

Summary (from goodreads.com)

Beards, brothers, and bikers! Oh my!

Identical twins Beau and Duane Winston might share the same devastatingly handsome face, but where Beau is outgoing and sociable, Duane is broody and reserved. This is why Jessica James, recent college graduate and perpetual level headed good girl, has been in naive and unhealthy infatuation with Beau Winston for most of her life. His friendly smiles make her tongue-tied and weak-kneed, and she's never been able to move beyond her childhood crush. Whereas Duane and Jessica have always been adversaries. She can't stand him, and she's pretty sure he can't stand the sight of her . . .

But after a case of mistaken identity, Jessica finds herself in a massive confusion kerfuffle, Jessica James has spent her whole life paralyzed by the fantasy of Beau and her assumptions of Duane's disdain; therefore she's unprepared for the reality that is Duane's insatiable interest, as well as his hot hands hot mouth and hotter looks. Not helping Jessica's muddled mind and good girl sensibilities, Duane seems to have gotten himself in trouble with the local biker gang, the Iron Order.

Certainly, Beau's magic spell is broken. Yet when Jessica finds herself drawn to the man who was always her adversary, now more dangerous than ever, how much of her level-headed heart is she willing to risk?

Hello there! Thanks for stopping by Fiction Fairies- hopefully you don't get scared off by our blunt nature and ever present sarcasm.

Before we get started, I have a confession to make.

I have issues with redheaded men.

There. I said it.

I can't put my finger on why I don't find them attractive, but I just don't! I find redheaded women beautiful, but the men? 

Well.

So when the love interest of any story, even Penny Reid's, is a redhead, I encounter problems.

The Characters:

As aforementioned, Duane is a bearded, redheaded Southern gentleman who checks all the boxes of an ISTP. Basically that means he's introverted, reserved, sweet, likes danger, and is kind of moody and rebellious. Oh, and broody.

Yeah, if that's your thing, you'll eat him up. Unfortunately, it's not mine.

Jessica was also a problem. I expected quirky (because, hello! Penny Reid wrote this) and kind of awkward or maybe adorable. Instead I got mainstream heroine

 I like unconventional, slightly strange characters (who doesn't?), so when you give me someone who self identifies as nutty and weird, but is thoroughly not kooky . . . Well, I get upset and annoyed. It's not to say Jessica isn't enjoyable- certainly, there were aspects I liked and scenes she made me laugh at.
But she was like diet ice cream. It has so much potential to blow your mind, and instead is limited by low-fat and "healthy" ingredients.

Ah, but Cletus. One of Duane's older brothers.

You see, Cletus was my man. He's strange and confusing, and he likes to feed people his sausage. Literally. He spear-hunts wild boar with Native Americans, and makes bacon and sausage out of it! Why? Because hiding and using firemarms would be unfair and deceptive to the boar he's hunting.

He makes moments awkward and he's unrepentant of his odd ways.

Go Cletus!

As for the plot, it wasn't my cup of tea. I think it works, but I'm kind of sick of biker stories or drama. Plus there was the whole hot and cold relationship drama- where Duane was moody and couldn't make a decision regarding Jessica. So that bugged me.

I don't know . . . I think it's a well-written book but it just wasn't for me. And that makes me sad because I haven't truly devoured a book in WEEKS.

Cheers!

Xoxo

Cassie

P.S. - be on the lookout! Rafia and I are launching a new blog on called "The Caterwauls" sometime soon. We plan on blogging about casual, day-to-day things. Things like TV episode reviews, college application strugs, people/clothes/songs/things that catch our attention; you get what I mean. 

We'll love you unconditionally for eternity if you check it out. (Not that we don't already . . .)