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dermkat 's review for:
Dr. Strange Beard
by Penny Reid
I think this may be my least favorite of the Green Valley books so far, mostly because it's got more of a romantic suspense vibe since Simone is back in her hometown but also an undercover FBI agent and there's stuff going down with the biker gangs, etc. Roscoe, youngest Winston kid, goes back and forth between his job as a vet during the week in Nashville and then back home with the family for weekends. These two were best friends growing up but then parted ways in high school and have avoided each other ever since, but part of her assignment ends up needing to be close to him. But then they deal with the stuff slowly while getting to know each other now and fighting (until they don't) attraction. There were a couple things that bugged me too, one is that Simone is Black and a big part of her story has to do with police violence and racism, but I'm pretty sure the author is white. She thanked sensitivity readers for Simone's character but didn't address this specifically, and this was hanging over me while I read, especially because the author is such a champion for own voices books. I also thought Simone read as autistic coded but this wasn't addressed at all so I'm not sure what I was picking up on (though, not all autistic people, especially women, know they're autistic so some of those sensitive readers could have even about that, who knows). She did address Roscoe's eididic memory and I find that fascinating. Anyways, now I need to decide if I want to read Claire and Billy's tragic origin or go right to their second chance story.