GRR Reviews Wilde Bear (Blue Bear Rescue Book 1) by Heather Hildenbrand

Wilde Bear is a contemporary "shifter" romance featuring a bunch of bear shifters (and people knowing they are shifters) doing search and rescue duty. It is somewhat interesting, but the nebulous threat of a nemesis out to ruin them just rings hollow.

Xavier Wilde and his crew at Blue Bear Search and Rescue are bear-shifters best suited for work in the mountains, saving lives. He dedicated himself to this job, after losing his father on these mountains during a rescue while he was in town looking for a good time. He swore off women ever since, but the new DOT liaison Laurel may change his mind... There's something about her that is different... and soon Laurel revealed herself to be a fox shifter... and the two fell for each other hard. But neither was prepared to share all of their secrets, and the team apparently attracted an enemy... someone who wanted to ruin the team for some reason...

In this universe, shifters can be "outed" (i.e. you can openly be a shifter) but it is as if it's a disease, or like being LGBT... it was discriminated against (i.e. a lot of people have a negative view of shifters). But somehow this wasn't quite used to the full effect. Laurel was brought up to hide her fox self as much as possible, and hanging with the Wilde crew sorta set her free. But what does Department of Transportation have to do with a search and rescue team's audit, I have no clue. Some of the plot and background just makes no sense to me.

Category: Paranormal

Primary Plot: Bear-shifter rescue squad in the mountains gets a new liaison who's hiding her true nature; she's a fox shifter...

Tropes: shifter, different worlds, co-worker, secret world, family secrets

Overall Rating:  3/5