Elaine White's Life in Books

Book – Bearly There
Author – Bailey Bradford
Star rating - ★★★★☆
No. of Pages – 114

Cover – Nice
POV – 3rd person, dual POV
Would I read it again – Probably

Genre – LGBT, paranormal, gay


** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK, BY THE AUTHOR, IN RETURN FOR AN HONEST REVIEW **
Reviewed for Divine Magazine


For me, this was quite a fascinating read. I look forward to more books in the series, but there were a few issues with this one that stopped it from being as fantastic as it could have been.

I loved that we got to see the story both Kevin and Jagger's POV. Kevin is such a sweet guy, so determined and self-sufficient, despite being beat down ever since he was cursed. For all that he's right about Jagger being dense sometimes, and disbelieving of his curse, he's also a good character. Strong, dominant and protective, he's everything Kevin needs. Jagger has a bit of an ego on him, that grated on my nerves sometimes.

For me, the sex was the let down, as were the slightly ridiculous and extreme 'accidents' caused by the curse. I think both were overdone, for such a short story, that it became a little tedious and exaggerated after a while. The sex was secondary to the sizzling emotional, primal chemistry that Kevin and Jagger shared. I could easily have lived without half the sex scenes, which were a little aggressive and rushed for my liking.

As for spelling/grammar, there are a lot of mistakes, though this is an ARC. Still, I always mark up what I see in case it helps. The problems were small, but did affect the flow of the reading:
“left arm put” instead of pit
“strong, wiry and strong”
“see the inside the creepy”
“something on your stomach” instead of in.

Also, using “tits” for a man is a complete no-no for me. Ever! I let it go in this one, purely because it was only used twice in the whole story. It still really put me off, though. As did the last 6% of the story being adverts. I was looking forward to an Epilogue or something, to finalise the story, but the ending came kind of suddenly.

Overall, the story had a really good plot and world building. There are great characters and I look forward to reading more about the series. The curse was a nice, new addition to the shifter world. None of the shifters actually shifted until the very end, which was disappointing, but hopefully each book will deal with that differently.

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Favourite Quote

“I asked questions and you evaded. If I freeze to death out here waiting for answers, you'll have to live with the guilt.”