Beauty and the Mustache

A Philosophical Romance, Knitting in the City, Volume 4

By: Penny Reid

Narrated by: Joy Nash

Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's Summary

This is a full-length novel, the fourth book in the Knitting in the City series.

There are three things you need to know about Ashley Winston: 1) She has six brothers and they all have beards, 2) She is a reader, and 3) She knows how to knit.

Former beauty queen Ashley Winston’s preferred coping strategy is escapism. She escaped her Tennessee small town, loathsome father, and six brothers eight years ago. Now she escapes life daily via her Amazon kindle one-click addiction.

However, when a family tragedy forces her to return home, Ashley can’t escape the notice of Drew Runous - local Game Warden, bear wrestler, philosopher, and everyone’s favorite guy. Drew’s irksome philosophizing in particular makes Ashley want to run for the skyscrapers, especially since he can’t seem to keep his exasperating opinions - or his soulful poetry, steadfast support, and delightful hands - to himself. Pretty soon the girl who wanted nothing more than the escape of the big city finds she’s lost her heart in small town Tennessee.

©2014 Cipher-Naught (P)2014 Cipher-Naught

Laughed, Snorted and Cried

I made the mistake of listening to this while I analyzed spreadsheets at work...in a cubicle...with short walls! I have laughed, snorted, cried...it's a wonder I haven't been Baker Acted!!!

Being Southern, I appreciate the genuine respect the narrator gave to the Southern drawl. It can be offensive when one tries to emulate a dialect that has many different strains from which to choose. She was phenomenal!!! And the brothers...dear mercies in heaven...I love those boys!!!

I lost my Daddy 7 months ago, so there were parts that were still raw to my heart; however, the author used deflection of humor at just the right times to keep the story from going too dark. Thank you for this.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story, although a few times I blushed at some of the scenes; as they were unexpected and not my particular preference. But it didn't go overboard so I appreciated that.

Well written and well narrated!!!

A sweet southern romance

My kinda book. I wish the other in the series were on audible. I would listen right away. I loved the brothers and her friends in this story and of course the relationship with her mom. Her brothers and friends made me laugh and her mom made me cry. Nice blend. I am so tired of these books with so called alpha males. I have determined that alpha male equals abusive so no thank you. This was the kind of alpha male I like. Kind thoughtful caring and strong. Their relationship developed naturally and even though I am not much of a poetry person, I loved it in the book. More of knitting in the city please.

Everything was fantastic except..

I wish the narrator would have known the other accents from the previous books; like Janie's lisp, and at the very least she could have done Sandra's accent-- as they both are supposed to have southern drawls. Otherwise everything was fantastic.

Beautiful story and fantastic narration!

This might be my favorite audiobook ever. The narration is spectacular, the Tennessee accent was done really well and when the narrator switched to a male voice, it worked really well. The story itself was really beautiful, a gorgeous love story with a bit of humor and a lot of emotion. This was really a beautiful story and I really enjoyed this audiobook.

Love the story and the performace

This book hits very close to home. I recently had the same experience of a family member having a terminal illness. This book helped me understand that the feelings and guilt a caretaker experiences are normal. I would sometimes say "yes, exactly!" Thank you Penny Reid for helping me heal and understand the process of losing a loved one.

Now for the actual book, Ash and Drew are two of the most loveable book people. The way Drew loves Ashley is breathtaking. It is all encompassing ... complete.

Ashley's relationship with her mother broke my heart. Only because I know the feeling of having it and then not having it. Everyday phone calls just to hear the other persons voice, that is true mother/daughter love.

AND let's not forget the WINSTON BROTHERS (yes, it needs all CAPS) ... I need more of them and soon! They take this book from borderline sad and romantic to laugh out loud funny. Check the schedule!!!

Joy Nash's performance was excellent, the accents were not overly done (I am from Texas and I hate when accents are exaggerated).

This book is a must listen.

Love it! I love everything about it

What did you love best about Beauty and the Mustache?

