Title:  Ethan
Series:  Blackbeary Creek
Author:   Ruby Shae
Published:  July 2, 2016
My Rating:  4 stars
Source:  Borrowed with Kindle Unlimited
Cover Description:

Tegan Ryan is tired of being an outcast. Being the offspring of bear shifters, but lacking the ability to shift, keeps her detached from the shifter world; and living with bear shifters, and keeping their secrets, keeps her from fully connecting with humans. Her height, along with miles of plus-sized curves, doesn’t help the situation, and neither does the bone deep desire she has for her brother’s best friend.

Ethan Brooks, a black bear shifter, and second-in-command for his small clan, has loved Tegan since the day she was born, but he never understood their connection until her eighteenth birthday. Unfortunately, Tegan’s feelings toward him didn’t change, and in an effort to save his sanity, he buried his longing and tried to ignore it.

Realizing you’ll never truly fit in anywhere is devastating, but Tegan knows it’s the truth. When her alpha grants her permission to leave, she doesn’t waste time embracing her new life, but that doesn’t stop old threats from emerging. After years of unsuccessfully denying his bear, Ethan won’t let anything stop him from claiming his mate…but he’ll have to face one pissed-off alpha, a raving lunatic, and a skeptical curvy beauty that owns his heart, even if she doesn’t know it yet. He’s definitely got his work cut out for him.

Sexy shifters and their feisty mates who aren’t shy about loving each other – so, this is an adult, 18+ reader tale.

Read on for m y thoughts on Ethan.

Guys – Bear Shifters can sometimes be stupid silly.  Come on, you know it, I know it and I suspect even they know it.  Ethan has known for a very long time that Tegan was his mate.  He’s loved her forever, and on her eighteenth birthday he knew for certain that she was his.  But when Tegan’s bear didn’t come to her on that birthday (as is normally when a Shifter’s bear first appears) Ethan believed from her reaction that she didn’t care for him in the same way.  He never considered that just maybe the fact that she was the only member of their clan who never got her bear half might have had something to do with how she was acting.  So Ethan began withdrawing his friendship, slowly but with deliberate intent.  It just hurt too much to know that she was his and she didn’t want him.  Like I mentioned, clueless.

Six years later and one horrific date later and Tegan has finally had enough.  She is trying to slip quietly into the home she shares with her brother Tristian, the clan’s Alpha after a date that went horribly wrong.  She’s sporting a bruise on her face from where he hit her when she didn’t comply with where he thought their date was headed.  Surprised to find Ethan in the kitchen and even more stunned to hear him berate and belittle her over the damage a man did to her, as if it was her fault was the final straw.  When the man you’d secretly loved for all of your life basically calls you a whore – enough is enough.

Ethan knew from the moment the words left his mouth that it was a stupid, hurtful thing to say – and he didn’t mean a word of it, he was just furious that his mate had been harmed.  But instead of turning around, apologizing and groveling as much as possible, he shifted and let his bear run off his frustrations for the night.  By the time he returned Tegan’s plans were in place.

She couldn’t stay.  Knowing just how much Ethan hated her sealed her decision.  She’d ask her Alpha, her brother for permission to leave the clan in the morning.  She had a cottage to go to, she’d be fine.  She could no longer stay here knowing that one day Ethan would find his mate, knowing that she would never be able to share a shift with any of her friends, knowing that her bear had abandoned her leaving her in this limbo between the shifter and human worlds.  It was simply too much.

Unfortunately for Tegan by leaving the protection of her clan she is heading into trouble with no backup in sight.

I enjoyed Ethan.  A short, sexy story of the silliness we believe when we don’t come out and state what we’re feeling.  And being afraid to listen to the truth from someone else.  As the first story in the new series, Blackbeary Creek, we’re given an introduction to the other hot members of Tegan’s clan and some background on how they all came together.  I’m definitely looking forward to the next story.

If you love Shifter Romance then Ethan is the starting story you’ll want to have on your reading list.  It’s always best to know the entire series for full enjoyment, in my opinion – and here’s the chance to start at the beginning.

Available for the Kindle