The Bear Reads

I had high hopes for this book. The first part was so good but then it hard-locked itself into a romance and gives little to no room to explore the universe of this book, it turned into a mere backdrop. The switch to romance in the middle leaves me with SEVERAL unanswered questions like the crusaders and how the MCs grandpa was one of them or whats the true relationship between Seredith and that other binder or if the MC reconciled with his family or not. Just too many unanswered questions

What did this story invoke within me?

Confusion and frustration with how the characters behaved.

Brokil especially because he wants Silvyr to be obedient and quiet but gets upset when he does what he wants??

Silvyr has no backbone whatsoever. He would let Brokil fuck him not even 100 pages into the book before attempting to stand up to Brokil for being a prick to him. Brokil won't even say his name its just "boy" even while having sex its so degrading and Silvyr gave up escaping way to quick like damn okay one failed attempt and thats it?

Overall Takeaway

It has a show don't tell and world building problem. The book jumps straight to the action of Silvyr getting captured and gives the reader little to no time to really get into the world and how it works. Silvyrs back story is literally told to the reader explicitly in the first chapter. We're also introduced to a character that's supposed to be close to Silvyr but we don't hear about them again until later on in an exposition dump explaining why that character is supposed to be close to him. The spicy scenes all felt forced and unearned as well.