Grin and Beard It

The Winston Brothers, Book 2

By: Penny Reid

Narrated by: Chris Brinkley, Cielo Camargo

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 back roads 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 heartthrobs. But can she traverse the tenuous trails of Tennessee without losing her head? Or worse, her heart?

©2016 Cipher-Naught (P)2025 Cipher-Naught

Jumping on the bandwagon never felt so good.

My introduction to all things Winston Brothers, Green Valley, and in general, anything written by Penny Reid could not have come in a better vessel.
Listening to the words she had written out, narrated by fantastic voice actors was the perfect first dip into her works.

Getting to know this rather dysfunctional, yet utterly perfect family of bearded brothers and a community of misfits, whose faults and quirks make them nothing if not absolutely endearing. The urge to hit one or two, or a few more, people over the head throughout has been deeply embedded within me. But who doesn't want that with family members wanting to insert themselves in one's personal affairs. The lack of privacy in this small town, where everyone has always known everyone is something uniquely charming, which even big-time movie star Sienna has to get used to when she arrives in the backwoods of Tennessee and promptly being discovered in need of help by the one person who could care less who she is. The unruly, charming, yet often blunt Park Ranger Jethro, who introduces her to his world, which should prove a pivotal moment for the both of them.

The story stands out because it seems effortless. The writing flows of the pages, as if one were an invisible observer, fully immersed in the world, the smells, sounds and feelings of Tennessee and the Winston Brothers world. The witty banter is explosive between the rural Jethro with a sketchy past but a heart of gold and a sense of righteousness and on the other hand Sienna, the curvy, hilariously funny, never taking herself too seriously, yet on the forefront to fight for her professional achievements, loving film actress from Hollywood. Their sparks are flying freely and neither is quick to lie down and take it, but the constant struggles with themselves, each other and outward influences makes for a thoroughly and very relatable (yes, even though this is he love between a "celebrity" and a "commoner") story.

Seeing Ms Reid's self-appointed description of writing "smart romance", I absolute agree with this sentiment. She succeeds in writing stories which sport smart heroes and even smarter heroines and never once makes it easy for the reader, rather challenging our reading senses instead of presenting a cut-up, easy meal. And I can only say that this is a fresh breeze of air in all too often rather formulaic storytelling offered today. Therefore, I am overjoyed in having discovered this fantastic writer and I shall be looking forward to being challenged more often from this author in the future.

The narration by Chris Brinkley and Ciela Camargo brings this great story to life, adding the spice of Sienna's latina family and the full-bodied timbre of the bearded Tennessee boys. Utterly charming and delightful, I would recommend this audiobook to everyone.

It's all about the Winston Brothers

***3.5 Stars***

After reading Truth or Beard I knew three things: I loved the Winston family and I ADORED Cletus. (Yes, I am well aware that Cletus is a Winston, but he deserves his own shout out.) and I’d definitely be picking up the next book in the series regardless of who it was about (Cletus would have been preferred, but one must go with the flow). But due to everything getting in the way reading the book wasn’t a viable option, so if I wanted to read the book this century I’d have to go the audiobook route and I loved being back in the Winston family world and the narrators did a fabulous job, but I had issues with the MC’s, well one of them, and it wasn’t that I didn’t like them, I just didn’t love them both equally.

Jethro and Sienna: 3 Stars

Jethro I loved. He’s turned his entire life around and is putting his money where his mouth is. He is showing everyone around him that he was no longer the asshat, selfish, car stealing biker and instead is an upstanding member of the community and someone they could all rely upon when needed, especially his family. One of the things that made me melt for him was that he didn’t expect anyone to forgive him, he wanted it ~ badly, but he knew that it would take time and that some would never forgive him his trespasses and he was okay with that. I loved his flirty side and how he took the time to make decisions, good or bad. Though as tends to happen, he was quite clueless about somethings.

Sienna. I liked her. I did. I loved that she loved herself. She was comfortable in her own skin and yet didn’t go out of her way to shove it in everyone’s face. She is who she is and you can either accept it or not. She can only be herself. But as much as I loved her confidence I never really warmed up to her like I thought I would. I think what got me was that while she had a strong personality she tended to take the “let’s keep the peace” route when it came to what really should have mattered the most, like the direction she really wanted her career to go and when her jack ass of an ex would come around. Now, in my group of friends I’m label the voice of reason because I too like to keep things running smoothly, but each time Sienna back down and kept silent, even if she didn’t agree with what was going on, it made me want to hit something. Does she finally stick up for herself in the end? Yes, but even then it didn’t make me want to high five the girl.

