Bearly a Lady by Cassandra Khaw
Publisher: Book Smugglers Publishing
Publication Date: May 26th, 2017
Genre: Paranormal/Rom-Com
Format: Novella/eGalley
Rating: ★★★★1/2 (4.5 Stars)
Zelda McCartney (almost) has it all: a badass superhero name, an awesome vampire roommate, and her dream job at a glossy fashion magazine (plus the clothes to prove it). The only issue in Zelda’s almost-perfect life? The uncontrollable need to transform into a werebear once a month. Just when Zelda thinks things are finally turning around and she lands a hot date with Jake, her high school crush and alpha werewolf of Kensington, life gets complicated. Zelda receives an unusual work assignment from her fashionable boss: play bodyguard for devilishly charming fae nobleman Benedict (incidentally, her boss’s nephew) for two weeks. Will Zelda be able to resist his charms long enough to get together with Jake? And will she want to? Because true love might have been waiting around the corner the whole time in the form of Janine, Zelda’s long-time crush and colleague. What’s a werebear to do?
It’s been a long time since I’ve picked up a rom-com, the last one probably being Bridget Jones Diary…yea I know, it’s been a while. I also had a Sophie Kinsella phase in which I binged all of her pastel colored books like a kid in a candy story with no regrets. When I first heard the title Bearly a Lady on Twitter, I was immediately curious and the play on words made me smirk lol. After contacting the author Cassandra Khaw & generously receiving a galley that same night, I was excited to dive right in.
I instantly fell in love with Zelda our female protagonist, plus sized bisexual fashionista Werebear. Zelda transforms into a bear once a month & has been a bit down and out about its effect on her dating life or lack thereof. She’s tried her luck with dating co-workers but that never yielded anything substantial. Her vampire roommate Zora is truly tired of seeing her mope around their London apartment watching Netflix & decides to intervene. We get to follow Zelda as she prepares for a date with another shapeshifter who is Calvin Klein ad material. We also get to see her navigate complicated feelings for a female co-worker who she may or may not still have a crush on.
The body positivity & Bisexual representation in Bearly a Lady left my heart wanting more. Diversity in a paranormal rom-com?!?! YES PLEASE! my only complaint is that it’s a novella & I won’t get to follow Zelda as she slays life. There was talk of a Supernatural government that piqued my interest as well seeing as we are introduced to other species of shape shifters. Devil Wears Prada meets Bridget Jones Diary sprinkled with a bit of para-normalcy to make it more interesting & outrageously funny. Would love to see Zelda get her own series 😉
Do any of you lovely readers have diverse rom-coms to recommend? I’d love some reccs, Bearly a Lady has left a void *sobs* 😉
LairOfBooks 
Great review for this book Lilly, it certainly sounds like a fun read and I guess it’s good that it’s made you want to pick up more diverse rom-coms. From your review it sounds like Zelda was a great main character to follow. 🙂 Unfortunately I don’t have any recommendations for you but I’m sure there are loads out there you’ll enjoy just as much as this one. 😀
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Thank you Beth, it was a really fun fast paced read. I’ll be keeping an eye out for more rom-coms with diverse characters 😉
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Awesome review! This certainly sounds like an action-packed, fun-filled read 😀 So many different elements but it sounds like they all come together perfectly! Definitely one I’m going to have to check out 🙂
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Thank you Jazz, Hope you enjoy when you get around too it 🙂
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Great Review! I love rom-coms and this sounds so exciting and fun! I’ll definitely check this out. 🙂
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Thank you Raven! it was a fun fast paced short read (novella), I hope you enjoy when you get around to it 🙂
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Wow this seems like such a fun and entertaining read and I’ve never heard of a werbear before but for some reason when the word first appeared in this review I imagined something small and super cute.
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she’s a medium sized bear lol, loved this short read. Thank you for stopping by 🙂
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This sounds so good! 🙂 Nice review!
I’m reading a paranormal romance/Steampunk novel called Soulless right now and loving it. The main character is half Italian (something she’s constantly getting judged or given grief about in the Victorian London setting the book takes place in) and she’s a tough and sassy woman who loves science. There’s werewolves and vampires in it, and it’s really interesting the way the author writes an alternate history where these creatures are living out in the open as part of society. Definitely worth checking out in my opinion. It has romance, humor, adventure, and all that good stuff.
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Thank you! 🙂 &&& OMYGOSH is this from the Parasol Protectorate series?!?! cuz if it is….YESSSSS! I’ve been wanting to read this series for so long, the physical books are def tougher to find but I’m def ordering book 1, it just has my name written all over it lol. Thank you for the recc & for stopping by 🙂
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Yes, you’re exactly right, it is indeed book one of the Parasol Protectorate! ^_^ It’s been such a fun read so far, I’m sure you’ll love it, too! 😀 I’d read the three part manga based off the books before, so it’s been fun revisiting the characters and world in the actual novel this time around. Definitely can’t wait to hear what you think of it once you’ve ordered/read it. 😀
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Oh wow! I had no idea that it was based off a manga! Thank you for this info, I’ll def be looking for the Manga before diving into this series 😃💙📚💙
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No problem! 🙂 I hope you like both the books and the manga. I wanna say the books came first, but I’m not sure. I just so happened to have read the manga first, but I think either way you decide to go you’ll enjoy yourself immensely! 😀
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Oh awesome, good to know! I think I may start with the manga since I’ve been looking for good manga to get into recently 🙂
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Awesome! 🙂 Yeah, it’s a really fun manga with great artwork. I hope you enjoy it! 😀
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Thank you 😃
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You had me at plus-sized bisexual protagonist. How have I not heard of this before now?!
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So I found Cassandra Khaw on twitter and a few bloggers were tweeting at her. I asked where I could find it and she offered up a galley, it was a quick read (novella). Now I’m left wanting more 😩😂
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That’s awesome! I’ll definitely have to check this out soon. Novellas always leave me wanting more, haha. I don’t read them very often because of that 😛
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This sounds like such a fun book Lily! This reminds that I need to read more rom-com books again, lately I haven’t been reading as much. Thanks for sharing your review. I’ll add it to my TBR! 🙂
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it’s perfect if you’re feeling slumpy or just need a palette cleanser. Short, fast paced, and fun 🙂
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I wish I had some rom-com recommendations to give you, but I don’t read any romance at all. I loved your review, and I’m just starting to read more novellas. If you’ve read Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older, you might like the novellas that he has written for the series.
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I actually have Shadowshaper coming my way from Amazon since I was lucky to have scored a arc of the sequel at Bookcon earlier this month. I’ve been looking forward to this read for so long *excited emoji*
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It’s really good.
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Ok ok, I admit this sounds fun! I love the diversified group of characters. I have never in my life heard of a paranormal rom-con haha. But why not?!
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It was too funny and cute, I just wish it was a full on book 😩😩😩
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