Beattz

I've been sitting here all day contemplating what to say about Bear.

It was and wasn't what I expected, I suppose. It *was*, at the very least, a one-sided love affair between a woman and a bear. I'm not sure if I was expecting more coercion, or training involved, but that wasn't there. There was really only on scene where I'd say the FMC actively tried to *make* the bear do what she wanted, and it was practically brushed over. It was well written. The entanglement was approached in such a way that almost made the intimacy between the two seem inevitable. At one point I found myself debating - who really made the first move here? Which is kind of a crazy thing to have thought, but here I am. It was a highly sensual novel, even without considering the seduction taking place on the main screen. Engel very consciously used words and phrases rarely heard outside of the bedroom to describe common place items and sights to keep the reader focused on what was to come. And it was, if not wholly believable, then certainly far more realistic than I initially presumed.

I don't really know what else to say, and quite frankly, my brain would like to move on now.

i'm having a blast reading these, can't wait to keep going!!

I screamed and then waved my hands about for 10 minutes before speech returned when I finished this audiobook. There were witnesses. I'm not ready to talk about it yet.

This was good. More dark than funny, it certainly packs a punch in its 229 pages. The book didn't come with a trigger warning page, and maybe it should have. I typically skip them, and I likely would have this one too, but many readers need that. While there's never much detail (it is after all, only 229 pages), *Evil Genius* brushes up against many a disturbing event in the few weeks we follow our protagonist, Celia Dent.

The story is well written and concise, leaving me sated at the end without either feeling bloated nor hungry for more. It's a decidedly feminine tale - I think fans of Emilia Hart, *Her Body and Other Parties*, or *The Crane Husband* would find *Evil Genius* to their liking.