Bear Meets Girl [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

The one thing you're guaranteed to get with any Shelly Laurenston book is a ton of humor centered around many different character interactions. I look forward to revisiting all the series characters with any new book as well as getting to know how our new leads will fit into this crazy world. BEAR MEETS GIRL gives us Cella Malone, a psycho, aggressive, playful at times, feline whose great loves in life are her daughter, her position as enforcer on the hockey team and her job. In that order. And her man is a polar bear shifter, Lou Crushek (Crush), who is just the sweetest bear you'd ever want to know. He hates change and the book opens with Crush hung over after drowning his sorrows in a tray of jello shots, as he frets about his new job transfer that will now partner him up with Dez and her police force. He's a guy who likes his nice, quiet, simple life. He comes home to a quiet house, with his foster dog and just is. Until Cella sets her claws on him and turns this bear's life upside down.

The suspense storyline takes a backseat to all the character interactions, but I love it that way. Although, this particular suspense plot involves Crush's foster mom, and her need to stop Crush from finding out a truth that could and will ruin her. In order to get him off her back, she orders a distraction that impacts Cella and her future. In that sense, the suspense portion plays a big role in the direction Cella's life is going to take at book's end.

What I always look forward to most about this series are the characters and their insane personalities. Every single person is different, and I love the mix that Laurenston always gives us. Not only are personalities vastly different but the entire world is filled with many different shifters, and full humans all with jobs and hobbies that intersect in the best ways. This book centers a lot around the hockey team, as Cella is an enforcer for Bo Novikov (who I adore). There's plenty of Novikov and his anal list making, Blayne popping up all over, and Dee-Ann, who is sort of considered Cella's friend - although you'd never know it with how many times these woman go at each other.

As much as I enjoyed Cella and her smart-ass, take no crap ways, I had a big soft spot for Crush. He's just so adorable, but can and would rip the arms off someone if they needed their arms ripped off. He `fan-girl crushes' on all the hockey players, and has moments of losing speech when he meets Cella's dad who is Crush's hockey idol. Crush has so many scenes that were just endearing to me and made all the sweeter considering the amount of insanity he's surrounded by, namely Cella.

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[Crush to Cella]: "How do you get rational, well-respected people involved in your insanity? I mean is it something you taught yourself to do or is it part of your sociopathic nature?"

"First off, I'm not a sociopath. I looked closely at that checklist and I'm in the clear."

"Checklist? You mean the Robert D. Hare Psychopathy Checklist?"

"I don't know. It was online."

"But being a sociopath was such a concern for you that you felt the need to check it out online?"

"Once, but I'm in the clear..."
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If I had one little issue with the story, it was the romance itself between Cella and Crush. They're fun together and have nice chemistry, and a couple crazy hot scenes that showed nice guy Crush doing a little naughty role playing, but I just wanted more between them. Much of the story brings the two together as "pretend" dating; Cella needs the big bear to be her pretend boyfriend to get her Aunts off her case and to stop them from setting her up with her cousin. Pretending turns into reality, and I enjoyed their scenes together, but felt like a little more was needed as far as their relationship went.

Fans of the Pride series will enjoy this latest installment. If you love the humor and storytelling from past books, you'll get more of the same here and personally, I love it. The humor in all of Shelly's books has me laughing out loud and the fast pace storytelling that switches quickly from different points of view has me feeling like I'm flying through the book. This is another fun edition to the series, and as usual, I'm left with a big smile on my face and anxious to see who's up next.

Blog rating: 4/5

OK! I pre-ordered this book and read it almost as soon as it downloaded to my Kindle. From 11:30 p.m. until 7 a.m., I was stuck to this book like glue... except for bathroom and food breaks... and below are the reasons I gave it 4 stars (novel length, about 407 pages [e-book], 5723 marked locations, Table of Contents included):

1.) I actually would like to give it 3.5 stars instead of 4 stars... I liked it, but it was not as funny or engaging as other Pack/Pride books by Shelly Laurenston. The intimate encounters between Lou "Crush" Crushek and Marcella "Bare Knuckles" Malone are pretty hot, but not as romantic or emotionally engaging as in previous books. The story line intros a shifter "group" seemingly from no where, and although this is much more of an ensemble cast of characters, details of each character -- except Crush and Cella -- are slim... you will have to read other Pack/Pride books for their details. Cella's family is pretty detailed, but Crush's family is only moderately touched on. Crush's character also starts out with another nickname: Lou "By The Book" Crushek, but by the middle of the novel, he's pretty much given up his moral high ground. Not even sure why, other than something to do with shifters versus humans and Crush starting out as a under-cover vice cop for the NYPD (human division). Oh, and his foster mother is a crazy bear shifter with her fingers in a lot of illegal honey pots, and Crush enjoyed being on the good side of law which drove her even more crazy. The only other detail you'll find is that Crush has two brothers... but I don't want to spoil that surprise, which is a little bit of a funny read.

2.) Yes, I read bits about the main characters in previous books, but only the character of Marcella Malone was previously written in some detail, Lou Crushek was an almost unknown character -- but... Polar bear shifter! Yum!

3.) S. Laurenston tried out a slightly different writing style in this book -- VERY short sections of descriptions/dialogs that jumped back and forth between the characters in parts of the book... my guess would be that she was trying to convey two things happening in the exact same time frame, but in different locations or from different character points of view. It made the story a bit too choppy to be read comfortably at times.

4.) The action was OK, not great. The constant brawling between the Cella Malone and Dee-Ann Smith characters is getting old. Stale. Redundant. Stale. Annoying. Redundant...

5.) There was no introduction to any possible new romances for another book... this is something that is definitely missing from this book. Even the 'Big Bad Beast' had a few hints for possible new stories -- nothing as concrete as 'Beast Behaving Badly,' when it was pretty obvious that Rick and Dee-Ann would be getting together in their own story -- but, nothing even hinted for the next issue... A new character was introduced, Sophie DiMarco, thief, full-human, who might end up with a shifter mate in a future story, but will she be on the good or bad side? Or, possibly, in the middle, working as a full-human for the Group? She gets quite a bit of play in this story -- will she be an "ancillary character" or an "awkward romance?" Who knows?

6.) Umm-hmmm. I can't think of anything else at the moment. Except, maybe this one will not make my "Read Again and Again" book list. I've read S. Laurenston's other Pack/Pride books at least twice each. Other titles -- Go Fetch: Magnus Pack (Book 2), Here Kitty, Kitty: Magnus Pack (Book 3), The Mane Event, The Beast in Him, The Mane Attraction, The Mane Squeeze and Beast Behaving Badly -- I have read at least 3 or 4 times. They make me laugh out loud!! Every time!!

I was really hoping the next Pack/Pride book would be from the Magnus Pack series. Those character stories were some of the funniest and most delightfully entertaining -- and HOT! -- books by S. Laurenston -- or any paranormal romance writer I've ever read. I really liked it when the Magnus Pack were mentioned in some of her other stories as well, like The Beast in Him. It kind of tied the whole lot together, which was fun!

I am looking forward to the next G.A. Aiken "Dragon Book #6" but I can't wait for a new Pack/Pride book either. HINT, HINT!

Well I have to say after waiting and waiting with bated breath for the next Shelly Laurenston book I was a bit disappointed :( The charcters just didn't have the chemistry, they weren't even in the same place for half the book and the humor I just love from Laurenston just wasn't there either. Oh well I think I will go back and re read the earlier books so I can remember why she is one of my favourite authors.