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A review by 1943tre
Bear With Me Now by Katie Shepard
2.0
Such a strange romance haha. While Katie Shepard is a good writer on a prose level, and I'd consider reading her second book when it comes out, this one didn't hit for me unfortunately.
Firstly, I found both characters to be pretty unrelatable and unlikeable. Darcy is brash and makes quick assumptions and doesn't seem to be the best listener. Teagan (the guy) seems really nice and genuine, but he's a bit of a doormat. He's dealing with severe panic disorder that left him in rehab, but for some reason, he can't even admit this IN A REHAB setting. Like I truly understand feeling ashamed and not wanting colleagues or even family to know, but when you're already AT the rehab center...you just pretend you don't have it? And worse, he lets Darcy (the girl) think he has alcoholism instead.
This leads me to my biggest complaint of the book. To his credit, he tells Darcy at least 3 times he isn't an alcoholic, but he also refuses to provide any other excuse for why he's in rehab, so I guess I understand why Darcy doesn't believe him. And then he CONTINUES to let her believe this when she moves to NYC with him as his "sober companion." And like, I love a secret in romance, it keeps the plot moving and is fun. But "fake dating" is a FUN secret. "I secretly have panic disorder, NOT alcoholism" isn't a fun secret, and it was honestly exhausting to hear how she constantly tried to help him with this alcoholism he never had. Especially since she has ZERO training within mental health/addiction at all. She's like the HANDYWOMAN at the rehab lmao. It was just all so weird.
I liked the parts at the rehab better and I wished the novel had stayed in that setting. Once they got to NYC, all of the foundation politics were really boring to me and I found myself skimming. I didn't really get the sibling stuff. Like I didn't like his sister Sloane and I never ended up liking her either.
I liked the steam for the most part even if it wasn't my cup of tea. I liked how they dealt with the sexual side effects of his antidepressants, which felt refreshing for the genre. It also felt fresh in that Darcy was sort of the more dominant person sexually, definitely the initiator, and while I'm glad that there's diversity in romances, once again it wasn't my thing. Teagan even did a bit of dirty talk (I think he did a good job, tbh!) and Darcy, like, laughed at him lol. I was annoyed with her.
So yeah, like, the writing was good and there were some funny lines and some of the dynamics felt fresh, I overall wouldn't recommend this unless you're specifically looking for more dominant woman dynamic, a romance with mental health at the forefront, or like a special interest in outdoors stuff--in which case maybe this could scratch an itch.
Firstly, I found both characters to be pretty unrelatable and unlikeable. Darcy is brash and makes quick assumptions and doesn't seem to be the best listener. Teagan (the guy) seems really nice and genuine, but he's a bit of a doormat. He's dealing with severe panic disorder that left him in rehab, but for some reason, he can't even admit this IN A REHAB setting. Like I truly understand feeling ashamed and not wanting colleagues or even family to know, but when you're already AT the rehab center...you just pretend you don't have it? And worse, he lets Darcy (the girl) think he has alcoholism instead.
This leads me to my biggest complaint of the book. To his credit, he tells Darcy at least 3 times he isn't an alcoholic, but he also refuses to provide any other excuse for why he's in rehab, so I guess I understand why Darcy doesn't believe him. And then he CONTINUES to let her believe this when she moves to NYC with him as his "sober companion." And like, I love a secret in romance, it keeps the plot moving and is fun. But "fake dating" is a FUN secret. "I secretly have panic disorder, NOT alcoholism" isn't a fun secret, and it was honestly exhausting to hear how she constantly tried to help him with this alcoholism he never had. Especially since she has ZERO training within mental health/addiction at all. She's like the HANDYWOMAN at the rehab lmao. It was just all so weird.
I liked the parts at the rehab better and I wished the novel had stayed in that setting. Once they got to NYC, all of the foundation politics were really boring to me and I found myself skimming. I didn't really get the sibling stuff. Like I didn't like his sister Sloane and I never ended up liking her either.
I liked the steam for the most part even if it wasn't my cup of tea. I liked how they dealt with the sexual side effects of his antidepressants, which felt refreshing for the genre. It also felt fresh in that Darcy was sort of the more dominant person sexually, definitely the initiator, and while I'm glad that there's diversity in romances, once again it wasn't my thing. Teagan even did a bit of dirty talk (I think he did a good job, tbh!) and Darcy, like, laughed at him lol. I was annoyed with her.
So yeah, like, the writing was good and there were some funny lines and some of the dynamics felt fresh, I overall wouldn't recommend this unless you're specifically looking for more dominant woman dynamic, a romance with mental health at the forefront, or like a special interest in outdoors stuff--in which case maybe this could scratch an itch.