Yay, Julian finally. I have been looking forward to this bearshifter's story since reading the previous book, Bear Necessities. I just thought that the 'spirit bear' thing was so cool, the visions, the healing powers and the whole shamanic mystical aura surrounding him.

Even with all that - plus some first class hunkiness going on as well - Julian is going to have to work to get his mate to accept him. Cyn's human and wants to - gasp - date, before she'll let him get past first base much less le More...

This probably would have been five stars except I thought the beginning was much stronger than the end. Julian gets emotionally overcome at one point and starts to cry. So sue me, I find it disconcerting when grown men cry, unless a funeral is involved.

Anyways, this was book 6 on my list of The Ten 2012 Books I Would Exercise Every Day for Two Weeks For. Overall, I have to say it would have been worth exercising for. Julian's attempts to bring Cyn around to his way of thinking were humorous and More...

CYNFUL was written with the sexy humor that I have come to expect from Dana Marie Bell, but I was a little let down with this book overall.

I don't like to write spoilers in my reviews, so let's just say that I didn't feel that Julian behaved like I thought his character should have behaved. I know she wanted to portray him as sort of a gentle giant, but a bear with the desire to claim his mate should have been more agressive... I didn't buy it!

✳✳ Reviewed on I ♥ Bookie Nookie Reviews


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Originally posted at: http://whippedcream2.blogspot.com/201...

Cynthia ‘Cyn’ Reyes hopes life settles down now that her friend has finally mated. And she knows that Julian DuCharme is more than likely just what he says, her mate and a rare Spirit Bear shifter. But sometimes, a girl just wants to be courted and wooed, not taken for granted. When folks just keep trying to kill her and destroy her Tattoo shop, she will do whatever it takes to protect those she cares for. Julian DuCharme, for all his More...

In this most recent of the Halle Puma books Julian DuCharme, a recent immigrant to Halle, is finally able to concentrate on winning his mate--Cyn. There are funny parts, moving parts and, of course, a yummy, yummy bear-shifter. Julian is especially important to the shifter community, as he is one of the very rare Spirit Bears--priests or shaman of the shifter population. He's also a genuinely nice guy. A prophecy is mentioned in this story that appearantly is going to tie this set of stories tog More...

First of all, this book was a lot of fun. I kept finding my self smiling or actually giggling a little bit out loud. In fact, probably my favorite thing about this book was Julian and Cyn dancing around each other before the mating. I really wish we could have had more details about their dates! The little glimpses we had were some of the most fun parts.

Where I struggled with this book was with the suspense plot - the threat to Cyn, Tabby, and Glory. I felt like the elements were there - clues, More...

Gennie's review posted on Guilty Pleasures

4.5 Stars

Cynful by Dana Marie Bell is the second book of the Halle Shifters series, which is a spinoff series of the Halle Pumas. This is a good next installment in the series, but you probably will want to review all the previous books, including the Halle Puma books, before you read this book because ALL the characters from Halle are in play in this installment.

Cynthia “Cyn” Reyes is the fully human, quirky (and closet geek) tattoo artist of Halle’s Li More...

I have been waiting desperately for this book for a year now, since reading Bear Necessities last May.

I am really sad to say that this book just fell a little flat for me. I'm sure that Bear Necessities was funnier and sexier than this book. Or it might be that in the last year I have read so many more books that my reading tastes have changes... I'm not sure.

I did enjoy reading the book and Julian was absolutely adorable. I loved the way he kept fluttering his eyelashes at everyone (even t More...

I read this book fairly fast. I'm going to have to re-read it just to savour it a little. I enjoyed the book. I liked that the banter and sexiness that was present in the first book was present in this one. I liked that this book pretty much picked up where Bear Necessities finished and that Julian and Cyn' got the full focus of the book regardless of all the drama happening around them.

SLIGHT SPOILER AHEAD

What annoyed me was that at the end of the book the damned riddle still hadn't been explai More...

Action! Adventure! WereBears!!!! Werewolves!! and Pumas! OH MY!!!

