Grin and Beard It by Penny Reid Review
5 Smooches
Synopsis
Sienna Diaz is everyone’s favorite “fat” funny lady. The movie studio executives can’t explain it, but her films are out-grossing all the fit and trim headliners and Hollywood’s most beautiful elite. The simple truth is, everyone loves plus-sized Sienna.
But she has a problem, she can’t read maps and her sense of direction is almost as bad as her comedic timing is stellar. Therefore, when Sienna’s latest starring role takes her to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park she finds herself continually lost while trying to navigate the backroads of Green Valley, Tennessee. Much to her consternation, Sienna’s most frequent savior is a ridiculously handsome, charming, and cheeky Park Ranger by the name of Jethro Winston.
Sienna is accustomed to high levels of man-handsome, so it’s not Jethro’s chiseled features or his perfect physique that make Sienna stutter. It’s his southern charm. And gentlemanly manners. And habit of looking at her too long and too often.
Sienna has successfully navigated the labyrinth of Hollywood heart-throbs. But can she traverse the tenuous trails of Tennessee without losing her head? Or worse, her heart?
Review
‘Like recognizes like, and what I had on my hands here was a professional charmer.’
Penny Reid has delivered several things in her books, examples of devote friendship, extreme passion, action, hilarious situations and with Grin & Beard It we get the perfect example of a slow burn relationship. Have you ever lit a match and just to see how long you could hold it till it scorched your skin, just watched the molten red get closer and closer to you. It’s mesmerizing exactly how reading this book felt.
‘This woman . . . holy hell. I needed a beer. Or maybe seven.’
Sienna is a famous movie star and Jethro is a reformed car thief and current park ranger who has never heard of her. She doesn’t believe that marriage can work and he wants the forever kind of relationship. They could not be more different and yet they could not somehow be more perfect for one another. Jethro is all kinds of strong and quiet mountain man, he choses his words carefully and is fiercely protective. Jethro made many a bad decision in his life but has spent the past five years getting on the right path in life and that includes being celibate. He knows that Sienna can’t be for him, she will be moving on shortly and that is not what he wants, he cannot help himself become imbedded in her everyday life while filming on his mountain.
‘She felt like the beginning of something new: a reward, a gift for five years of levelheaded decisions.’
Sienna is famous but completely not what you expect. She wants a break from that lifestyle and when she finds help from a man who is blissfully unaware who she is she is more than happy to keep letting him believe she is “Sarah.” I have a weakness for strong female leads and Sienna fit that to a T. Confident in her curvy body in an industry that strives for women to reach and unreachable weight. She doesn’t change just to make others happy. She is confident, funny and completely loveable.
‘Our first kiss had set the tone for everything that came after: frustration, desperation, passion.’
If you have been reading reviews than I am sure you have seen the phrase slow burn more than once and that is because that is exactly what this is. Grin & Beard It is not a faced paced plot driven book but instead it is one that focuses on the building the characters and having you fall in love with each of them. A character study in it’s purest form, watching the different layers of Sienna and Jethro was just plain delightful.
‘I don’t know if it was the doughnut – food of gods – or the sexy man above me but I was already hovering on the edge of my orgasm.’
Typically I go not enjoy what I call “Famous people” books but Grin & Beard It’s saving grace is that Hollywood is not romanticized nor is it made to be the devil it just is what it is. Since the book mainly takes place in Tennessee it had a completely different feel than many other books involving famous people. But I will say that Sienna’s fame is a major plot line but was handled in a way that felt real and not forced. Despite having a theme I don’t often enjoy I loved this story and that in itself says wonders about the power of Penny’s writing.
“Can we make out? What will it take for you to put your hand up my skirt? I’ll make you a cake if you touch my boob.”
Everything you expect in a Penny Reid book is present in this one, tons of hilarious moments, a couple you envy and strive to be like, a cast of characters that have you extremely excited for the next in the series and of course her ever present flawless writing. I loved it all and cannot wait for more.
~miranda
