Bear with Me by Lucy Eden. 2019.
This is a cute, fun shifter romance novelette centering a social media influencer who is trying to save her career after a post-break up public meltdown, so she goes to a cabin in the woods, documents it for her followers, and ends up falling for a bear shifter.
By the way, the cover gets across the tone of the book well, but the hero looked very different in my imagination. He is described this way: He looked like Chris Hemsworth and Jason Momoa had a baby with the Brawny paper towel guy,” so I was picturing much bigger, taller, broader, and with that thing that Hemsworth and Momoa do where they seem to be both full of gravitas and also willing to make fun of themselves.
It’s my first book by Lucy Eden, and it made me want to glom her backlist. It’s funny, sexy, and it manages to do fated mates in a way that’s close to fully consensual. The hero manages to be both gruffly bearlike and tender-hearted, the heroine doesn’t take herself too seriously and really charmed me, and I just found this book so entertaining. It was exactly what I needed on a hard day, and I would gladly read more in this shifter universe.
The chemistry between the MCs is palpable, and I enjoyed the sex scenes, which definitely were hot. There is insta lust along with the insta-fated-mate business, and it worked for me in the context of this story.
The heroine is bisexual, and I liked the incidental bi representation. I loved her best friend, who I hope also gets her own book and a shifter love interest at some point. I also really loved the bits at the end, and what they decide to do with the lodge. It hit a sweet spot for me.
Representation
- Bisexual heroine
- Black woman author
Content Warnings (in white, highlight to read)
Alcohol use, including a blackout drunk moment. Moment of parental bi antagonism, which is directly challenged. Animal attack resulting in injuries. Fated mates scenario, accidental marking. Sex on the page.
Disclosures
- Source of the book: ARC from the publisher via NetGalley
- I am friends with the author on Twitter.
- All links to Amazon will be affiliate ones. If you buy through those links, I will make a small amount of money on that sale (which I plan to use to buy more books to review), but it will not add any to the cost of your product. It comes out of the company’s profits.
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