diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index dec61f1..0a76ed3 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 __pycache__/
 *.py[cod]
 *$py.class
-
+*.c
 # C extensions
 *.so
 .idea/
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index dffcfdc..e47e06c 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # coding: utf-8
 [metadata]
-version = 2.3a1
+version = 2.3
 name = minijson
 long_description = file: README.md
 long_description_content_type = text/markdown; charset=UTF-8
diff --git a/tests/test_minijson.py b/tests/test_minijson.py
index 3563240..0185028 100644
--- a/tests/test_minijson.py
+++ b/tests/test_minijson.py
@@ -5,6 +5,12 @@
 
 class TestMiniJSON(unittest.TestCase):
 
+    def test_accepts_bytearrays(self):
+        b = {'test': 'hello'}
+        a = dumps(b)
+        a = bytearray(a)
+        self.assertEqual(loads(a), b)
+
     def assertLoadingIsDecodingError(self, b: bytes):
         self.assertRaises(DecodingError, lambda: loads(b))