Now it’s finally Beau Winston’s turn. The overly pleasant, charming guy has been watching his brothers and sister get their HEAs started and he’s a little more jealous than he’d like to admit to himself.

Enter Shelly Sullivan. She’s not the kind of woman Beau usually goes for. I mean, she’s gorgeous, but she’s troubled and very unpleasant to be around. She’s rude to Beau and to the customers of their auto shop. She’s awkward, has no filter, and doesn’t shake hands. She has a foul-mouthed parrot and big dogs that attack people with slobbery enthusiasm.

So they don’t seem particularly “suited” (in Winston brothers’ terminology). However, when Beau notices that she’s a cutter, or at least has been in the past, he worries about her. He’s unearthed a secret of sorts, and she gives him to full story soon after he talks to her about it. She’s got OCD (the real one, not the term we casually throw around) with severe touch aversion.

You might think that wouldn’t make for a good romance, but Reid pulls it off. It starts off a little rocky with an awkward proposition from Shelly, which Beau fends off. But once Beau starts to see her as more of a flawed human than a rude bitch, things shift. Fortunately for Beau and Shelly (and readers), she’s not opposed to all touch… and it turns out that Beau’s willing to help her with some tough therapy that’s supposed to get rid of the aversion altogether.

There is a big Winston family news bombshell that’s dropped on us in the middle of the book that some readers may not love, because it’s a big deal and kind of distracts from the main story. However, it added complexity to the story that I liked. I always enjoy books with a lot going on, and this definitely counts. On top of that one, Shelly’s got her own family issues that need to get resolved. It’s wonderful and satisfying to watch everything unfold.

I love the fact that Reid gave us a kind of character we don’t often see in a romance in this book. She did a great job of making Shelly believable and real. And I also loved to see how Beau went from being a kind of average ignorant-about-mental-illness kind of guy to an informed and helpful one. That too was believable.

Any fan of Reid’s will want to read this book. If you’re interested in reading about a very unusual heroine (or just curious about how that will play out), you’ll want to pick it up, too. I’m looking forward to the next ones.