Description:

o save the woman he loves, he must push his gifts to the brink.

Halle Shifters, Book 2

Julian DuCharme, a rare Spirit Bear with legendary healing powers, is finally free from the threat of death, finally free to claim his mate—but she’s not having it. While his Bear screams it’s time to mate, the love of his life wants to date.

Holding his Bear in check while convincing her he’s not out to control her won’t be easy. She’s More...

This second instalment from the Halle Shifters series tells Julian DuCharme, the Spirit Bear shifter and human, Cynthia Reyes’ story. Both characters were introduced in the first book and even though Julian has known for over a year that Cyn is his mate, he is prepared to wait for her to come to terms with the idea that shifters exist, that her best friend Tabby is a shifter and that she is his mate.

When someone starts to threaten the lives of Cyn and her two best friends who work with her at Li More...

I'm kind of late to the party with this series. I only just read Bear Necessities a few days ago at the request of a friend. So I was able to pretty much jump right into this one without having to really refresh my memory in regards to what happened previously. After I read Bear Necessities, I went ahead and read some of the back stories in regards to those who are secondary characters in these. I haven't yet read Belinda's story or Gabe's but I will eventually. I wanted to be more familiar with More...

This is the second book in the Halle Shifters series by Dana Marie Bell. I believe it is linked to the Halle Pumas series, which I have not read. In this book, the story from Bear Necessities continues. We knew that Julian DuCharme, nurse and good friend to Tabby was the mate to Cyn, Tabby's boss and mentor at the tattoo shop. But he could not claim her because "it wasn't time yet". Now that Julian feels ready, Cyn is dragging her heels.

The point of view switches between Julian and Cyn. While b More...

It felt like such a long wait for this story, and I really wanted more after reading the first Halle Shifters story. I loved the town, which had already been introduced in Ms. Bell's Halle Puma's series. Cyn and Julian make a great read for so many reasons. Cyn is independent, strong and feisty. She may be attracted to Julian, but she's not going down easy just because her friends tell her there is no use fighting him since he's her mate. She's human, and she demands they date and get to know ea More...

Loved this book so hard. It does not hurt that I'm a sucker for a hero named Julian. Also a beta hero. Also a kick-ass take-no-shit heroine. It's like Dana Marie Bell stirred in a cauldron full of things that would make me swoon then fed it to me on a silver platter.

There are a lot of directions the series could go in. I think that's a bit of a weakness, and sometimes I got tired of seeing previous couples, and also of the constant "we need to protect our mates" "No, you stupid Neanderthals, lea More...

My Rating: ★★★★

Book Description:
To save the woman he loves, he must push his gifts to the brink.

Halle Shifters, Book 2

Julian DuCharme, a rare Spirit Bear with legendary healing powers, is finally free from the threat of death, finally free to claim his mate—but she’s not having it. While his Bear screams it’s time to mate, the love of his life wants to date.

Holding his Bear in check while convincing her he’s not out to control her won’t be easy. She’s stubborn and a closeted geek—in other word More...

This is Dana's book number two in the Halle Shifters series. I had to wait a long time for #2 to come out. But that gave me time to read the Halle Pumas series. And I do think you need to read all of the Halle books before reading this to understand who everyone is and their what relationships are to everyone else. For me, no book is a stand alone.

Now what I truly love about all of these books are the very quirky characters. Also the very small hometown, everybody knows your business (whether o More...

{3.5 stars}

I was a little disappointed in this one. Julian, though intriguing in the first book, was not the Hot Alpha I had hoped for. Cyn was more Alpha than him. They were cute together, but not the smoking hot passion of Alex and Tabby. It still had a lot of humor, and the life and death action that keeps it from becoming boring, but it just missed the mark for me.(But the cover is certainly dream worthy) But that being said, I am in no way giving up on this series. I'm sure they are many mo More...

Synopsis: "To save the woman he loves, he must push his gifts to the brink.

Halle Shifters, Book 2

Julian DuCharme, a rare Spirit Bear with legendary healing powers, is finally free from the threat of death, finally free to claim his mate—but she’s not having it. While his Bear screams it’s time to mate, the love of his life wants to date.