It's a great story and the characters feel real. It is a romance, but there's enough real life woven in that you can believe it.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Drew Runous... He's the obvious choice. He's the mysterious, devastatingly handsome type. What's not to love?

What about Joy Nash’s performance did you like?

The VOICES! Joy Nash does an excellent job of giving each character a different yet believable and not over the top voice. The Southern accents are charming, but not over-done. The narration is spot on.

damn near perfect

I loved everything about this book. Especially the way my preconceived notions about how the characters were going to behave.This is just how the main character starts out ...with her snobby/snarkey attitude towards her brothers.Then a gradual awakening and shifting of opinions occurs.Well, the next thing you know is nothing should be judged by the surface,especially men.I adored the full range of characters ...funny,stubborn, loving, insightful,peaceful and also a handful. My only complaint is the title misleads you to think that this is a goofy book and it really isn't.How can it be when one of the main characters recite Nietzsche?

Magic! Absolute magic.

I LOVE this book. I have read all of the books in this series and this is the first that moved me enough to write a review on. It's the best in the series thus far. The story + the FANTASTIC narration provided by Ms. Joy Nash= well, magic. I was hooked from the first chapter. I feel in love with Drew, Ashley, and the Winston boys from the start. This is something Reid is a master at. Her characters are people that you easily fall in love with. And that you wish you knew in real life. It was more than just a rom-com. You laugh, you tear up, and you sigh dreamy thanks to the beautiful poetry throughout the book, which was simply the icing on the cake. The narrator, Joy Nash, was a pleasure to listen to. She breathed life into the characters and had excellent timing with the comedy and the poetry. BRAVO! ! I cannot wait for the next book.

Book Was Way Too Long!

I had already tried to read the Winston Brothers, book 1. I tried 2 times unsuccessfully. I then listened to the audio book, and found it to be much better. Weird. Anyway, in the process of listening to Truth or Beard, I discovered this book. The Winston sister book. Although it was really, really long (12 hrs and 21 min), I enjoyed it for the most part. There were a number of humorous moments. I started out not really liking Ashley, but she grew on me. Drew was a different kind of H, but I liked the way that he was kind dependable, and supportive. The whole situation with the mother was heartbreaking. Something I could totally relate to. In fact, if anyone has lost someone close to them, this may be a difficult read. I thought the narration was good. I haven't come across many female narrator's who can read the male parts and make me forget that the scenes are being read by a female. I liked how Ashley was able to learn about her brothers and see them in a different light. Some things I heard in this book served as explanations for some things I heard in Truth or Beard. I think the only real drawback for me was the length of the audio book. I would recommend you read or listen to this book before you start the Winston Brothers series. Its not mandatory, but it would have added to the enjoyment for me.

Narration annoying

I cannot tell u if i like the book because I cannot stand to listen to the narration. I'm going to get the kindle version of this one and hope the rest of the series doesn't use this narrator. I've loved the others, so odds are good I'll enjoy the story.

Heartbreakingly sad and beautiful

Wow! That was amazing. As ever there is a full on Penny Reid clever, deep, sexy and entertaining story with wonderful characters and an unexpected setting. As ever you go on an eye opening journey. This time it was beautiful and loving yet so poignant and overwhelming sad. Beyond crying, at times I sobbed. Thank you for the occasional light relief and for the HEA. I needed it. The narrator was outstanding! Such a variety of voices, tones, moods and intonation. Every word was sheer perfection, so now I’m going to add all work by Joy Nash to my TBR. (TBHeard?) PS The poetry was mind blowing too.

Fabulous!

This is probably the most romantic and lovely romance book I have ever read and my favourite of all Penny's stories so far beautifully narrated by Joy. I highly recommend it!

Brilliant, moving, emotional, funny

Just when I think Penny Reid cannot write any better, she does just that. This book is one of the best I have read. Ok, so it won’t win any prizes for fiction outside of the romance world, but this is a seriously good book.