When it comes to the whole celebrity falls for the non celebrity story you know there will be quite a few bumps in the road and Jethro and Sienna’s story was filled with them, many because they jumped to conclusions instead of communicating (Thank GOD for Cletus), but there were some really sweet and some really funny moments and the sexual tension between them was pretty damn hot. But while I think that they make a great couple and can see them evolving into something great together, I felt as if something was missing. It’s one of those intangible gut feeling sort of things, so pinpointing it is not going to happen, but it is what it is and I still enjoyed their journey.

Cletus and the rest of the Winston clan: .5 Stars

Yes I’m giving them their own little rating because they all deserve it. Cletus is still the one I adore the most, and how can I now when he makes statements like this: “Put your best fuck forward” but being a sucker for well written secondary characters and ensemble casts, I loved spending time with all of them. They feel like a family and all the good, the bad and the ugly that comes with it (Thankfully there is much more good than anything else) and I really want to be invited to dinner one night, especially on sausage nights *BSEG*. And of the brothers Billy is now the one I’m really curious about and can’t wait to find out more about his whole situation.


The Narrators: 5 Stars

This was my first experience with Chris Brinkley & Cielo Camargo as narrators and I really enjoyed them. I liked the tone and cadence of their voices and how they were able to give each character a different feel so that I at least at a clue as to who else was apart of the scene, if not knew outright who was talking. They both did the voices of the opposite sex well, there is always a bit of time needed to get used to it, but they worked for me.

My one main issue with the story came towards the end when Sienna drops a huge bomb and for whatever reason she, and the rest of team, believed that the information wasn’t already out there in Social Media land and none of them, not even Marta ~ which was a huge surprise, bothered to check and see. There were “reasons” given, but in this day and age just because one person may have the “exclusive” doesn’t mean anything, especially when that exclusive was done in an outdoor premier setting with a lot of people with smartphones milling around.

Overall I enjoyed Grin and Beard It. The writing was engaging and I loved the quotes that were used at the start of each chapter and had fun trying to figure out how they applied to what was going to happen. And yes, I am counting the days until the next book, Beard Science, is released because it’s all about Cletus!!

Love!!

What happened to me this one is my favorite so far!! Being a Latina myself I can relate to a lot of the things mentioned in the book. As well as the ridiculous humor and sexiness that Sienna portrays in the book. Lol But seriously I loved this book. I’m usually into the darker romance books but these have been a nice break from them.

Loving this series!

I really enjoyed this book! Not any unnecessary drama. I enjoyed both characters and couldn't put it down! Great series so far!

Good people, good story

Good book but it seems to end abruptly. Maybe an epilogue would have cured this.

Love a full figured female lead!

I loved the story! Having a story set in my home state is always fun. While you don't come across people named Cletus, Jethro, or Roscoe pretty much ever, most other things were pretty accurate. The accent was a little exaggerated, but you do hear it occasionally. The pronunciation of Appalachian was very off as no one in middle or east Tennessee, or anyone in the Appalachains pronounce it "app-uh-lay-shun". It is pronounced "app-uh-latch-un." I have also really loved having a lead female that is portrayed as beautiful, but not Hollywood skinny.

You are only lost if never found.

Jethro is brooding and self deprecating, but also full of charm. He’s no longer the wild youth he once was, he’s a serious park ranger in the Appalachian mountains. Then he stumbles across Sienna who is seriously directionally challenged. Not knowing she’s one of the stars of the movie being filmed Jethro has a lot to navigate and they both have lots to learn.
This is a wonderful story with great characters, and great humor. Couldn’t stop listening.

Not as good as the first book

Okay, so I didn’t love this book as much as the first. I’m pretty sure the narrator for Sienna is really what put me off. I just didn’t like her. I hated the way she said Marta for whatever reason it bugged the ever living crap out of me. It was like she was just reading me a book, and it didn’t suck me into the story. Now I am happy that Chris Brinkley was back narrating the male POV. He did a wonderful job as usual. I liked the story, just the narration is what really put me off. I am happy to see both original narrators from the first book are reading the third. They are the ones that really made me fall in love with these characters to begin with. I am looking forward to hearing Cletus’s story next.

Better than the first

I enjoyed this better than the first in the series. It was nice to have a love story where lack of or miscommunication wasn't the conflict or dominating factor. It was also nice change to not read a grumpy or asshole hero. Just a nice pleasant guy who isn't choking on testosterone poisoning. The one minor negative is that these books seem unnecessarily long. There are chapters that can be cut entirely and the story would still make sense. I found that to be true in Truth or Beard as well.

I have to be honest with myself...

I didn't think I was going to be able to get into a love story with a hero named Jethro, but this couple was so endearing. I really enjoyed the dynamic between the MC's. I also quite enjoyed the narration. I usually bump up to 1.2; which adds to the nerves of some of their chatter. This was a sweet, goofy little romance, and I'd definitely recommend it.