Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: Beared at Christmas
SERIES: Double-Booked for the Holidays MultiAuthor series
AUTHOR: Jessica E. Subject
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 114 pages
RELEASE DATE: November 26, 2025
BLURB:
Brody refuses to go home for the holidays…
Being gay and part of a religious family has led to many awkward moments and hurtful words flying in his direction. Especially over the holidays. Usually Brody stays home, claiming he’s troubleshooting the code for a game the company he works for is getting ready to release in the new year. But this Christmas, he booked a stay at the Winter Wonderland Wilderness Lodge where he plans to enjoy the winter activities he once loved as a child, and to sleep snuggled up in front of a fireplace.
Ulrik is grateful for his early Christmas present…
After losing his mate to cancer over a year ago, Ulrik wasn’t looking forward to the inevitable question from his parents, “When are you going to find another mate to give us grand babies?” But his sister gives him an early present—a stay at the Winter Wonderland Wilderness Lodge and the news of her pregnancy. She will take the attention of their parents while he enjoys some time in the wintry wilds where he can let his polar bear run free.
But Fate’s plans interrupt their solo vacations…
An error by the booking clerk lands the human and the shifter in the same cabin with only one bed. All the other cabins are booked and neither of them wants to go back home. Can Brody and Ulrik share the space without ruining each other’s holidays? Or will a little Christmas magic make them realize they’re fated to be together?
Beared at Christmas by USA Today bestselling author Jessica E. Subject is a MM MPreg Holiday Romance and part of the Double-Booked for the Holidays shared world series. Beared at Christmas features a human anxious get away for the holidays, a widowed alpha polar bear shifter ready for some time off without the pressure of finding another mate, a booking mix-up, only one bed, and Fate doing what they do best in bringing these two together. If you like fated mates, true love, winter fun, and snuggling by the fireplace, Beared at Christmas is the book for you. While each book in the Double-Booked for the Holidays shared world is set in the same world, they can be read as standalones.
REVIEW:
I’m back at the Winter Wonderland Wilderness Lodge and ready for my next adventure. And this one’s a doozy!
Ulrik can’t thank his sweet sister Clara enough. Not only did she book a winter cabin in the Oregon mountains that was shifter friendly so his polar bear could come out and play in the snow. She did it at Christmas so he wouldn’t have to face his Dad and Pops reminding him it was time to “move on” from his mate Raine’s tragic death from cancer. And she even threw in that she was pregnant to help take the focus off of him mating again and providing grand-cub shifters. What he didn’t expect, when he entered his cabin, was a human…a very naked and wet human, occupying his Christmas present. Nor did he expect to smell his most favorite and treasured scent, apples and cinnamon, wafting around him either. It turns out that there was some kind of “glitch” in the booking system and the cabin had been rented to the both of them. And not just their cabin but all one hundred and fifty cabins at the lodge were in the same predicament!
Let’s take a moment and think about how truly unaccepting/homophobic/awful poor sweet Brody’s parents were. The thought of simply “discarding your son from your life because he shares he is gay” is just so cruel, wrong and totally unacceptable! And I am so thankful that Ulrik’s entire family openly and whole-heartedly accept that Ulrik’s mate was a human and gay and that was that. I appreciated that Ulrik recognized that it hurt his sweet mate with his parent’s nastiness all in the name of religion! It doesn’t make up for the hurt but Ulrik’s family did everything possible to make sure Brody knew, and remembered, that he was theirs forever! 💕
This book featured some things that were more unique than most paranormal shifter stories I have read. First there was the fact that shifters can and do contract diseases in this paranormal universe. Also, that humans can mate with shifters and their biology changes once full mated. Also, that this was not a typical omegaverse story. Humans weren’t Alphas or Omegas but shifters were. I liked that this was all shared and a new and unique, at least for me, different prospective than typical shifter books I’ve read.
One thing I feel that I need to state is that what Ulrik did, in a moment of unbridle passion, to Brody was all kinds of wrong! I get that he was with his mate and he and his bear got carried away but it still doesn’t make it right! Taking away Brody’s choice to be mated, even if he didn’t know that it could exist, was wrong! Consent is a thing. And, if Brody hadn’t chose to remain and become his mate, it would have been all on Ulrik and his own stupid own fault. Thankfully he realized this and the grave error in judgement that he made. But it still doesn’t make it right. Choice Matters! Again, I am thankful that the author made Ulrik realize and was so sorry for taking that right away from his mate. It doesn’t make it right but showed a side of him that wanted forgiveness for his grave error.
This wonderful book and amazing series has really captured my heart and has added so much joy to my holiday this year. I hope that you are enjoying these as much as I have. Because what could be a better gift than to find your fated and forever mate for Christmas 🎄
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