The lions and tigers and bears are back!! And I couldn't be more thrilled. If you read my review of Big Bad Beast you know I'm a big fan of Shelly Laurenston and her clan (pack? pride?) of shifters. The latest book in the Pride series brings back Marcella "Cella" Malone, tiger-shifter, hockey player, and cat killer (or is it killer cat?), and Lou "Crush" Crushek, bear, rabid hockey fan, and by-the-book cop.

We met Crush way back in The Mane Event when Dez MacDermot runs into him outside a bar and delivers, with all the pissed-off attitude she's know for, one of my favorite lines ("There are bears?"!) They've come a long way since then and now they are partners working for a secret shifter branch of the NYPD. Crush, not a fan of change, was good at undercover work but now that his cover is blown finds himself sitting across a desk from MacDermot and isn't quite sure how he feels about it. It doesn't help that he woke up naked in her house after a party and too many Jell-O shots with a naked tiger-shifter using him as pillow. Cella, in typical shit-starter fashion, uses the circumstances to mess with his head. Crush isn't sure he likes this flaky drama queen, even when he discovers she is the enforcer on his favorite hockey team, and agrees to be her pretend boyfriend, and finds himself working alongside her (in her role as contractor for KZS) to handle a number of threats (bears and taxidermists, oh my!).

BEAR MEETS GIRL has a little bit of everything I love to read in romance—humor, passion, and suspense with a touch of paranormal. It works well as a stand-alone story but much of the fun comes in getting to visit characters we know and love. I really enjoyed the dynamic created when Dez, Cella, and Dee-Ann Smith teamed up in Big Bad Beast, and I am glad to see those friendships carried over to the latest book. Cella and Crush are fantastic as individual characters and as a couple. They each bring their own quirks, family issues, and moral code to the story. Around here, we've already started debating whose story is next. Can't wait to find out!!