Uhhhhhnnnnnnn. I had such hopes for this book. I pre-ordered it and everything. It started out fine, but the problems quickly piled up. I can’t really get into the stuff that bothered me without spoilers, so there will be mild spoilers.
Duane is one of Ashley Winston’s (Beauty and The Mustache) seven brothers. The brothers will be contributing names like Cletus and Jethro to Mrs. Julien’s Romance Novel Name Tally over the next couple of years. Jessica is the new math teacher in town. She grew up in Green Valley with Duane and his brothers and has come back to teach and pay off her school loans. Her dream is to travel the world. Duane’s dream is Jessica. Except she’s been in town for months and he has made no attempt to contact her until they accidentally run into each other at a community Halloween event. Still, I could forgive that if it weren’t for all the other things.
I expect some ridiculous plot elements in Penny Reid’s romances. She likes to add in some unnecessary high drama fuckery, but it’s usually balanced by a strong romance. In Truth or Beard though, the romance is weak and the biker gang, stripper cousin/ex girl-friend, out of the blue inheritance and parentage mystery overwhelm the relationship. There’s an interesting story in this mess – Jessica and Duane getting to know each other again as adults, letting go of expectations and learning to work together to make their dreams come true. Instead what we get is Duane being a controlling douche trying to make all the decisions about their relationship. Despite claiming he has loved Jessica since they were teens, Duane doesn’t seem interested in letting Jessica participate in their romance. Jessica is unbelievably forgiving and seems to have self-esteem issues. In the end, I was disappointed that they ended up together.
We do get a few good scenes with Duane and Jessica that show this could have been a lovely book. Penny Reid does excel at writing group scenes and creating believable friendships and sibling relationships. Unfortunately I spent more than half the book asking “why is this happening?” and “is this necessary?”
This is not a good start to the series. I hope it gets better in the future, but skip this one.
