Being Delightful by Shayne McClendon
Source: Purchase
Rating: 4½/5 stars

** Review and novella contain naughty language and naughty bits. 18 and over only, please  **

“It was funny watching the man you had once contemplated spending the rest of your life with marrying your bitch of a sister.” (loc. 8%) OUCH! Normally I would offer my sincerest condolences to any girl who had to endure such awfulness but Petra is a different kind of girl. Petra is a delightfully bitchy girl who not only owns her bitchiness but isn’t afraid of letting it show. . .most of the time.

On the day of her sister, Ava’s wedding to her ex-fiancé, Petra is expected by all to play the role of burned ex but Petra has other plans. According to her “Fuck everyone who expected me to play the hurt ex-girlfriend. Since I’d caught my former man in my bed with Ava six months ago, I’d seen a side of Kevin I never knew existed. Dodged a fucking bullet there, I though with an inner chuckle.” (loc. 11%) And so Petra continues on, in her head of course, as the wedding continues on. At some point she fakes a smile in one wedding photo, “….ruined two others out of sheer spite, kicked the happy bride in the shin, hissed in her face, and returned to my seat.” (loc. 18%). The only two redeeming qualities about this entire affair is the open bar and the hot guy/best man staring at Petra from across the aisle. Here’s to lots of alcohol and bad judgment, right?

Turns out, the hot guy/best man is Jack, the dirty ex-fiancé’s brother and he is not only super-hot but ridiculously funny and someone Petra just may have to spend the night with. While Petra is not generally into the one night stand thing, she has “….been celibate too long for the general public’s safety….” and furthermore, it was going to be all kinds of awesome when she “…dropped the by-the-way-I-fucked-your-brother bomb at our first family Thanksgiving.” (loc. 24%) Man, I love this girl!! Seriously, she has no internal edit button 

What Petra doesn’t know is that all the time she was wasting on her dirty-ex, Jack has been pining for her. He learned about her through his douchebag brother and while Jack never attempted to move in on his brother’s girl, he knew his dumbass brother would eventually screw up and he would be able to make his move. Jack is absolutely certain Petra is the girl for him and he has one delicious, sex-filled night to prove that to her. Man, oh, man does Jack step up to the plate and seriously, if Jack and Petra were real, I would take that bitch out for that man! 

The bottom line: I literally shook the bed I was laughing so hard while reading this dirty little novella. The plot is fun and quick but the story is really driven by its characters. I adore Petra, her self-confidence, her snarkiness, her humor, and her total honesty that is never tempered by internal editing. Jack is a beautiful man, strong, talented, intelligent, and, completely head over heels for Petra. The two together are a brilliant combination who enjoys one another on every level. If Being Delightful is a representation of Shayne McClendon’s work then I am absolutely certain I will be reading a lot more of work in the very near future!

Favorite passage:
Jack: “Should I perform badly the first time due to an over-abundance of enthusiasm, try to keep me anonymous should you post about it on Facebook. Barring that, mention that though I had the endurance of a fourteen-year-old with a Hustler spread in front of him – plenty of tissues and lotion on hand – I was hung like a horse.”

Petra: “Agreed. I better not have to lie.” (loc. 30%) ( )