Holding his Bear in check while convincing her he’s not out to control her won’t be easy. She’s stubborn and a closeted geek—in other words, perfect for him.

Cyn More...

6ht and 7th Aug
Bumping the rating down to 3 stars instead of the original 4
3.5 stars
After rereading Bunny I decided to reread this one as well and I'm still not a fan.
Julian is still awesome.
Cyn is slightly less annoying, but I can't say the same for Glory.
Here's an idea. Ryan can bite Jim, Chloe can bite Glory, and brother and sister can then sit back, relax and wait for their mates to come to them instead of pining away in Chloe's case and slowly going mad and turning stalkerish in Ryan's case More...

This was probably closer to a 3.5 start read. It was great to get back to the world of the Halle Shifters but this one seemed to be missing something. I loved the interaction between the original three ladies and how their personalities and relationships with each other stayed true. They were still under attack by a mysterious person who used several different methods. Personally I think they had multiple attackers and just didn't know it but we will have to wait and see if I was correct.

I think More...

I could not in all fairness give this the five stars that I wanted to. There were parts of the story that did not make sense and also there were many questions that were not answered. Overall it was an okay story. I had waited for so long to read it that I think I may have hyped it up too much in my own mind and was let down not too much but enough. ")

So this book was about Cyn and Julian who we met in the previous book Bear Necessities. She is a very independent woman with a few scars of her ow More...

Cynful is book two in the Halle Shifters series and the first book Bear Necessities is one of my all time favourite books and the book that introduced me to Dana Marie Bell. I couldn't wait to read this book and see the story progress and it was great, not nearly as good as BN but still an awesome story.

The cover - as HOT as the cover of this book is I was a bit put off by it, when I read BN I pictured Julian as a hot 20 something but the model on the cover seems very old to me. It made it hard More...

4.5

Cynful by Dana Marie Bell is the second book of the Halle Shifters series, which is a spinoff series of the Halle Pumas. This is a good next installment in the series, but you probably will want to review all the previous books, including the Halle Puma books, before you read this book because ALL the characters from Halle are in play in this installment.

Cynthia “Cyn” Reyes is the fully human, quirky (and closet geek) tattoo artist of Halle’s Living Art. Cyn considers the women who work at Li More...

Part of me was annoyed with Cyn for not letting the mating take place, but the other part of me liked that she got to know Julian first, that by the time that they did mate she was demanding that he do it. I did feel bad for Julian as he waited for Cyn to come around, but he did seem to find a home in Halle. I really liked how Julian seems to get adopted by all the different groups of shifters and how they drove him nuts and perplexed him at the same time. The whole spirit bear thing was interes More...

Julian DuCharme knew the moment he saw Cynthia "Cyn" Reyes that she was his mate. As a rare Spirit Bear who has the ability to heal others, Julian knew the time was not right for a couple of reasons. Julian knew danger was ahead and didn't want to mate with Cyn if there was a chance he wouldn't survive, the other reason is the prickly tempered female who seems hell bent at staying single.

Cyn saw her mother withdraw in her own marriage and vowed never to do that to herself. She wants Julian, but More...

Everytime a new Dana Marie Bell book comes out I swear I'll wait and save it and then I read it as soon as I have it.
Seriously, they're all funny, sexy and fully of my many favourite kinds of paranormality.

Cynful is no exception.I love Cyn and Julian and awwww. I do feel a bit like we missed part of their relationship - not that it hurts the book but Cyn was very against having a mate/boyfriend at the end of Bear Necessities, and she wasn't quite as rabid at the start of this book.

And now I REAL More...

I actually like Cyn better in this book than I did in Bear Necessities, but man was Glory annoying. And Emma. Emma was fine in Wallflower, but she's been kind of horrible ever since. That "the female of the species is deadlier than the male, except not really, look how cute she is, but seriously she will cut you". That. A little goes a long way.

I enjoyed it, but it was crowded with cameos from all kinds of previous books, and the plot seemed a little... unfinished?