Summary: Werebears Annette and David team up to protect children in the supernatural community who are in danger. While doing so they fall in love.

My Rating: 3/5

I really wanted to love this and I do love the author. I didn't think this book was bad but there were several things that really just didn't work for me.

I did think the characters themselves were pretty good. They were complex and interesting. The main characters themselves are well developed though I didn't necessarily like them as a couple. I loved the side characters, especially the children. This author writes really good dialogue and I enjoyed a lot of the interactions that characters had together.

One issue I had was that throughout a lot of the book the main relationship conflict is both characters crushing on the other but being sure it isn't reciprocated.

There wasn't a lot of spice and the spice that was in the book ended up not working for me.

Overall, I was pretty disappointed by this book. It was just okay and not something I would reread. ( )

I've read MaryJanice Davidson before, so I was looking forward to her informal and irreverent prose. I like the new world and the were shifters. I like the characters. I'm having a hard time following the SAS/ evil syndicate plotline, and I just don't think that has resolved particularly well. There were quite a few points at which I just didn't find character motivations believable. Nonetheless, it was entertaining, and I have hopes that the series will refine a bit going forward. ( )

I don't usually read shifter (werewolves, etc) romance, but I saw a good review of this one. It's a delight: fun and funny and sexy. I'm looking forward to reading the second one in the series. ( )

I fell in love with MaryJanice Davidson’s books when I found her Undead series which follows the adventures of the Queen Vampire, Betsy Taylor. That series was always such a fun read, filled with lots of absurd situations and quirky characters. And Davidson continues with the quirky characters, but makes some of the situations more realistic in Bears Behaving Badly… although there’s still lots of crazy situations too!

One of the reasons I enjoy Davidson’s writing so much is the frantic pace that her characters end up talking from time to time. Four people will be talking, maybe not all about the same thing, and she doesn’t give you lots of definition as to who is saying what. For some people this can get confusing or they don’t like that style of writing, but I do, since this is in reality often how groups of people talk; everyone talking over each other, not really listening, but still wanting to be heard.

Davidson shines when it comes to character development, even if some of the characters are air-heads or vapid. And her secondary characters are always as complex as the main ones, and often one of them will become my favorite over the leads. I’m really enjoying Oz and Pat. Nadia is stealing my heart since she reminds me of myself a bit, seems to not really like people, but is a soft, squishy mess under that hard exterior.

And her romance scenes are always full of wonderful awkwardness that leads to some hot sex. I love how well Davidson incorporates the strangeness that can be felt at the beginning of relationships when you’re not completely sure how the other person feels. And even though she used the trope; I can’t be with the other person for whatever convoluted reason I cooked up in my mind, it didn’t feel like it was mentioned too often.

If you enjoy Davidson’s other books, you’ll probably enjoy Bears Behaving Badly, and if you’ve never read her before, you should definitely give this one a try. ( )

Very different than Mary Janice Davidson's other books, but it does not disappoint. Shifters living and working in a world with non shifters/stables. Focused on child/cub protection. This book is full of humor, sarcasm and banter. The characters are funny and quirky each with their own backstory, that is slowly unravelled in the book. There is a lot of sexual tension and build up. There is not as much sex in this book as there is in some of her others, but it is well worth the wait. ( )