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ashlightgrayson 's review for:

Grin and Beard It by Penny Reid
4.0
emotional medium-paced
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

At first I wasn’t super excited to read Jethro’s story because I was more interested to learn more about Cletus. However, I quickly took a liking to Jethro. He’s charming and the Jethro that we get to know in this book is a very different person from who he was in the past. I was interested in seeing more of his relationship with Billy and what exactly happened to cause a rift in their relationship in the past. It was also interesting to find out that Jethro has chosen to be celibate until he is married or at the very least in a serious relationship. It’s not usually the way men are depicted in fiction and I’m all for this kind of different. His platonic relationship with Claire was also nice and Billy's concern about his relationship with clear indicates that there is some history there that we don't know about yet. Can't wait to find out more about it. As for Sienna, I think she is a super fun character. She greatly represents a lot of the ostracizing that women of color and plus sized women go through in the entertainment industry where the way you look determines a lot of the opportunities that come your way. It was cool to see those experiences first hand from her perspective. 

It was enjoyable seeing Sienna being able to date someone who didn’t know her from her film career and who treated her like a normal person. I’m sure it had been a long time since she had that happen. We also got to see more of the relationship Jethro has with Ashely and Cletus. It was nice to see how playful Cletus is. Ashley also has a soft spot for Jethro it seems. I can always appreciate nicely written sibling relationships. Despite all the crap Cletus gives Jethro, he clearly cares about his happiness. Overall, it was great to see like seeming uninteresting, Jethro turned out to be a very intriguing character and I’m glad I got to know him via this story. I’m looking forward to seeing glimpses of what he’s like as a stay at home husband.