Reviewed by Chris
TITLE: Loaded for Bear 
SERIES: Shifter Hardball #2
AUTHOR: Cheyenne Meadows
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 192 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 11, 2016
BLURB:
Polar bear shifter Graham Tundra can’t believe his bad luck. Not only is he traded to another baseball team midseason, but he’s also teamed up with Trigger Mallow: widely considered the best player in the game—but with the worst attitude.
Trigger is on the fence about Graham. As a grizzly bear shifter, he’s relieved to have another ursine on the team, even if they are different species. The problem is Trigger is in the middle of his natural mating season, and Graham looks too damn good to pass up.
What begins as friends with benefits shows potential to grow into a deeper connection. If only they can put aside their differences, learn to trust, listen to their feelings, and realize it’s more than just a bear thing.
REVIEW:
Finally moving back into the big leagues should be a good thing for Graham Tundra. Except his new team has decided to pair him with the most obnoxious, most abrasive, most…frustrating, catcher on the team. Add into that the fact that Trigger Mallow is going into his mating heat and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. They may both be bear shifters, but that don’t mean they have to get along. Even when they start playing a whole different game in the bedroom.
Bear shifters are yummy. Bear shifters in those oh-so-tight baseball uniforms? Oh yeah…
I may not follow baseball, but i am a big admirer of sports people in general (at least when they are not being massive dickheads), so I was eagerly waiting to see what this book had in store for me. I had a bit of tough time with book one in this series, but I thought I’d give the second book a try. And for the most part I was not disappointed. The sex was hot, the bears were growly, the uniforms were appropriately tight (for, you know, totally innocent sports-related reasons…).
Despite the fact that I constantly got the whole polar bear thing mixed up between the two (I blame it on the name Graham. Puts me in mind of Teddy Grahams and as far as I remember there was nary a polar in the yummy cookie batch) I liked that these two bears went at it (sex, baseball, food) with a ferocity that matched their ursine counterparts. It really sold the whole bear thing. I could have done without the constant reminders that they were in fact bear shifters though. I am unlikely to forget, after 100 pages or so that they are bear shifters; it really wasn’t necessary to constantly hark back to it over every little thing they did.
As for the baseball aspects of the book…I think this part kind missed its mark with me. Not because it was badly written, but I really couldn’t care less about the sport so the actual game time was a bit boring for me. For someone who actually likes baseball I’m sure this would be much more interesting. I also had a hard time with Trigger when he was in baseball mode. To be frank he turns into a complete asshole when he is acting as catcher, and the fact that he is right most of the time only slightly lessons the overwhelming desire I had for someone to smack him upside the head with a baseball bat.
I was also left a little unsure about how that whole dad thing with Graham played out. I like how he handled it…but it felt a bit unfinished by the end of the book. The subplot was just left there hanging, and I wished it had a tighter finish to it.
Overall this was a pretty decent book. Much improved from the first one, in my opinion. Not terribly deep, it is still a good, lighthearted shifter book about baseball players.
RATING: 
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