It takes a brave writer to base a romance around the death of a much loved parent. In this book the h goes back to her childhood home to nurse her terminally ill mother. She meets poetry quoting, verbally reticent, mountain man H, who has befriended her mother in the last few years and is also close to her many, bearded “mountain men” brothers. Her brothers had mercilessness teased and tormented her in her childhood, and in her memories were unstable, unreliable and unresponsible. At 18 years old she cut ties with them all to escape to a new life in the city, only keeping in loving daily touch with her mother. Returning home she finds to her surprise that her brothers have matured into a group of stable, loving, affectionate, very funny and very protective siblings, and she soon realises that cutting ties was a mistake that she should have rectified a lot sooner.

This book deals with the myriad of confused emotions that surround the illness and death of someone who is loved. This has a personal resonance with me, as I lost both my parents recently: One was after a long illness, the other was sudden, unexpected and shocking. So this book was dealing with a subject I am unfortunately quite familiar with. Penny Reid illustrates how feelings and emotions don’t follow any set formula, and humour, happiness and, yes, even love, can happen at the most unexpected times. She has two central characters who are eloquent, well educated, erudite, and share a mutual love of classical poetry, and she makes this work amazingly well.

This book is perhaps not for everyone. The poetry is frequent and classical, and I suspect some readers would be tempted to speed read those parts. I am glad that I had the audio version that forced me to listen to every word of the poetry. To skip these parts is a mistake as the poetry and the message that those poems hold are central to understanding the story and the characters. The epilogue is a classic. It is the first time we have the POV of the H who is notorious for not being much of a talker. Inside his head we realise that for a man of few words he has an astonishing vocabulary in his mind and indeed, poetry is the way that he thinks. In fact the epilogue is pretty much one long poem expressing the depth of his feelings for the h and it is truly beautiful.

Special mention must go to the narrator who was exceptional, and helped to make a beautiful book into something really quite unique.

First PEnny Reid book to make me cry

This book made me cry. Even after being about 3 books deep in The Winston Brothers series before I even realised that this book existed, it made me cry. I started the Knitting In The City series to read this book. Ashley Winston is losing her mother, and she's not been home to Green Valley in years. When she gets there, she runs into Drew who is now the executor of her mothers estate. She doesn't want to be in Green Valley for a bunch of reasons. Her live is in Chicago. She doesn't get along with her many MANY brothers. Her father is THE WORST. All of this remains true until way into this book (although her dad remains the worst to this day) but Ashely and Drew are super cute

Joy Nash is amazing!

Joy Nash the narrator really brings the character to life and makes the story come alive. loved this book beforw but didn't understand the intensity and depth of feelings in the story as may be I wasn't as much emotionally mature as I'm today.

DREW IS POETRY IN MOTION

Drew is poetry in motion THIS BOOK IS BLOODY AWESOME. Penny Reid's words sometimes blow me away. I laughed hard, felt the sad times and swooned so much from Drew's words. I was immediately hooked on this book, I was laughing from the first chapter and had plenty of giggles throughout. Beauty and the Mustache is a brilliantly balanced heartwarming story with humor in the mix. The rabid raccoon scene, oh boy, days, weeks on now after listening to that scene and I still laugh at it, I think I told everyone at work about that part which had them laughing too. I listened to this on audio and boy did the narrator make this feel real, the southern drawl and the characters, she really did them justice, at times it was like I was right there with the characters. This book can be read as a standalone, has a perfect balance of humor and emotion. I loved it and would definitely read or listen more, especially the Winston brothers I love them already and have only had snippets of them. I feel like I am late to the party with this series and have so much to catch up on, and I want to devour the Winston brothers. Every woman deserves a Drew in their lives, he's a new BBF of my shelf for sure.

Cute book brilliant narrator

Love Penny Reid - lovey slow burn love story . The narrator was 1st class. All in all worth the listen.

Great Narration

This one is my favourite so far of all the Knitting in the City Group. From the narrators smooth voice to the rough and rugged charactors.

2nd book from Penny Reid and not disappointed!

Absolutely loved the whole sensitive man story and the poetry quotes were a treat !