Title: Grim and Bear It (Stay a Spell 6)
Author: Juliette Cross
Published: May, 2023
Publisher: Independently Published
Readership: Adult
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Rating: ★★★★★
Content/tigger warnings: Gun violence, murder, attempted murder, lots of talk of pregnancy/having babies, birthing scene
I received a copy of Grim and Bear It from the author in exchange for a fair and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Not even Death can take her from him.
Clara Savoie is so confused. She is absolutely positive that Henry Blackwater is practically in love with her. But for some strange reason, he won’t even ask her on a single date. Time to take matters into her own hands.
When Clara shows up on his doorstep with an unusual invitation, tempting cupcakes, and naughty innuendo, Henry has no choice but to say yes. Now he’s the newest member of the High Tea Romance Book Club. While Clara learns the haunting secrets of her broody grim, Henry shows her what commitment from a necromancer truly means.
But when his father is arrested for murder, Henry is dragged back into the nightmare he’s been avoiding all his life. When he steps back into his father’s world, he isn’t just endangering himself but also the bright, beautiful woman he can no longer live without. But he just might have to.
Grim and Bear It has to be one of my the most long-awaited romances in the entire series as Clara and Henry finally get their happily ever after. Both characters met for the first time back in the first book and have been dancing around one another ever since, so while technically this books is not a slow-burn story, their romance is, and I was just so happy to finally read about them coming together.
Clara Savoie, Aura, knows that Henry Blackwater is in love with her, but he won’t make a move so she decides to take matters into her own hands by inviting him to join her historical romance book club in an effort to spend more time with him. She’s got a plan, and she’s sticking to it – and it works! But when Henry’s estranged father finds himself in trouble, Henry is the only one with the abilities to find the truth that will save him and so he has to decide if he can put aside the things that happened in his past in order to save his blood family – and keep Clara – at the same time.
This book is honestly a pure-sunshine witch heroine meets cinnamon roll (and sometimes dirty talking) hero grim and I loved every second of it. Henry has a lot of baggage that comes along with being a necromancer (mostly from his childhood) that he has to unpack and accept Clara’s help with, but what I loved most was the implicit trust they both have in one another. Grim and Bear It would not have functioned as well if Cross had kept the characters pining after one another in it, so the fact that they establish a relationship in the first third – to the amusement of most of their family and friends – meant that the main focus is on them working as a unit together to find a solution to his father’s problem.
Being the concluding book in a series, there are lots of threads that are tied up for Clara’s family of sisters. I will mention – particular at this time of year – that the book does feature a lot of discussions around pregnancy, babies/children and there is also a childbirth scene, so be aware of those and read accordingly. That said, after six books, six couples and a lot of action and adventure, everyone is settling down and there’s something nice about seeing characters you’ve loved for years get the resolution to their stories that works for them.
The Stay a Spell series has always been about family – both the one you’re born with, and the one you build over the course of your life, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time with them.
Tropes/Keywords: Slow-burn romance (books 1-6), witch, grim, necromancer, book club, virgin hero, cinnamon roll, no 3rd act breakup, dual POV
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